A Track-Laying Tractor 



Its front wheel lays a track and the 

 whole machine turns in a ten -foot circle 



imi^mn 



Above : Plow- 

 ing a field 

 with the aid 

 of the track- 

 laying tractor 



At right: The 

 tractor can 

 easily make 

 a turn in a 

 ten-foot drde 



Above: The 

 shoes are 

 made of steel 

 stampings. 

 They can be 

 provided with 

 projections 

 for very 

 soft ground 



OUT in California, where the small, 

 farm tractor has been more highly 

 developed than in any other part 

 of the world, an unusual tractor has 

 appeared. It has three wheels like many 

 other tractors. But in this case, to give 

 great pulling power, the front or steering 

 wheel is a track-laying wheel. Still, the 

 unusual characteristic of the tractor is 

 not so much the small track-laying unit 

 used as a front wheel, but the manner in 

 which the frame supporting the unit is 

 employed to carry the small automobile 

 internal-combustion engine and its fuel 

 and water tanks. An inverted, U-shap6d 

 casting, attached to the rear of the frame, 

 permits the whole frame, track-layer and 

 engine, to turn as a unit when the tractor 

 rounds a corner. 



The top of the U-shaped casting serves 

 as a turning pivot for a goose-neck frame, 

 to which is attached the two rear steel 

 wheels, and the axle to which the plows or 

 harrows employed are attached. 



The tractor is further rharacterized by 

 burning the cheap engine distillate so 



commonly used in California in place of 

 expensive gasoline. 



In the accompanying illustrations, it 

 can be clearly seen that the engine is 

 mounted as in any automobile, longi- 

 tudinally of the frame, but that it drives 

 the track-laying wheels by means of a two- 

 part, cone-shaped friction gear mounted 

 on the rear end of the extended engine- 

 shaft. The shoes or face of the endless 

 track, somewhat similar to those used on 

 the famous British "tanks," although 

 much smaller, are made of steel stampings. 

 They can be left flat for running over 

 firm roads or they can be provided with 

 angle-iron grousers or projections to grip 

 very soft ground. 



The tractor may be used for any kind 

 of farm cultivation. It has a speed of 

 about two rtiiles an hour when pulling a 

 four gang plow. The machine weighs 

 less than three thousand pounds, has an 

 overall length of one hundred and two 

 inches and can turn completely around in 

 a ten-foot circle. Its small size is one of 

 its grentest assets. 



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