Hats off to this Greenville, Illinois farmer who has spent the last 4 years handcrafting a custom snowmobile made from an old John Deere Model-E Engine.
Known as “Popping Johnny” due to its distinctive popping sound generated by its hit-and-miss governing system, the Model-E was first introduced in 1923 and was in production until 1946. They were widely adopted by farmers to power a variety of equipment including water pumps, feed mixers and cob crushers to name a few.
Bill Schewe put in hundreds of hours into his passion project and his son Kurtis shared it on TikTok where it has racked up over 7 million views. If you’d like to see it in action, Bill plans on showing off his one of a kind creation this Saturday at the Vintage Snowmobile Show at Brackett Bar in Fall Creek, Wisconsin.
