Cletrac AG-6

Restoration

Story by Brian Anderson

A Cletrac Full of Memories

By Brian Anderson

I own a 1946 Cletrac AG-6 crawler, and it's been part of our family for a long time.

Dad bought it from a farm east of Hanska, Minnesota, around 1999. In 2005, we decided it was time to fix it up. Dad and I took the whole crawler apart and hauled the parts to Garden City, Minnesota, where we sandblasted everything and put on the primer. Our neighbor, Bob, painted it for us. Bob's dad rebuilt the seat. There wasn't much left of the old one, but he made a new seat that looked just right.

We took the engine to Mankato, Minnesota, to be overhauled. When it came back, Dad and I started putting it all back together. It only took a couple of weeks before it was running again.

We didn't restore it to work. We restored it because we liked old tractors. Dad drove it around the farm, and we took it to tractor shows, plow days, and tractor pulls. We had a lot of fun with it.

The best part wasn't getting the crawler finished. It was getting to spend that time with Dad. Those are the memories that mean the most to me.

One day I helped Dad put steel on his barn. When we were done, he looked at me and said, "The Cletrac is yours." I was proud and happy to hear that.

Dad has passed away now, but I still have the Cletrac. Every time I start it up, it reminds me of the days we spent together in the shop and out on the farm.

Today, I still take it to tractor shows, plow days, and tractor pulls. I don't ever plan on letting it go. It's a piece of Dad that I'll always have with me.

Before Photo

Cletrac AG-6 ready for restoration

Dad (Dony Anderson) Driving around the farm

Lake Crystal, MN

Cletrac AG-6

Restoration

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