In 1942, a then 18 year old Frank Mobius purchased a new Farmall H tractor to work his 132 acre farm in Lake Stevens Washington.  Sadly in the spring of 2015 at the age of 91, Frank passed leaving behind his wife Bette and daughters Renae and Lani.  My wife Stephanie is Frank and Bette's niece and years ago at a family gathering I had expressed my interest in Frank's old tractor.  Following the funeral service, the very tired beauty was offered to me. 

This will be the story of its restoration.............


The first step was to somehow get the tractor home so to see what we were up against on May 24th Stephanie our son Fenn and I drove from our home in Enumclaw up to Lake Stevens, about an hour and a half drive, to see what we were up against.  The tractor was parked under an old cedar tree and was accessible with a trailer so we just needed to wait for the ground to dry out to avoid getting stuck and we'd be in business.

On Father's Day, June 21st, we drove up with a trailer rented from Bunce in Puyallup.  I had trouble finding a trailer that was wide enough to accommodate the width of the rear tires.  It wasn't running so some chains and a couple of come-alongs and we were able to get her loaded.

Fenn was a great help in winching it onto the trailer.  With the tires loaded with water and calcium it's estimated weight is around 5,000 lbs.


Cousin Renae

Aunt Bette bidding the H farewell

Luckily we made the drive home without any major problems and got the trailer back before the rental yard closed with 1 minute to spare.