953 nut 55,210 #1 Posted March 26 (edited) Attwell Chain-Trac, La-Trac Junior, and Windolph Chain-Tred A few days ago, we looked at the cute little Mity Midget tracked tractor which utilized WW2 surplus tracks and trucks. In today’s post we will a look at three very similar walking tractors that were purpose built tracked garden tractors. The Attwell Chain-Tred, La-Trac Junior Tractor, and the Windolph Chain-Tred all followed in the tracks (pun intended) of the Vaugn Flex-Tread which we will look at in another thread tomorrow. James Attwell filed a patent application for a dual chain-tread tractor in 1947 and received his patent (2,535,254) on December 26, 1950 which was assigned to the Windolph Tractor Company in Portland, Oregon. The patent lists this as a co-partnership between Attwell and Windolph. The prototype Attwell was built by the G & L Machine Works of Seattle. The words “Chain-Tred” and “Seattle” are cast into each of the 4 drive wheels as well as a name plate. A. Harry Greenberg, co-owner of G & L, created an almost identical version of the Attwell when Greenberg incorporated the La-Trac Junior Tractor Company in 1949. The La-Trac Junior appeared and disappeared in a short period of time so there may have been a nasty little patent infringement issue there. There were few if any differences between the Attwell, La-Trac and Windolph tractors, though Windolph did offer a deluxe model with a two-speed transmission. The all used Wisconsen AKN engines and had forward and reverse accomplished by pulling back on an arm to raise the engine and tighten the drive belt or push forward to lower the engine to allow a friction drive wheel to move the tractor backwards. You can view these three videos and decide if there are any differences. Edited March 26 by 953 nut 7 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
