Rare 1919 Best 25 Crawler Tractor Rescued in Airlift and Painstakingly Restored
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- Опубліковано 6 лис 2023
- The online forum for the antique Caterpillar collectors’ community was all abuzz in December 2013. Two photos had just been posted by a hiker showing a rusted old crawler tractor in the hills of Simi Valley, California.
It was a 1919 Best 25 Tracklayer - the smallest tractor built by the C.L. Best Tractor Company and very rare. Only 300 were ever made by the company, which later merged with the Holt Manufacturing Company to form the Caterpillar Tractor Company in 1925. Most are gone today, with probably less than a dozen remaining, and only five or so in working condition.
The race was on among diehard collectors of the Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club.
After a search that included matching the terrain on Google Earth, hiking uphill with backpacks filled with tools and hiring a Vietnam-era helicopter, Matt Veerkamp beat out the others and claimed the rare Best.
“I had competition,” he says. “Any Best and Holt machine is definitely sought after. They're worth more. They're more rare. They're hard to get. And then there are a few models like the Best 25 that are extremely rare, that you just don't have a lot of chances to be able to get them.”
The video above shows the great lengths Veerkamp and Shawn Stover went to in finding and restoring the Best 25 and bringing it back to life. To learn more about the rescue and restoration project, go to www.equipmentworld.com/collec...
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It took some guts and perseverance for the original guy to get it up there in the first place!
Patience, rather. I don’t think it would be difficult or dangerous to climb a hill in that thing, just slow. Very slow.
Thank you for saving her. Amazing job on the restoration, and keeping her original was the right thing to do. 👍👍
An amazing example of American culture . Using a 1967 Huey warbird to rescue an early century workhorse , fabulous to see
Diesel Creek sent me. This is really cool.
Me to
well done and most importantly full credit for leaving in its original found patina. If it smokes rattles and leaks leave it alone.
They are only original the once !
Sweet rescue, love it gentlemen, I subscribed on this one. That chopper pilot knows how to handle that HUEY.
Hey! Mr helicopter thank you for your service !!!❤
I literally had a tear in my eye when that thing poped of the first time. Beautiful!
Cool Huey helicopter!! Oh, the tractor is really cool too!!
I am so happy that you let the Best keep her age and life with a respectful rebuild, I do the same with my 1910s, cars.
Good job to the pilot
Nice find and rescue. My Dad was borne in 1919. He's long since past but that Tractor is still going I'm a year younger than that Huey.its still flying I'm feeling my age. I think it's amazing how we used to build things to outlast us. Now it's planned obsalesant so we go in debt for a new one. Keep that crawler moving.😁👍
I wonder how it ended up abandoned way up on that hill? Really neat situation. The conservatory wanted to get rid of it and consequently the machine is running again and appreciated and enjoyed by so many! Thank you for sharing this great story.
would have broken down there prob 70+ years ago, and not valuable enough at the time to rescue or repair so became abandoned imo
That makes sense. Thank you.@@riptwan
For a second I wondered how it got up there in the first place. Then I quickly realised I would have had no problem at all driving up there, lol.
OMG I love seeing old machines running around again.
To hear that for the first time must of got your heart racing , it had me smiling
Props to that pilot.
That was an amazing amount of work to get it up and running and that chopper pilot was awesome the way he placed the two pieces.
Well done boys. Cheers, Stuart 🇦🇺
awesome work by that pilot.
Utterly fantastic, well done with your rescue, restoration & your collection.👍👍👍👍😊😊😊😊
Thats sooooo soooo cool! Awesome restro and find .....
There used to be a nursery up in French Camp, CA that had a half dozen Holts and Bests that ran.
Heart warming story. Good job guys!
Well done that man !
Much respect saving the old iron it was made well like to see what new cat looks like in 104 yrs
That was definitely not Glenn’s first rodeo. 😂😂
😎🤙
That’s incredible!! So cool
I was lucky to meet this guy at the Santa Margarita show and this family is def keeping the torch lit on vintage machinery. He had an uncle (I think) named Ed Akin and going to his place and seeing his collection was a highlight of this Cat nuts life! Bitchin story and super cool California industrial history save! Cheers from SantaCruz Mountains
choppers are so shockingly graceful
Seeing a Huey any day is cool but an airlift is even cooler
Many thanks to these guys are due for saving this American history.
Congrats, she's a beauty from a bygone era 👍
That’s the BEST looking tractor 🚜 I saw
Fair play lads 👍. Great vid and restoration, glad you kept her I'm her working clothes!
Beautiful Macnine I love everything abnout this, the machine the store and the people
Great collection! There’s a nice display put on at Antique Powerland Heritage too.
pretty cool, I found an abandoned holt in the mountains where I live. left over from cutting railroad ties.
Very cool. One can only imagine how long the ol' girl sat up on that hill waiting for a couple of kindly fellows to bring her back to a good home. Good job guys.
Very cool
👍👌👏 This rescue mission was quite an impressive performance. The old crawler was in an amazing shape. Now it runs and drives like a champ again. Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing.
Best regards luck and especially health to all involved people.
Awesome find and restoration!
Now then! That was some Very fine flying!!!
Very cool thanks for sharing the story.
This is the best revival I have ever seen. ❤
Amazing!
Very Cool!
Well done. Super job. Enjoy
That tractor has probably never been in the air. What a feeling.
That thing is neat as hell!
That was cool 👍🏼
She's a beauty! You've got yourself another subscriber here!
It even has a suitcase! Ready to travel! Wow!
Cool rig bro 😎 👌
thank goodness there are men who preserve this great stuff. good luck with your project and keep us a breast. i have more than a little interest s there is an old caterpillar out in the barn. best wishes.
Very cool. I picked up a rare Lima 24 crane that there was less than 180 produced. I’m still looking for the same model with a shovel front but no luck yet
This engine landing was very good!
Nice work!
Dang! when you started stated it i wanted to give you 2 thumbs up. And when you drove it, I owed you 2 more! note, IOU 3 thumbs up! LOL! love it!
Beautiful
Thats cool nice job there👍
❤❤ Very cool
ALLL SMILES HERE
I know where one of these are here in Australia.....well I did 20 years ago I'm going to drive out there and ask the new owners of the land if it's all still up the back paddock
I remember it because we use to play on it as kids and I smashed a ttr 90 Yamaha into it after getting scared by a goanna (lace monitor)
The new owners cleared alot of land but there's a chance they've left the graveyard alone and it's still just sitting there
What a great story 👏 🇬🇧
wonderful
What's interesting to think about is that someone bought that and had it delivered to the nearest railyard back then, then set it up and drove it all the way to where it was sitting.
Given the general location and terrain back in the day, that drive could have been 10's of miles and a day or more long.
Also, the coordinates 34 18 15.64 N by 118 43 35.19 W given in that satellite picture look nothing like what is shown in the video.
I'd love to hear how and why it got to where it was.
So cool
" Fantastic save 👍👍🇺🇸 "
Definitely a cool video and what youtube was made for!
What did the missus say when she saw the lawn, I wouldn't have wanted want to be there when she got home haha.
that's an awesome story Matt... how does that one compare to the Cat 25 that you and your dad got from our ranch? engine looks remarkably similar...... Justin.
Sweet! 👍😀👍
Cool.
That was an amazing save! Any idea what it was used for at that location?
Very interesting 👍🏻Jul 15 2024 Aumann auction will be selling a 25 Best..
You mentioned that it appeared under the surface that it was new. Were you thinking that it got up on the mountain broke and they just left it? Just curious, that's all. Thanks so much. One of the best shows I've seen today.. best regards. Bob from Virginia USA.
Man I’m gonna need this kind of lift for my crawler 😂
This makes one wonder how many other rare vehicles are just sitting somewhere in the open like this.
Huey pilots are the best!
Heavy Metal Yeah!
Cool
P. S. A very nice tractor too!
Cool story
Awesome!
What the devil was it doing right up there!
What's the story behind it being left on that remote site??
That's awesome! I love the opening theme song too. Very bluegrassy. What's it called?
That pilot is a G.
left the other engine parts there on the mountain?
Great work. What a find. Any idea what torque the engine produces?
Depends on the rate of RPM. Mathematically Torque = (Horsepower × 5252) ÷ RPM . 25 horsepower at, say, 800 RPM would be ~164 lbft but I can't find out what these engines spin at.
Simplicity and Class AAA1
Know where to locate parts for a 1949 INTERNATIONAL TD-6? In norther Ca
With your name Matt Veerkamp you must have family in the Netherlands.
Great story , I like everything mechanical and old and I prefer like you did in use condition.
I am not a fan of to make it looks like new . I understand that sometimes you don’t have choice .
What is the radiator fan made of? Is that an aluminum casting?
thats really cool! but i HAVE to ask ... how much $$$ for the air-lift rescue ?!?!
Imagine that, a conservancy that looks at a piece of that lands history as a "nuisance"
More rocks in thier heads than the 25 has ever tilled up
There is a LARGE collection of weird old heavy equipment farther east along Las Lalas canyon; kinda odd that you guys missed seeing all of that stuff?
"If I had to keep two, this would be one of them". Wonder what the other one is?
2:28 "We got every motor bold and motor mount out of it no problem. We didn't have to use any heat to get them out."
Ahh, the good 'ole days before idiots who can't think used nothing but impact drivers to tighten nuts and bolts.
The sledge hammer was a threat not to start!
I guarantee the radiator went to a scrap yard on Branford street in Sun Valley.