An old machine’s story lives in its steel bones because heritage is held by iron. Decades ago, young Shelley Bruha clambered onto his father’s open station 1946 John Deere GM tractor. Its hand clutch had recently been tightened — so much that Shelley couldn’t slow down at the field’s headland.
“He rode that tractor right through a fencerow, unable to activate the hand clutch,” farm broadcaster Max Armstrong said about this week’s Tractor Shed selection. The elder Nebraska farmer took immediate action, knowing he couldn’t otherwise keep his son from the open station driver’s seat.
“He went to a welder in town, and he said, ‘Extend that rod. Make that hand clutch long enough so that young Shelley can have the leverage to activate it,’” Armstrong continued.
The tractor served their family well for those next years, as it did for American farmers across the country.
World War II was still raging when John Deere released its 34-horsepower GM tractor in 1942. Its estimated $1,400 cost was regulated by the Office of Price Administration under the Emergency Price Control Act, which froze prices on models that weren’t substantially updated until the war ended.
As a wartime variant of Model G tractor, which was several hundred dollars cheaper, Deere justified its price hike by adding electric start and lights to the Model G’s basic frame, and 412-cubic-inch engine, and upgrading its transmission from 4-speeds to 6.
Its production ran through the end of the war, until 1947. There weren’t many made — only 13,000, compared to the 64,000 Model G units built between 1937 and 1953. Many of them rolled off the assembly line with steel wheels due to rubber rationing for the war effort. These days, they run on rubber and are prized by collectors due to their limited numbers.
An extended hand clutch rod became this 1946 John Deere GM’s identifying feature. After young Shelley Bruha rode through a fencerow, unable to stop, his father, Lauren, had a local welder extend the rod so his son could operate it safely. Decades later, this modification helped Shelley recognize and reclaim his father’s tractor.
As time wore on, the Bruha family’s Model GM was sold. For decades, it worked on another farm. Then Shelley found it rusting on another Nebraska farm beneath a shade tree.
“He had no serial number to check, but he recognized that hand clutch — the one that his dad had extended by a local welder, many, many years before,” Armstrong said. “Today, Shelley has that tractor back in the family. It has been restored. He takes it to parades. He goes to plow days.
“Keep an eye on him out there. When he gets to the edge of the field, he’ll have no problem with that hand clutch, which posed a little bit of a challenge all of those years ago.”