As anyone that has attempted one will confirm, tractor restorations are hard. With any challenging task, one good way to find motivation to continue is to visualize what life after the finish line looks like. Chuck Ehler encountered several obstacles in his quest to find and restore the 20,000th Caterpillar Diesel RD-4, and one idea for after it was done helped him persevere to complete the project.
One of the things that makes the 20,000th Diesel RD-4 unique is the amount of photographic documentation of its early life on the Ehler farm. Caterpillar sent photographers out to take pictures of the tractor on several occasions. Photographs of the tractor appeared in several Caterpillar brochures and advertisements, some published decades later. Fortunately, Caterpillar shared copies of many of the photos with the Ehler family, including some that were never published. While the tractor itself temporarily left the Ehler family, the photos Cat gave them remained part of the family archives.
In the depths of the restoration project, Chuck kept in mind the visual of recreating those historic photos after the restoration was complete. As if restoring the tractor was not enough of a challenge, Chuck began collecting props to use in the photos. For the most iconic photo comparing the price of soybeans to Diesel fuel, bushel baskets and fuel cans were required. Fortunately, neither turned out to be too difficult to locate. The real triumph was working with another local collector to locate an Avery combine like the one in the photos.
Reenactment day finally came at the 2022 I&I Historic Farm Days in Penfield, IL. Chuck convened the group that assisted in various ways throughout the restoration of the 20,000th to take part in the photos. With props and printouts of the original photos on hand, the group carefully re-staged several of the most iconic photos, taking turns participating in each. It was an exciting day, and a worthy celebration of several years of hard work by Chuck and his crew.
