This VAC Case was a great find for me. It was located about 20 miles from my place, where it had been sitting at the edge of the woods for about a year and a half. The previous owner had parked it there after he broke the front pedestal off when he hit a stump while bush-hogging.
Naturally the crash ruined the radiator. Sometime in the past, a “make it somehow” carburetor had been installed on the little tractor, but I had a pedestal, radiator and a good Marvel-Schebler carburetor from another VAC, so hopefully this will be a fairly simple fix-up.
I was lucky to have plenty of help on the project and that made everything much easier. Two longtime friends, Bill Blackwell and Zane Dodge, went with me, along with my grandson, Stephen Easley (or, as my wife put it, “three old geezers and one handsome young man who probably knows more than all three of you put together”).
It was the easiest retrieval that I’ve ever been involved in. We only disturbed one small wasp nest, no bolts twisted off, the brakes weren’t stuck, the back tires were holding air and we sustained no snakebites or other life-threatening injuries. The previous owner had blocked the front of the tractor up when he parked it in the woods, so all we had to do was roll the replacement pedestal into position and install four bolts, pivot the tractor 90 degrees so it lined up with the trailer, and then winch it on and boom it down.
Three hours after we arrived in the woods we were loaded and pulling out of the gate. It’s a good thing all tractor projects aren’t this easy. If they were, everyone who owns a truck and trailer would be in the salvage business and there wouldn’t be enough old tractors left to go around. FC
For more information: Alan Easley, (573) 442-0678 or (573) 999-3713.
