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jeanwedding

is an old walk behind 2 wheeled tractor worth keeping?

bought it last year at flea market it ran but it was past time to have used it. Put my late gardening in raised beds with strawbales around// they did fine considering I got stuff (plants... veggies mostly)planted so late
the old tractor Just came with the one attrachment>>>
I researched and sAw it was built for other optional attachments..
anybody else use or own one????
Thanks
jean

Comments (27)

  • wertach zone 7-B SC
    11 years ago

    "is an old walk behind 2 wheeled tractor worth keeping?"

    Absolutely not! If you give me your address I'll be glad to come over and haul it off for you! LOL

    It can be useful for a lot of things.

  • tom_nwnj
    11 years ago

    If it's a Gravely, they last a long time. A Gravely dealer once told me that some parts are available going back to the '30s.

  • johntommybob
    10 years ago

    mownie wrote:

    All we know so far is it has 2 wheels and is old. One of those descriptions applies to me also :^)

    It applies to me also. But I bought a 5240 Gravely convertible way back in the early 1980s, and I still have it, still use it, but not as much as I once did (don't garden so much anymore). The point is the thing will still be running when I am pushing up daises.

  • jeanwedding. zone 6
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks yall
    It is an Old Simplicity. It has a different motor on it than the original. Looks good. It runs. But Hubby only tried it for minutes.
    Cant find anyone to discus (right term)??? this area the farmer every day is dying and land being sold and divided up. Pitiful.....
    A plow looking thing was left here. If Hubby can get time , he wants to try hooking it up to our New Husq big garden tractor. Anyway its big to me...
    The Massey, supposedly previous (deceased)owner had was sold off...unfortunately.. and did not go with this money pit jury rigged little...house
    The Simplicity has those culitors "feet or hands"
    thanks yall
    Jean

  • mownie
    10 years ago

    Uh......I hope you can somehow post a photo of this Simplicity on here for us to see, for a couple of reasons. One, I'm now getting the feeling that you may be talking about an old roto-tiller by your use of the descriptive ***" those culitors "feet or hands"***, and the other term "discus".
    The little "feet or hands" are probably what are called "cultivator tines" and the "discus" term you are trying to wrap your tongue around is "disc harrow" or simply...."disc".
    I hope you take this the right way because I don't mean to be insulting..........but I am getting a distinct vision of the old Green Acres TV show now. :^)

  • rcbe
    10 years ago

    could be a 5 hp simplicity roticul - they built a bunch of them....

  • farmerdill
    10 years ago

    Simplicity made a lot of two wheel walking tractors, before the rotary tillers took over. Plow cultivators etc were pulled behind the machine. In the 50' s and 60's they made them up to 12 HP.

    Here is a link that might be useful: photos of Simplicty Walking tractors

  • jeanwedding. zone 6
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    It is like one on famerdills link

    http://www.simplicityva.com/simpmodel-3.html

    but mine has "feet" I believe 5 of them.
    I will count the culivators tomorrow

    http://www.simpletractors.com/walkers/cultivator.htm

    sure wish I had the rest of those accessories.....LOL
    Thanks
    Jean

  • mownie
    10 years ago

    OK, yours is a 2-wheeled tractor after all. And I am guessing that the implement you have is a "hoe cultivator" (what my uncle called them) like the one shown 3rd pic to the right in the top row at farmerdill's link to a photo gallery.
    My uncle had a Gravely 2 wheeler and he must have had most of the attachments/implements. He even had the front mounted sickle bar cutter.
    Another aunt and uncle owned one of the Simplicity front tine roto-tillers. She always said it was "hers" because it was "her" garden.............but my uncle had to operate the tiller.

  • insteng
    10 years ago

    I just seen this thread my brother found an old two wheel tractor that was orginally sold by Sears that is called a David Bradley. We need to pull it out of the brush and see exactly when it was made and how bad of condotion it is in. From the little I looked up on them they were made from around 1946 - 1967.

  • exmar zone 7, SE Ohio
    10 years ago

    Neat old machine with the three speed forward and reverse trans. We had one on the farm in the sixties with a sicklebar mower we used for mowing fencerows. Originally had a B&S engine. The downside was the wheels freewheeled going downhill. Would love to know the thinking behind that? It also had a pull behind cultivator, rubber tired so the depth could be adjusted and cranked all the way down for transport. The cultivator also had a handle to guide it which was necessary as it hitched with a clevis. Another design question I had was why wasn't it rigidly mounted to the tractor?

    Ev

  • mownie
    10 years ago

    Pretty sure the free wheeling feature was to prevent the drive train from being able to to drive the engine on downhill grades in low gear, which would cause the engine to spin at high enough RPM to grenade on ya. You know a governor can't protect against that kind of overspeed.
    I believe that all the ground tilling implements were configured to be "towed" or "drawn" so that the ground engaging forces would not tilt or flex the tractor, which might lead to unequal tire traction, causing the light side to be prone to spinning.

  • exmar zone 7, SE Ohio
    10 years ago

    Thanks Mownie, that's kind of what I thought. The interesting thing though, is there were a few of them around here and I don't think they ever offered a trailer which could have led to the overspeed scenario.

    I remember there used to be a lot of these two wheeled "tractors" around, Sears, "Monkey Ward," etc. Guess they were the precursor to rototillers.

    Ev

  • mownie
    10 years ago

    I'm sure there were folks who made their own trailers/sulkies/wagons etc. for their 2 wheelers.
    I get the impression that 2 wheeler tractors have long been greatly more popular in European countries than here in the U.S.
    I have been racking my memory trying to remember if it was on this forum or another one where somebody posted a link to some You Tube videos where folks over there would participate in annual parades (and even short road trips) where it looked like entire towns would all travel on public roads with their 2 wheeler tractors towing all sorts of trailers and sulky type conveyances.
    Some of the folks had home made trailers using a car drive axle, and ran a PTO shaft from the tractor to the trailer axle, giving them a "road gear" option (that has to be a scary ride).

  • exmar zone 7, SE Ohio
    10 years ago

    Connecting a car drive axle to a PTO is something we'd have done back in the early 60's...amazing we survived being kids!

    Yeah, you're correct, Europe and also Asia were all over two wheelers. Inthis country Gravely owned that market. Did you ever see their master manual showing all the attachments and how to service them? I have a '62 Li in the barn which hasn't been started in two years. A couple minutes burnishing the points in the mag and I'm sure it'll rock and roll. They were and are "man killers" in terms of running one and no safety anything.

    I occasionally see BCS mentioned in forums, but they're very pricey and like Gravely's are physically very demanding. The VAMC I go to has a large greenhouse operation has one. I asked the lady who runs it why the BCS was abandonded in a corner? She said it was donated and the workers (volunteers from the psych wards) didn't like it.

    Hey! You BCS folks out there, just repeating what I was told, personally, don't have anything for or against them. :-)

    Ev

  • farmerdill
    10 years ago

    Walking tractors were popular up until about 1960. Standard, Simplicity, Bolens, Centaur were the most popular over the years, but there were dozens of brands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEXTzyq8rgw They were very popular before rubber tires and miniature 4 wheelers like the John Deere L and Farmall Cub. Simplicity made Montgomery Ward walking tractors. and probably other store brands. Gravely was a somewhat unique machine, that resembled a walking tractor but depended on powered implements like a rotary plow and mowers rather than pull type implements. It had very little traction.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Standard at work

  • jeanwedding. zone 6
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    we ended up selling it couple months ago. At half what we paid for it.>.....
    thanks all
    Jean

  • johntommybob
    10 years ago

    Farmerdill wrote: Re: Gravely: "It had very little traction." The Gravely convertible is a very heavy machine, and the bolt on implements are heavy also, and add to the machines traction. even the trailer is designed to add to the machines weight by the way it is attached. I have pulled some very heavy loads of fire wood up some steep hills and never spun a wheel, but I did buy mine with over-sized bar tires. Traction has never been an issue on my 5240.

  • Roy Hopper
    8 years ago

    Hi Don't let anyone walk away with your two wheel tractor plenty of people out there would buy it for spares ect.

  • both3243
    8 years ago

    We have a 1949 Simplicity M1 with all kinds of accessories and would like to sell it.We have the original manual and everything is original except the engine which was replaced. Does anyone know of anyone that buys these vintage walk behind tractors?

  • exmar zone 7, SE Ohio
    8 years ago

    Pictures, does it run, etc?

  • both3243
    8 years ago

    Last time we had it out it started and worked just fine. If it doesn't rain tomorrow we will take pictures of the tractor and the accessories.

  • andyvisger
    8 years ago

    I have a page 2wheel walk behind tractor just wondering if they are any value has a 3hp Wisconsin motor on it. I believe it's a 1945 z model. Anything would help thanks Andy

  • Thomas Rogers
    8 years ago

    I have a Montgomery Wards Simplicity Walk Behind Tractor with Plow Attachment. Looking for Parts and Attachments.

  • Chuck Mackey
    4 years ago

    I have a very old Montgomery Wards Simplicity Walk Behind Tractor with quite a few attachments for sale. It was my grandfathers. It appears all original by I have not tried to start it. Contact me at cmackey72@outlook.com if interested.

  • dkeith45 .
    3 years ago

    Many years ago, I had a sideline business tilling gardens. Problem with a tiller is, it's not good for breaking new ground. So I had a David Bradley two wheel walk behind tractor with a single bottom plow and a disk harrow. I'd use the Bradley to plow, then disk, then till with my Troybilt tiller. Was the perfect setup.

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