TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 3/5/2024

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Choremaster, the one wheeled wonder tractor

 

If you have been to a general interest tractor show no doubt you have seen a Choremaster. Many of them are used to pull passenger carts.

 

The Choremaster’s inventor was Carl Van Ausdall of Union County, Indiana, who started out selling Chevrolets at his father’s Liberty, Indiana dealership.

 Van Ausdall built and tested the Choremaster prototype, powered by a 1 hp Clinton engine in July 1946, Van Ausdall applied for a patent, which was granted in December 1950.

Van Ausdall took his inventions to people’s gardens to test their operation. He then took the tractors back to his shop, evaluated their performance and made alterations as needed. Van Ausdall was reported to have personally tested each new tractor model and implement before it was put into production.

VanAusdall made arrangements with Lodge and Shipley of Cincinnati to manufacture his tractor beginning with the 1947 models. Many people think Lodge and Shipley invented the Choremaster. Van Ausdall received a royalty for each tractor produced. His invention was the first product of Lodge and Shipley’s Special Products Division to bear the Choremaster name.

 In 1947, only the 1-1/2 hp model Choremaster was offered for retail sale. The pre-season 1947 catalog lists such attachments as a snow blade, a universal mower that converted push mowers to a front-mounted attachment, a breaking plow, a grader plow for soil and snow, and a rear tool bar for mounting a variety of cultivating tools, sweeps and hoes and an 18-inch reel mower.

A mercury clutch (centrifugal clutch) of Van Ausdall’s design that allowed the engine to be started and run at less than 1,600 rpm without the sheave turning was used on both Briggs & Stratton and Clinton engines.

 

In 1948, few visible changes were made. One model was offered – the same 1-1/2 hp  along with all the 1947 implements plus an expanded line of cultivator shovels, hoes and hillers. A sickle bar mower also was listed in the 1948 catalog but no price was given; it may have been available later that year.

 

Many Choremaster dealerships opened as the popularity of the tractor grew.  In 1949 Choremaster began outsourcing many attachments to meet customer demand . Parker Company of Springfield, OH, built the sulky and the utility cart; Empire Plow supplied the disc attachment and Campbell Hausfield furnished the air compressor. Lawn mowers came from Great American Lawn Mower Company, Coldwell Lawn Mower, and Pincor Gen-E Motor Co., and Mow-Ez.

 

More models were added in 1949 with increased horsepower to handle attachments, including sickle bar and a 24 inch rotary mowers. The model A, a 1 hp unit weighing 104 pounds, sold for $132; model B, a 2 hp unit weighing 108 pounds, sold for $138, and model C, a 3 hp unit weighing 117 pounds, sold for $165. Adding a centrifugal clutch cost an additional $10. All tractors offered a choice of ground grip or traction tread tires.

By 1954, the Clinton 700 series engines and Briggs & Stratton model 6 engines were being used on the 1-1/2 hp models, which sold for $149.75, regardless of engine manufacturer. The 2-1/2 hp units used either a model 900 Clinton or a B&S model 8 engine, and the 3 hp used the Clinton 1100 series. A centrifugal clutch for any of these tractors, as in the past, added $10 to the price. However, there were signs Choremaster sales were declining.

Van Ausdall sold all manufacturing rights and patents for the one-wheeled tractor to Richard Wyman of Framingham, MA in 1958. Wyman redesigned the Choremaster and continued selling it under the name Wyman’s Little Brute Power Hoe. Choremaster one-wheel tractors were made through 1957 then the name was gone from the marketplace.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,297]

I think my old man had one of those one wheel units . It had a mind of it's own , hard starting, difficult to handle and it lasted until it decided to break the pipe on the oil tank and oil went every where.