October heralds the fall season and November brings thoughts of Veteran’s Day, when tribute is paid to those who have given so much to ensure American freedom.

Jim Weiman of Brighton, Ill., served in the Air Force in the South Pacific from 1956-60. “I was an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer during my service,” Jim said.

He has worked over the years as an airplane mechanic for West Star Aviation at the St. Louis Regional Airport. These days he is in the welding department, where he wields his talents.

Jim creates amazing designs. Although he is 71, he is still working 40 hours a week – but, for a man who loves creating in the shop, welding is not work, but fun.

When did this busy guy get a chance to work on a pedal tractor? “I worked on this part-time in the evenings.”

At the Gateway tractor show in Godfrey, Ill., this year, Jim unveiled his latest creation, a patriotic pedal tractor. It was fitting that the pedal tractor made its first showing in the shadow of the miniature Arch of the one that brands the city of St. Louis for the world: Years ago, Jim created this Arch replica.

“I wanted to impress America on kids,” Jim said about his red, white and blue pedal tractor. “You can’t get any more American that this.”

His pedal tractor began life as a 1964 Wheel Horse lawn-mowing tractor. “I like to say it’s gone ‘green’ because I took the motor out and made it into a pedal tractor,” Jim said.

The renovated tractor works only under pedal power these days. The renovation also included a change of tires in the front, artificial exhaust stacks and new handle grips.

All the chrome on the tractor, along with the awesome red, white and blue paint job, has been put together by Jim.

Not only is the tractor a pedal tractor, but a pulling tractor, as well. At the show, kids of all ages were weighing and getting ready to take the pedal on its maiden voyage.

Although the tractor was created by Jim for this pedal challenge, they were barrowing a sled. “The weights are all from barbells,” Jim said.
As kids walked by, they were all gawking at the pedal. “This pull is for local kids and every kid that comes through wants to ride on it,” its creator explained.

The pedal will fit a variety of ages because Jim planned ahead. “I made the pedal adjustment to fit for different size kids. The leather seat has seven inches of movement in it.”

Another adjustment he made for the different sizes and ages of kids was to make the pedal so it could shift gears. “We left the transmission in so we could shift from one gear to another, depending on the size of the kids.”

Next year Jim plans to create his own sled and add the sound of a tractor pulling to the tractor. For this year, though, everything was ready to roll and the paint was barely dry on the beautiful machine.
“I just finished last Monday,” Jim said.

Following his patriotic theme, he said, “Every kid that pulls gets a flag. We want to make everyone a winner. I didn’t want to pick any specific brand color; I just wanted this to be the all-American pulling tractor.”

With Jim’s past in military service, he added,
“This influenced my choice of paint selection 100 percent.”

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.