Owners: Ron and Shelley (pictured) Terrell
Location: Stilwell, Okla.
History: For years, Ron Terrell made a daily commute from Stilwell, Okla., to Tulsa. Twenty years ago, Ron eliminated his hour and a half drive to work, and he and his wife Shelley started Sundowner Tractor in Stilwell, Okla.
“Ron has been working on equipment all of his life,” Shelley said. “When he’d get home from work, people would want him to work on their tractors. I said we should open our own shop here, so we did. Even before we had the doors hung on the building, there were five tractors waiting for him. I was planning on keeping my job, but it got so busy I came to help him here.”
Products and services: Sundowner Tractor remains a small, family-owned and operated business, but they have a worldwide reach. Sundowner specializes in importing hard-to-find original equipment manufacturer parts (OEM parts) for tractors from around the world and gets those parts into tractor owners’ hands.
“We can import parts in for LS Tractors, Farmtrac, Montana, some of the McCormicks that no one else has parts for, Belarus and Long Agribusiness. We import them from overseas manufactures in Korea, Turkey, Romania and other countries. We will ship parts worldwide,” Shelley said.
Sundowner Tractor also does on-site repairs.
“Ron is our mechanic,” Shelley said. “He’s been a diesel mechanic all of his life, and he is very good at it.”
Son Damien, 16, also helps out in the shop with welding and other tasks.
Future plans: Like most people in their late 50s, Ron and Shelley think about retirement but plan to continue operating Sundowner Tractor for many years to come.
