"Deere" Walk-Behind Tiller Pulls Him Around Shows

"Deere" Walk-Behind Tiller Pulls Him Around Shows FARM HOME recreation 31-6-4 Marvin Johnson rides around in comfort at antique tractor shows, thanks to the 2-passenger cart he attached to a David Bradley walk-behind garden tiller. Both the cart and tiller are painted Deere green and yellow. "It gets a lot of attention wherever I go. Some people tell me they never knew Deere made a walk-behind garden tiller, and I have to tell them they didn't," says Johnson. "I wanted it to match my Deere tractors." He started with a late 1940's David Bradley walk-behind tiller that he bought at a garage sale that had no engine. The original tires were worn out so he installed big 16-in. high "knobby" tires. Then he built the two-passenger cart, which rides on a pair of 8-in. wheels purchased at a flea market. The cart supports two new replacement seats for 1947 to 1952 Deere tractors. He welded together a steel frame to support the seats, adding a wooden carry-all box under the seats and a platform just ahead of it. The cart's tongue pins onto a hitch on the garden tiller, allowing it to swivel on turns. He also added a hand-operated brake lever (the hand clutch from an old Deere tractor) that acts on both of the cart's wheels. The lever is located just above the platform. "It looks nice. A lot of people ask me if I can build one for them, but I'm not interested in doing that," says Johnson. "The kind of seats I used are found on Deere's A, B, and G models. Antique tractor shows often have flea markets or crafts, and the box eliminates the need to carry anything that I might buy." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Marvin Johnson, 8548 237th Ave. N.E., Stacy, Minn. 55079 (ph 651 462-5388).

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