Carrying On Grandpa's Legacy

I hear a lot of cool family tractor stories.

Especially cool are the family tractor tales that span generations and lifetimes...young ones carrying on with the same passion and heart of those went before. Stories like those of young Kyler Smith from Shepherd, MI. Kyler is a Machinery Pete Facebook follower and reached out to share the story of his Grandpa Clayton Klumpp.

"Back in 1978 my Grandpa Clate bought a brand new Simplicity garden tractor for $5K," said Smith. "It came with everything, push blade snow blower, mower deck, belly blade and rotter tiller. He had it for about a year and it became the family pulling tractor. Needless to say my grandma was not amused grandfather went all over Michigan to different garden tractor pulls, taking my uncles as well and over time my grandpa and uncles collected a substantial number of trophies."

"We had our first Klumpp Family Reunion at our own family park that our family built in 1995. My grandpa had 13 brothers and sisters and roughly 60 nieces and nephews and around 150 first cousins, many of which participated in our biggest family event, our family garden tractor pull."

"In 1995 my grandfather took 1st place. Shortly after that the tractor was parked and had not been seen at any pulls for over 20 years until the spring of 2017 when I brought it home, tore it apart and fixed everything that needed to be fixed to get it hooked back to the sled and through the pulling season of 2017. I brought 13 trophies home, 6 were 1st place finishes."

 

"My grandpa was the first name on our family plaque 22 years ago with the tractor he bought new. I had not even been born yet and 22 years later I come back with the same tractor he pulled with and won."

 

"Pulling has always been part of my life. I have always loved it. This is my 18th year and I have over 70 trophies. Many folks say my grandpa taught me well. Unfortunately he is no longer with us, having passed in August 2006."

"I made a promise to myself a long time ago, I will never stop pulling, my grandpa pulled up till a week before he died from lung cancer and if he can do that, then so can I. Now I have little brothers 5 and 6 years old that pull and I teach them exactly the way grandpa taught me, "Everyone that knew my grandpa said I was his legacy."

"I've decided that can't stop with me and I will teach my little brothers and coach them exactly how I was taught by Grandpa Clate."

As I said, I'm privileged to hear lots of amazing family tractor stories, like this one from young Kyler Smith. Keep rockin' Kyler...without a doubt, Grandpa Clate is smiling down.

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