Long Live Lindeman

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There's no doubt about it, Terry Wachtman is a devoted John Deere collector. The Defiance, Ohio, old-iron enthusiast grew up around John Deere tractors and uses them nearly every day on his family's farm. Yet, his small collection of restored green tractors wasn't complete, Terry says, until he added one more special machine - a John Deere Model BO-Lindeman crawler.

'I always wanted one,' Terry explains about his steel-tracked fascination with the crawlers he read about in books and magazines for years. 'I told myself I wouldn't buy another piece unless it was a Lindeman.'

Terry, 30, honored that promise in January 2003, when he finally bought his dream crawler.

He searched high and low for a Lindeman to restore, but had little luck finding one, in part because so few were produced - about 1,600, most sources agree. Restored Lindeman crawlers are too pricey for Terry's budget, so he had to find a well-used tractor to match his price range.

By chance, a friend who knew about Terry's Lindeman search discovered a classified ad placed by a Prairie City, Ore., cattle rancher, and Terry was understandably delighted.

When he responded to the ad, the 70-year-old rancher explained that he could no longer turn the tractor's hand crank to start its engine. The rancher sadly sold the machine that served him for decades on the ranch, and Terry happily gave it a new home.

Rough-cut

The Lindeman crawler arrived by truck at Terry's farm in February with the mercury hovering at 20 degrees below zero, hardly ideal conditions for greeting the newest addition to his ever-growing herd of John Deere tractors. The tractor's steel was as cold as the weather itself, so Terry moved the tractor inside his shop to warm the crawler for a proper inspection. What he found didn't surprise him.

'It was rough,' Terry says about the little tractor. 'But I was prepared for the poor condition because I'd seen photos.'

Yet, he wasn't prepared for the nearly complete engine overhaul the tractor needed. The rust-covered body showed its age from years of difficult work in Oregon's high-desert cattle country, but new paint was the least of Terry's worries.

When he cranked the engine, he heard the telltale rattle and clank that signals rod and piston troubles. Terry removed the engine cover and discovered the crankcase was filled with frozen water that he describes as 'black ice.' Fortunately, the ice didn't crack the block, and after a bit of tinkering Terry decided to test the tractor and discover its weaknesses.

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