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Better Farming
January 2017
Story Idea?
19
FIELD
TRIP
In the shop with Rachel
The Gingell family are tractor enthusiasts. Daughter Rachel and father Dan repair and maintain a range
of older-model machines. The family also operates an interesting online business.
by ANDREA GAL and PAUL NOLAN
T
he Gingell family has a long-standing passion for
tractors, and particularly older-model machines.
Multiple generations have participated in tractor
pulls, as their collection of trophies, proudly displayed in
their shop, shows.
Not surprisingly, Rachel Gingell has inherited this
passion. “I’ve always been in the barn with Dad, helping
him since I was a young girl. I have gradually learned
more and more through the years. Tractor repairs and
maintenance just kind of came naturally to me,” Rachel
says.
She participated in her first tractor pull when she was
10, and started helping at the family equipment dealership
when she was in middle school.
“Internet sales were just starting to take off at the
time,” Rachel says, so she “contributed to the business by
posting tractor ads online.
“It wasn’t long before I started purchasing tractors on
my own to re-sell. Fixing the tractors up along the way
was a natural progression.”
Now, Rachel writes about older-model tractors and
creates tractor repair tutorials. She also works in the
family business, creating and selling handcrafted
tractor-related products, including hats, home decor, and
baby items.
Rachel and her family live in Michigan, about an hour
from the Windsor-Detroit border.
Better Farming
is pleased to introduce Rachel to our
readers; watch for her tractor articles in the coming
months.
BF
Rachel sits on a 1939 McCormick Farmall M. Her late maternal
grandfather Guy Tripp purchased the tractor used and restored it with
Rachel’s father, Dan, almost 30 years ago. They narrowed the wheel
base to make the tractor more competitive on the pulling track.