12m 47s | 58210 view | 205 rating

This tractor dates sometime from 1904. The hand lever operated clutch engages a one wheel drive forward using the right wheel. There is a left foot pedal to engage an optional 2nd wheel posi drive (to drive both the left & right wheels in slippery conditions like snow, rain, mud, etc.). To reverse; the hand lever clutch is disengaged. The left foot pedal is pressed down & the right foot pedal is pressed down to engage the band clutch. The tractor can only be driven in reverse by the left wheel. The tractor was built from an early “build yourself a tractor” kit supplied by a manufacturer in Loudonville, Ohio. This would be the predecessor of the C. Hufer & Company which later changed names to the Victor Traction Gear Company, both of Loudonville, Ohio. This company furnished engines, clutches, running gear, ect. and then whoever bought the pieces put them together. There was a small nickle-plated brass name tag nailed onto the tractor that read “Sexauer Bros. – Sulphur Springs, O.” The Sexauer Bros. ran a carriage works in Sulphur Springs from 1862 to the early 1900’s. They were also labeled as “Builders”. This explains the carriage/buggy springs & all the blacksmith work used on the tractor. It’s basically part tractor, part horseless carriage/automobile buggy. This tractor was used for various jobs around the farm by belting up to the engine & powering different machinery. It was later used to power a buzz saw on the Rietschlin farm on German Road in West Liberty (Crestline), Ohio (which is about 10 miles from Sulphur Springs, Ohio). The Rietschlin’s buzz saw was usually kept in the woods & the tractor was driven to the buzz saws location, used, and then driven home at the end of the day. The frame of the buzz saw had arms that attached & pinned to hinges on the front of the tractor to keep it & the tractor in good alignment when the saw was belted up to the engine. Because the buzz saw was kept outside, most of its wood was rotted & gone but there was enough of it left with its hardware to get basic measurements to eventually restore it. We got the tractor from Leonard Rietschlin in 1979. Leonard said it had belonged to his great uncle who remembered running along beside it as a kid as it was driven back to the woods to buzz wood. He said he wasn’t old enough to help & that he would have been no older than 10 at the time which would put the date at 1910 or earlier. Later when the tractor was no longer being used, it was stored for years in an old chicken coop on the Rietschlin farm. Leonard Rietschlin went into service during World War 2 & he said he remembered playing on the tractor in the chicken coop as a kid. The engine has a large bore for its size & is probably around 5hp. It has a lightweight (thin cast) piston & a counterbalanced crankshaft. The engine is stamped serial number #24 of an unknown number produced. The engine is one of the earliest existing 4-stroke engines using a desmodromic valve gear. A desmodromic valve is a reciprocating engine valve that is positively closed by a cam/leverage system, rather than just relying on a conventional return spring to close the valve. Ducati motorcycle engines also use a type of desmo driven valve. The engines carburetor uses cones & angles to control air flow. It has rings of coiled wire inside of it to increase the surface area & help vaporize the fuel. The throttle is controlled by unscrewing the top of the carburetor. This opens the air intake holes along the sides of it. Since the fuel needle valve is centered in the top of the carburetor, it also lifts up with it when the throttle is increased, increasing the fuel with the air. For whatever reason, this tractors steering is backwards. To turn the tractor left you would need to turn the steering wheel right. The main frame of the tractor is mostly wood but there is an iron frame that bolts up underneath the middle section of the tractor to better support the weight of the engine. Some of the drive shafts, etc. have bolt on bearing blocks but other shafts have been babbited into the wood. This tractor is all original, all its chains are original, its mag & spark plug, fuel & water tanks, the red paint of the tractor frame & whitish-silver color of the engine, etc. is all original. This tractor uses a rare Goodson Electric Ignition Company magneto & igniter “spark” plug. This spark plug is basically an electric solenoid tripped low tension igniter that screws into the engine. The impulse from the Goodson mag is fed into the Goodson spark plug, through its coils & across its closed points inside the engine which are then opened by the solenoid coils, creating a low tension spark. The mag & spark plug on this engine have been reliable & the engine has always run great with them. This tractor has been shown at the 2001 Portland, Indiana engine show & the Coolspring engine show 2016. For more information go to: http://rowland24.20megsfree.com