Can you name me?

[artc]

here is a tractor about the size of the cub a friend of mine just found. I had to excavate a tree stump that had grown up around the loader frame in order to extricate it from it's 20 odd year resting place.




this is the first one of these i've seen. i'd venture a guess that parts might be a little harder to find than for a cub!

[beaconlight]

Nothing like the look of rusty iron. Can't help on what is is. You guys were moving fairbanks Morse last we heard. How is that going??
Bill

[Bigdog]

Maybe a Silver King?????

[George Willer]

Looks to me like an Avery. Parts may not be too bad since it was made under several different names... General, Avery, Minnie Mo BF, and maybe others. I'm told that engine parts for its' Hercules are like hen's teeth.

Here's Steve Sewell's BF at Portland 2004.

I don't know if the BF was made with a single front wheel as many Averys were.

http://members.toast.net/gwill/photos/Portland%202004/Steve's%20BF%202.jpg

[artc]

George hit it. i was told it was a Clettrac General. but i'm not familiar with clettrac (other than an OC-3) to know if the General was a 'correct' designation, or who bought who and when.
i do hope i can find Hercules motor parts, though. I have a back burner project with a herc 4 cylinder in it . it's a 2 drum cable winch on skids (well, it used to have skids) we had used years ago. stuck now, of course.

the Fairbanks project is still at a standstill awaiting the contractor to remove the building. i'm hoping he won't do it till spring, now. rigging out those motors will be hard enough without winter in the mix.

[George Willer]

George hit it. i was told it was a Clettrac General. but i'm not familiar with clettrac (other than an OC-3) to know if the General was a 'correct' designation, or who bought who and when.
i do hope i can find Hercules motor parts, though. I have a back burner project with a herc 4 cylinder in it . it's a 2 drum cable winch on skids (well, it used to have skids) we had used years ago. stuck now, of course.

the Fairbanks project is still at a standstill awaiting the contractor to remove the building. i'm hoping he won't do it till spring, now. rigging out those motors will be hard enough without winter in the mix.

Art,

I'm a little less certain of the facts here, but here's what I think. Cletrac was the name of the crawler made by the CLEveland TRACtor company... the same company that made the General. This was in Cleveland, OH, and the General production was later moved to a factory somewhere in TN. I think the Mineapolis-Moline BF version was made in the TN facility. I never heard the two names Cletrac and General used together.

Maybe a litle internet research is in order?

[Paul B]

According to C. H. Wendel's book "Standard Catalog of Farm Tractors, 1890 to 1960", the Cleveland Tractor Company, also known as Cletrac, produced their model GG General tractor in the 1939-1942 period when production was suspended because of WW II. Oliver bought the Cletrac line in 1944, but the production of the General never resumed. It had a Hercules IXA engine of about 20 hp.

About 1942, B. F. Avery, Louisville, KY, came out with their "A" tractor that was a dead ringer for the Cletrac General. About 1945 they announced their Model "BF, and the Avery "V". The V was about half the size of the BF. Minneapolis-Moline bought out Avery in 1951, and continued to market the BF until 1955.

The Generals were painted a gold/orange/yellow color I believe and the Averys I have seen were red. Might give an idea as to who built it.