TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 2/19/2024

[953 nut 55,174]

Here are some more three-wheel garden tractors.

 

David Bradley Tri-Trac

 

Unlike most 3-wheel garden tractors the Sears-Robuck David Bradley Tri-Trac rides on 2 front wheels and a single rear wheel. It was designed to pull a 1-bottom moldboard plow. Power is supplied by a Wisconsin AKND 6 hp engine.

The 3 wheels and long wheelbase made it a bit unstable when turning, they compensated by installing front wheel weights which helped a little. The tractor had a forward and reverse variable speed transmission.

Due to poor sales Sears began cutting prices. In its first year of production, 1954, the Tri-Trac was priced at $595 ($ 5,600 in 2024 money). A year later, the price dropped to $495; and in 1956 it dropped to $395

 

 

 

 

BOLENS HUSKI RIDEMASTER TRACTOR

 

 

Although it has four wheels rather than three, the drive wheels are set so close together we may as well include the Ridemastere in this topic.

In September of 1946, the Bolens Co. was purchased by the Food Machinery & Chemical Corporation (FMC) of San Jose, Calif.  FMC already had a garden tractor named the Bean Cutler but renamed it the Bolins Ridemaster in 1947 because of the good reputation Bolins had established in the industry.

Early models had no transmission and no gears. Instead, they featured a variable-speed belt system. Later Ridemaster models were built with forward, neutral and reverse gears and a two-speed transmission was offered on the Model 38AB.

The Bean-Cutlers had a 5hp AKS Wisconsin engine. In 1949 the ridemasters were equipped with a 6hp BKN Wisconsin engine. These are models 35AA and 35AB. The 35AA had 4;00 x 18 drive tires. The 35AB had 6:00 x 16 drive tires. In 1956 a model 38AB came with an 8hp Briggs and Straton engine and Ride-a-matic, production ended in 1962.

 

McLean Huskey

The three-wheel McLean riding model called the Huskey was designed and put into production powered by a Briggs and Stratton Model 14 single cylinder air cooled engine. Since the Model 14 engine was produced from March of 1948 to November of 1963 it is difficult to pin down the years the Huskey would have been made.

The Huskey had a single 5.00 X 12 agricultural rear drive wheel and two small solid rubber front tiers. The steering was a chain and sprocket design, there were no brakes and it had only one forward speed.  The frame was made of ¾” pipe and there was very little in the way of sheet metal.

 

 

 

 

@Achto probably can add some good information to the McLean history.

 

 

 

Eshelman Kulti-Mower

 

The Eshelman Kulti-Mower is a light duty riding tractor that can be a mower one minute and a cultivator the next. It was available in two sizes, 3 and 7 hp. The one pictured below is the 3 hp model.

There wasn’t a great deal of additional information available on this tractor but the company and its owner are something else. More on that later.

The Eshelman company began production of commercial light aircraft in Dundalk, MD after World War II, but was best known toward mid-century for its inexpensive light garden tractors which were widely promoted in small advertisements in the back pages of mechanical and scientific magazines from 1953 to 1961. Their line of garden tractors included one wheeled, two wheeled, three wheeled and four wheeled tractors and attachments for all.

While searching for information about the Kulti-mower I found some intriguing information about Cheston L. Eshelman, the manufacturer and inspiration behind his line of garden tractors and so much more. I will share some of the particulars in another thread.

Garden tractors were an important part of the mix but Eshelman also produced Micro-Cars, other vehicles and implements including motor scooters, pleasure boats, aircraft, golf carts, snowplows, trailers, mail-delivery vehicles and more.

 

[ebinmaine 67,408]

4 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Cheston L. Eshelman, the manufacturer and inspiration behind his line of garden tractors and so much more. I will share some of the particulars in another thread

 

Looking forward to it. 

 

The name is familiar but I don't currently recall why.  Maybe at Owls Head Museum??

 

 

[Achto 27,562]

11 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Achto probably can add some good information to the McLean history.

 

Like most early garden tractor companies, McLean started out with 2 wheel tractors. With electricity becoming more available people were switching their Maytag wash machines over to electric motors. McLean would buy up any Maytag engine that they could. They would then rebuild these engines and use them on their 2 wheel walk behind tractors.

 

Next Mclean started building 4 wheel tractors like the one that I restored / built from scratch. 2 speed trans + reverse, no brakes.

 

Their last model was the McLean Husky Big wheel. I have found a couple of these for sale but the timing was off for me. No brakes on the Big Wheel either. Not sure what they had against being able to stop.

 

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,314]

Wonder how the three wheeled rigs are on sloped terrain? 

[ebinmaine 67,408]

54 minutes ago, Sparky said:

Wonder how the three wheeled rigs are on sloped terrain? 

Adventurous?