Chris Wathen

Chris Wathen has one of the largest and most incredible collections of four-wheel-drive tractors that you will ever see. He has many Barn Series Steiger tractors in his collection as well as some of the Fargo built Steiger models. He also has some Wagner tractors from Portland, Oregon, which are credited as being the first articulated four-wheel-drive tractors produced. In fact, a Wagner was the inspiration for Douglass and Maurice Steiger to build their first tractor. In addition to these, he also has several Big Buds, along with some rare, low production tractors. For example, he has a Jackson four-wheel-drive which was built in Edgeley, North Dakota by Erval Jackson. Very few of these tractors were produced, so it is a rare find indeed. He also has one of only a handful of Coleman four-wheel-drive tractors that were produced as well.

Chris is also a fan of homemade tractors and currently has three in his collection. I want to start with a tractor that was built by Chris’s dad, Don Wathen. It’s actually the second farm tractor that Don built. His first was a large two-wheel-drive, but more on that one later. The one that I want to show you now is the four wheel drive tractor that Don built around 1970. This tractor started with a bare frame of a former military loader. He then found some military axles with outboard planetary hubs that had been sent to a scrap yard. The military actually cut holes in each axle to be sure that they would not be reused by anyone, but that didn’t deter Don. He simply welded the holes shut and they are still in use in the tractor to this day.