In honor of Labor Day, USA

[Guido]

Reckon this machine earned it's retirement? Now resting in the shade of mesquite trees near Ridgecrest, Ca., a hop and a skip from China Lake Naval Station, home of the Sidewinder missle.
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p86/Guido_album/cletetracone.jpg

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p86/Guido_album/cletetrac.jpg

Cletrac, grandson of the Holt? Holt, grandpappy of the Caterpillar?

G

[aboard_epsilon]

you guys have to have a v8 or an easy chair in or on everthing :D

[oldtiffie]

I thought that Labour (UK and OZ - or Labor in US) Day was at the end of the third trimester and nine months after Father's Day.

[1937 Chief]

Necessity is the mother of inventions. I would be real interested on how someone hooked that ford flat head to the tractor transmission. That is deserving of a perminate reast. Stan

[A.K. Boomer]

That would be way to good of an install --- that engine came with that tractor.

[Bguns]

No, Cletrac (Cleveland Tractor) turned into Oliver Tractor..

Holt and Best became Caterpillar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_crawler

No Ford V8s in Cletracs, should have a inline 4 or 6 depending on model...
Have almost same model laying in weeds up 400 miles from Anchorage..
Engine is a 6 IIRR...

Ford V8 was shoehorned into everything, aircompressors, Ford 2N 8N 9N Tractors, and many other cars....

[dneufell]

I put a 22r Toyota motor in my Cleatrac! :) Dean

[Guido]

The V8 in this Cletrac varies from the normal; on the Ford flatties I've been around there are twin water pumps, each mounted low on the block. Plus the heated water discharged upward from the center of each head via two hoses into the top tank of the radiator.

This V8 may be Ford's version for that model year, of an 'industrial grade' engine. Had my eye on a Ford V8 located inside a small, old refinery. Gone now, but motor block was cast integral with a centrifugal pump housing for fighting inplant fires. Was UL approved, painted red and probably had less than five hours of actual run time. Was in pristine condition, ready to go.

Oh, well. - G

[Bguns]

No Expert, but I believe that model Cletrac (with steering wheel) used a Wiley or some such oddball engine, that parts or info for are almost unobtainium...

The steering wheel linkage tightened or loosened the steering brake bands.

A friend had a hulk of that model, also with a replaced engine, that was so worn out, it was amazing...

Later Cletracs used Hercules engines, some parts like bearings are getting $$$.

Different Ford blocks used over the years, and even foreign clones were built.

This sounds like a early 21 stud 32-36 engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Flathead_engine

[John Stevenson]

This sounds like a early 21 stud 32-36 engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Flathead_engine

By God you must have good hearing, I thought it was a 20 stud engine..................

.

[Arcane]

From a short search on the net, I'm pretty sure (as opposed to ugly sure?) that is a Model W Cletrac which was produced from 1919 to 1932. Originally it would have had a 4 cylinder Weidley engine with 4 inch bore and 5 1/2 inch stroke giving 276 cubic inches. Checking wikipedia leads me to believe the engine in the one shown is a 221 cubic inch flathead Ford built from 1932 through to 1936. "A similar 221 flathead was used in Fords for 1937 and 1938 but the block was revised to have the water pumps mount to the block. The new design also relocated the water outlet from the front of the heads to the top center of the heads."

Oops! Bguns beat me to it! That's what happens when you get distracted finding information on the net! lol

[gnm109]

That looks like a 1930's Ford 21 stud V-8 in the tractor.

[Falcon67]

I'd be hauling the thing home if it was possible. It's a wonder the motor is still in it.

[Asquith]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y54/Asquith1/Aug%202009/Cletrac01.jpg

Our Cletracs have to be small enough to put in the garden shed without blocking access to the wife's mangle or the Drummond treadle lathe.

[John Stevenson]

We had a lot of Holt's here in WWI as gun tractors.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/holt.jpg

That's me grandad at the back syphoning the petrol off it. :rolleyes:
.

[Bguns]

Me operating a 1921 Holt 45 in Wasilla Alaska....
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/m37b1/holt45ii.jpg

Slightly touched up to get rid of red artifacts in pic.....