TULARE, CALIFORNIA ANTIQUE FARM SHOW

[Motorhead]

One of the finest tractor shows on the West Coast is the Tulare show. Here is a small sampling of the tractors that were on display at this years (2011) May show.

The large crawler with a front steel wheel is a full sized reproduction made by a father and son in the LA area. They were able to measure the original and made their own drawings. All parts were made new, the father is a retired pattern maker who made the patterns and sent them to an LA foundry for casting. There is only one original part and that is the crankshaft which he managed to find somewhere. The machine is an exact duplicate, except for modern mandated safety devices on the boiler.
I think it is a copy of a Holt or Best tractor since they are originally California companies who merged to form Caterpillar.

[Motorhead]

More from Tulare.
I passed up buying a running, unrestored Cub for $600 two years ago......I still regret that.

[Motorhead]

More from Tulare. At the tme I took the pics, my only tractor was a McCormick Deering 1939 T-20 orchard crawler, so I took a lot of crawler pics. I've since aquired a Cub.
This represents a SMALL sample of tractors on display at Tulare. One guy brings his collection of McCormick Deering crawlers every year. He has every size crawler they made, must be eight or ten of them.
The fleet of trucks used to haul all these tractors is a show itself with custom diesel rigs and antique trucks represented.

[Motorhead]

Still more California tractors.
The farms and ranches are huge west of the Mississippi, so large equipment was needed to work them. An interesting graphic on this site is the map of all members...the eastern half of the country is overflowing with Cubs, the western half is sparse of Cubs.
I have more pics I took at this same show 3 years ago and will post.
Enjoy the hardware, I know I do.

[Bill E Bob]

Some rare and interesting tractors. Thanks for the look-see

[Gary Dotson]

You have some strange looking machinery on the left coast! Thanks for sharing the pics.

[Denny Clayton]

Now that's some HEAVY iron!

[Mr E]

Wow! Some of those machines are really huge. Bet the grounds trembles when they move around. I'd love to visit that show some year.

[Motorhead]

It's well worth the visit, Roy. They have a website with show dates, but I think they haven't revised it with new dates yet. There are a lot of HUGE steam driven Holts and Best tractors out here since this is where they were built.
Nice you like the pics.

[twotone]

Awsome pictures. Thanks for posting.


Tom