Tractor ride kicks off Half Century of Progress event

RANTOUL, Ill. — More than 100 tractors will line up for Max Armstrong’s Half Century of Progress Tractor Ride on the opening day of the event, Aug. 21.

“We will roll out about 8 a.m. and make a couple stops along the way,” said Max Armstrong, former director of broadcasting for Farm Progress. “It is somewhat of a leisurely ride to check out the flora and fauna of Champaign and sometimes Vermilion County, depending on which direction we go.”

The group of tractors will return to the National Aviation Center about noon.

“We plan to get back in to be the daily parade on Thursday,” Armstrong said. “Generally when we come in we’ll head south to north down Runway 18.”

Antique tractor drivers will come from many states to participate in the ride.

“There’s a guy coming from Arizona that wants to be on the ride,” the farm broadcaster said. “He is going to get a tractor from someone local to drive.”

The tractor ride, Armstrong said, is a wonderful experience.

“We get in a tractor ride and yet we don’t miss much of the show,” he said.

Armstrong plans to drive his 1953 Farmall Super M in the ride.

“I got the Super M two years after my Super H,” he said. “The Super M was a IH Collectors Club Chapter 2 project; they put it together and painted it.”

The Farmall Super M has been to many places, including the Case IH facilities in Racine, Wisconsin, and a lot of tractor rides and parades.

“It went down to my hometown in southern Indiana and I drove it and my dad drove my Super H,” Armstrong said. “We paraded together in 1997 and it was a really special day for me.”

Armstrong also drove the Super M in the Heritage Tractor Adventure rides during the 2000s.

“That spread the fame of tractor rides and people started doing them all over the country,” he said.

Inside the toolbox of Armstrong’s Super M tractor is a special sticker that was placed there in August 2001.

“The Schnell brothers were very involved in the antique equipment show at Franklin Grove, Illinois, and one year they had a dynamometer there,” the farm broadcaster said.

Super M tractors were rated at 44 horsepower.

“One of them was by the dyno and the other was by the carb and they kept adjusting it and got 12 more horsepower out if it,” Armstrong said. “They took it up to 56 horsepower, so they put the sticker in the toolbox that said it was checked by the Schnell brothers.”

The tractor ride during the Half Century show will be one of the last times Armstrong will be driving his Super M tractor since he has decided to sell it through Sullivan Auctioneers, a Big Iron Company.

“It is a great tractor and it runs like a champ, but it is time for somebody else to enjoy it,” Armstrong said. “The auction is online and the sale will be closed on Aug. 27 during the Farm Progress Show.”

Armstrong has interviewed numerous people during the Half Century event since it was started in 2003.

“One of the people I interviewed at the first show was Elmo Meiners, who was the cofounder of M&W Gear Company,” he said. “That company made parts to make International tractors work better.”

Bill Burnham, a farmer from Morris in northern Illinois, has tractors in his collection with M&W parts.

“He also has an M&W demonstration tractor,” Armstrong said. “M&W did a show of their own about the same time the Farm Progress Show started.”

Heisler in Hudson in northeastern Iowa was another company that made parts to make International Harvester tractors work even better.

“Bill is now restoring a demonstration tractor that Heisler used,” Armstrong said. “And Bill will have the two tractors side by side in his tent at Rantoul.”

Burnham’s collection includes a plow that M&W used to demonstrate the special coulters they made.

“It is actually a JI Case plow and the coulters were made to handle the trash in the field better,” Armstrong said.

“Bill is amazing the way he will repair these beat-up tractors, fabricate parts if he has to and when he paints something it’s like a work of art,” Armstrong said. “His display at Rantoul is something people will want to look at.”

Visitors to the event this year will have the opportunity to purchase a special Half Century of Progress medallion.

“They press them at the show and this year the medallion will have an imprint of an IH 1206 and Caterpillar tractor,” Armstong said. “It will also have the date and the Half Century of Progress logo.”