Showcasing the talents of father and son-in-law, Dale Daigger and Todd Carter, who create custom lawn and garden tractors
This IH 5488 was chosen as our latest project to honor one of the last International tractors built
A liquid cooled 16 HP Yanmar 3-cyl diesel sends power to this custom built, fully articulated 4WD tractor.
Lengthening the frame of a Cub Cadet 102 garden tractor made for a good starting point on this mini International 1466. Hand built adjustable look front axle and custom rear rims make this gas powered classic a fun ride.
This small scale International tractor has custom fabricated pieces including an original look muffler. The Gold Demonstrator proves to have an interesting history. This little guy stands out in tractor country and makes us smile.
Veering from the usual miniature tractor projects of T&D our John Deere CX Gator got some classic Jeep updates and a coat of an original Jeep color, Gecko green.
The puller is on its way to its new owner to personalize as he desires.
This gas powered classic was a fun build. Meadow Green and Clover White paint along with modifications brought this Cub Cadet 100 garden tractor back to life as an Oliver 1655 miniature.
Go ahead and count ‘em...the rear rims alone have over 100 bolts to replicate a full size Oliver 2255 rear rim. The detail needed on this build for side shields, rims and additional parts made it one of our most complex builds.
A JD round fender was the starting point for this little tractor. Besides new paint, it had a customized seat, hand built rear fenders and a narrow front end kit.
Our take on a custom miniature pulling tractor. Built on a Cub 102 because of its stick transmission.
Ten year old son/grandson helped his dad and grandfather restore and paint this Cub Cadet.
A Cub Cadet Original, painted and custom umbrella added.
The customizing hobby of T&D began with this 110 JD flat fender. Changes to the original 110 included fabricated canopy and axle, along with duals and treaded front tires and covers.
T&D Custom Lawn & Garden Tractors is the hobby of father/son-in-law team, Dale Daigger and Todd Carter. Several years ago Dale purchased a John Deere garden tractor to help with some chores around the farm. The little tractor needed some new paint so Dale turned to his son-in-law to do the repaint. The renewed tractor and the fun of working together on a project made Dale and Todd consider taking this new found hobby a little further.
They repainted several garden tractors and then started making modifications to them. After attending some tractor shows, both thought it would be fun to try their hand at customizing a lawn and garden tractor into a small scale replica of a real tractor.
In early projects, Todd and Dale had great help from outside sources, but now Todd and Dale do the fabrication, welding, body work and painting with very limited outsourcing. The majority of the metal fabrication is still done by hand by cutting with a 4 ½ inch grinder with a cut-off wheel as well as using a homemade brake for bending metal.
When building tractors Dale and Todd consider how to make them fit the scale of the lawn tractor base they use, along with the more important part of keeping them as close as possible in details to its full sized counterpart. Dale and Todd are often asked if these miniature tractors are ½ scale reproductions. They prefer to call them lawn mower/garden tractor scale. Since real tractors vary greatly in size as well as the various lawn and garden tractors Dale and Todd use to replicate them, they do not claim the tractors are exact half scale. There are amazing exact half scale tractors out there, but Dale and Todd prefer to have the fun of riding them and no one at T&D has a half scale behind!
At this point we do not take orders or do custom work for others, but we will occasionally have a completed tractor or various items for sale. We attend various tractor and lawn and garden shows throughout the year. We look forward to seeing you there.
Our goals at T&D are to have fun doing what we enjoy and to continue to build one of a kind miniature tractors.
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