“In the world of tractor collecting, there’s a lot of priority on low numbers,” says Bill Borghoff, a former test engineer for International Harvester. He’s talking about serial numbers–the lower one is, the older and more desirable the machine. Borghoff isn’t the biggest collector; he has two tractors, and he’s part owner of a third. But that last one just happens to be the first diesel-powered International Harvester Farmall 806 ever made. And it’s a tractor he tested 40 years ago.
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Where 502 went after it left the testing facility is anybody’s guess–pilots usually wound up used as demos or photographed for ads–but eventually it was sold to a farmer in northern Illinois, who traded it in the late 60s to an IH dealer in Plainfield. Meanwhile Borghoff–who worked in the industry until 1987, then went into the consulting business–got interested in collecting. In the early 90s he met a guy named Larry Eipers, a national officer in the IH Collectors Club who lived near Morris. They got to talking about Borghoff’s old job, and to Borghoff’s surprise Eipers told him he knew where number 502 was: with his neighbor Jim Weiss, former shop foreman at the Paddock’s IH dealership in Plainfield. The two men drove to Plainfield, and Borghoff took a look at the tractor he’d helped test. Then he went back home to Naperville.
“Then in early ’98,” he says, “Jim started thinking about paring down some, and he contacted Larry [about buying 502]. They hemmed and hawed, they kicked the tires. This went on for quite some time.” When Weiss finally named his price, it was a little more than Eipers wanted to spend, so he called Borghoff. Borghoff offered to split it with him, and the following March they took possession of 502.
Registration for the event started at noon January 10; by one o’clock 70 people had signed up. Rules of entry require the tractors to have rubber tires and to go at least six miles an hour. The oldest in the group is from 1935, though most entries are of 1950s vintage. Drivers can switch off, but only one person at a time is allowed on a tractor. An emergency crew will be riding along in case anybody breaks down, which they probably will, says Armstrong. “Guys who’ve been on these rides in the past tell me that’s one of the most exciting things that happens.”
