«Previous    Next»
These Parts Experts Specialize In Garden Tractors
If you need parts for an older lawn or garden tractor, check with HAPCO or Deaven Tractor Parts. If one doesn’t have what you need, the other likely does.
  Brandon Pfeiffer started restoring a 1966 Deere 110 he bought while in college. He quickly discovered a lot of parts were not available, so he made extras of some parts and sold them. HAPCO grew from there.
  “We specialize in parts for Deere lawn and garden tractors that are no longer available,” says Pfeiffer. “Our mission is to provide our customers with the most authentic reproduction parts available.”
  Collecting and restoring led to doing a newsletter. Then in 2002 he and his wife Charlotte started a magazine. They were soon joined by now managing editor Kate Goelzhauser. For the first 5 years, they covered just Deere tractors, but in 2007 Lawn and Garden Tractor Magazine expanded to cover all brands (www.lagtmag.com).
  In a similar way, the parts business has expanded to include used parts and other brands. In the past 3 years Pfeiffer and Goelzhauser acquired Dandy Sales and its Panzer parts and Baird Beaver parts. A redo of the company website will soon list parts from all 3 brands. Inventory includes around 300 different Deere parts, around 700 Panzer parts, and about 100 Baird Beaver parts.
  It was also a restoration project that got Josh Deaven into the business. His father Bill bought a Ford LGT 100 in 1975 and Deaven grew up driving it. When they started restoring it, one thing led to another.
  As they worked on the restoration, they found it needed to have a wiring harness made, as well as knobs, the steering wheel cap, and even vibration dampers for fenders to sit on.
  “As we found parts that were broken or not available, we tried to reproduce them,” says Deaven.
  By the time they finished, they had parts to sell. This led to custom restoration work for Deaven and his dad. Deaven, a tool and die maker by trade, and his dad, a small engine mechanic for 30 years, are well-suited for the work. They also continue to make and sell parts.
  “We make reproduction parts for Jacobsen-built garden tractors from 1964 to 1976 model years,” says Deaven. “These models include Minneapolis Moline, Oliver and Ford garden tractors. I try to make what I can or find a source that can. If not, we’ll try to clean up or repair the original.”
  Deaven tries to have all the small parts that really make a good restoration, noting that a restoration is more than just paint.
  “You want to have nice stainless steel bolts, new tires, new tie rod ends and hardware that matches,” he says.
  In addition to fiberglass molds, Deaven carries about 40 parts. “A lot of my parts are short-run reproductions. Perhaps 10 to 15 were made, and I’ll have 5 or 6 sitting on the shelf,” says Deaven.
  Loving to restore a tractor can make finding parts for customers a challenge. “It’s hard to part out a tractor that may be in better shape than the one you are restoring,” says Deaven.
  While Pfeiffer keeps around 100 tractors on hand for parting out, he would rather be restoring. “If I could, I would be restoring tractors all day long,” he says.
  Both companies are active on Facebook.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, HAPCO, Inc., 8977 Framewood Dr., Newburgh, Ind. 47630 (ph 812 455-5870; HapcoParts@gmail.com; www.hapcoparts.com) or Josh Deaven, 326 Hillside Rd., Elizabethtown, Penn. (ph 717 367-0756; joshdeaven@aol.com).



  Click here to download page story appeared in.



  Click here to read entire issue




To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.
Order the Issue Containing This Story
2019 - Volume #43, Issue #3