I am an Antique/Classic Tractor fanatic. While I appreciate all types of old iron, I am partial to the early Ford tractors.

When I started looking for my first tractor, I knew exactly what I wanted- A 1953 Ford Jubilee. At the time I really didn’t know one tractor from another, and certainly didn’t have any brand faith, but the Jubilee had Live Hydraulics and a 3 point hitch, something absolutely necessary if you’re going to use modern implements.

In the Spring of 1998 a good friend of mine, Charlie Alonge, called me up. He found a tractor for me, after several months of looking around. It was located right near his house, but a few hundred miles from mine. After several days passed I drove to Charlie’s and took a look at the tractor. It was in pretty good shape and the price was right. I bought it from the original owner, Al Vaire, from Marlboro, NY, and drove it to Charlie’s Auto Repair Shop, seeing as how I was unprepared to get it home.

A week later I returned with a box truck to retrieve my tractor, but as you can see by the pictures here Charlie had other plans.

I arrived to find that Charlie had cleaned and disassembled the tractor and was getting ready to paint it. We spent most of the day prepping and painting the tractor. The next day we loaded it up and I took it home.

It still needed a little work after getting it home. I sanded the paint off the tires, removing the paint and faded rubber. My wife, Lisa, repainted the Ford script on the fenders and repainted the Jubilee badge on the hood.

After all the cosmetic work was completed, it was time to make sure it was mechanically sound. I changed all the fluids, repacked the wheel bearings, installed a complete new electrical system, upgrading it to 12 Volts( to power the electric/hydraulic snow plow), and about 50 other little repairs and adjustments. It has worked flawlessly for years without needing any repairs. It starts faithfully in the cold weather and is always ready to do work.

It sees regular duty as a lawn mower, snow plow, snow blower, and occasional duty with a brush hog and york rake.

The end result can be seen above, with fresh paint and shiny tires. I took this picture right before using it in an Independence Day Parade. It has seen pulling duty in a couple of other parades, dragging a float, as well as pulling a wagon for hay rides.