Project "Bantam"

The year was 1978 and my father's friends needed a mowing machine for their airfield in West Fairfield, on Sweeney's farm.  Karl found a well used Bantam 5000 from a golf course, and paid a whole $50 for the tractor and gang mowers.  The Bantam was used to plod up and down the airfield for the years that they rented the corn field.  At the ripe old age of 4, I learned to drive it and also avoided hitting any airplanes.

After the interest of flying in West Fairfield was over, the renting of Sweeney's field ended.  All the equipment was hauled away.  John took the huge roller and wind sock.  The airplanes were either sold or stored.  John sold his, Karl kept his for years, and my father's was stored in our garage at home, with the wings removed and lashed to the ceiling.  The landing reflectors, the Bantam and the mowers lived in our woodshed for years.  The Bantam was outfitted with a belt-driven pump and an 80 gallon tank.  I was able to fill the tank by tossing the suction line into the creek.  The purpose was to provide convenient irrigation of the LARGE vegetable garden we maintained.   When it wasn't pumping and hauling water, it was occasionally used to haul wagons of wood.  We also fitted a makeshift snow plow to it for winter duty, but it was never really used for mowing anymore.  It began to fall into disrepair, and sat in the woodshed from the late 80's until yesterday.

Fits nicely in the back of a Chevy Equinox

Wrong front wheel.

My first ride is a bit rusty.

I don't want my own son to miss out on the joy of driving his own pint-sized tractor, so we began the restoration process.  Actually we started the tear-down process.

The FB14 5.0 HP engine turns over, but it has no compression, or spark.  The magneto died years ago, and I'm sure the valves are stuck.  Luckily there is a small following for the Bantam series of garden tractors, and I should be able to get some technical support (and maybe even some parts) for the restoration.
www.bantamtractor.com

 

Problems include:

• Rusty fenders
• Broken steering pinion
• magneto shot
• shroud rusted through
• tires shot
• front wheel missing
• broken steering wheel

Watch for more action to come...