Gilbert Tractor Club
June 7, 2022
Meeting Place: Gilbert Community Room
Welcome \ Introductions: Bob kicked off our meeting.
Guest and family additions: Dick has his threshing machine home now and it’s running.
Treasurer Report: Insurance was paid and there is approximately 1,000.00 left in the bank.
Old Business: We reviewed the summer schedule and thing are getting busy for the summer. Scandinavian Days had about 15 tractors. We were uptown by ourself and they’ll have to talk to them about that next year. The rest of the event was held at the park, which was crowded. Due to nothing else uptown there were very few kids for the kid’s tractor pull. Ace hardware is a go and you may park in the church parking lot to unload and leave your trucks and trailers. They will be grilling and donations go to the Children’s Miracle network. You need to be there by 8 a.m. Gilbert tractor ride, will be 8 mile per hour and other need to start someplace other than Gilbert and go your own way. The 8 mile an hour group will have deputies at certain points to assist in getting us across the road. Stay together so we can safely cross the roads in a group, and don’t be real spread out. Gilbert days has a lot of new events planned. They’ll have bounce house up on main street, in from of the elevator there will be bands and a beer garden. They have volley ball planned and water fights on main. Tractors will start at 2nd street for display. Drivers for people haulers would probably be needed from 9 a.m. – 7 p.m., anyone interested let Dick know. Marshal Ag Expo is looking for a new home due to the cost being raised on them. Bethany Manor needs about 5 tractors on display for their State Fair day on August 18th.
New Business: If you haven’t paid your due you need to get it done.
Discussion Items: Start thinking about the December tour and where you’d like to go. We’re good now until the end of the year for presenters; however, we need to start thinking about next year.
Auction or Threshing events: July 13th, at 10 a.m., Daily auction will be selling at Deny Niebaugh’s farm. There are custom combines, forklift and a lot of other equipment.
Presentation: Matt Sargent with Jasper Engines and Transmissions was our guest speaker. He is also Don Barber’s son-in-law. JASPER company has been remanufacturing products since 1942. Today they are the nation’s largest remanufacturer of gas and diesel engines, transmissions, differentials, rear axle assemblies, marine engines and electric motors. The headquarters are in Jasper, In. with other branches and distribution centers throughout the U.S. In 1957 they started working on transmissions, 1967 was the opening of the Diesel engine Division, 1987 was the Marine Engine Division onboarding, and between 1989 to 2005 they had a NASCAR and used it to study tolerances. The car was moderately successful and they ended up selling it to Penske. JASPER now sells transmissions to NASCAR. A transmission probably cost somewhere around 20,000 now days. United States Postal is another large customer of JASPER. JASPER is the largest manufacture of drive trains. Employees work in pods and trained. There are 3 different certifications people can try for. They rebuild to the OE original specs and use standard parts. The Research and Design team checks the original OE issues and tries to find ways for JASPER to improve. An interesting fact was, there is a cross on all pistons. They have installation kits available which contain everything you really need to do your overhaul. Right now, part shortages are their biggest issue. Companies are limiting how much product they release to each of their customers, which means JASPER only gets a small percent of what they ordered. Around 90% of all failures are related to not changing oil each 3,000-4,000 miles, along with not getting a new oil filters for the oil change or not using the filter recommended and not using the proper oil.
Secretary Report by: Marlene Youde