New Britain Tractors
- Thread starter Dougt
- Start date
That's a great collection Doug, glad you were able to get so many of them together at a show.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!
That is cool.
I think the number can be raised to 13, but the status on this one is sketchy and possibly in danger. My dad was planning on checking into this afternoon if its still there, which is how I wound up here looking for information on what it actually was.
Any idea how many of these were produced in total? They sure are a neat old tractor.
Any idea how many of these were produced in total? They sure are a neat old tractor.
Welcome to the forum. Although they were built by New Britain Tool Co, there are no records left. Supposedly they were only built for about a year in the 1919-1920 range and it took them 3-4 yrs to sell them all. I have rumors of 3 more but won't add them until they are verified. Where abouts are you? Wondering if this fits in with the rumored ones. I'm sure there are probably others around too. Hope you end up with it. Keep in touch and post some pictures if you get it. I know there was one sold in Ottawa KS several years ago that I have included but haven't found where it went.
Thank you for the response Dougt, and I have some good news. The tractor is safe at its new home.
This was an odd deal all around, there was a local auction coming up this Tuesday where it was a hoarder that started collecting junk in an old elevator. Village took the guy to court on it and apparently was forcing him to clean up his mess, forcing the auction to sell everything in one big lot. The guy that owns the place was scrambling to move stuff off the property before the sale, and this tractor happened to be in that mess. This was in Mulliken Michigan (just west of Lansing), we live not to far from there.
Its a bit rough, but for something a century old its doing okay Wheels are rotted through on the left side, right side is mostly solid but has a few spokes that don't make it to the rim. Both rear casters are missing but should be to hard to come up with some small cast wheels to fix that. Most of the important stuff is there, radiator, mag, carb. No handles though, but again nothing an afternoon of tinkering couldn't solve. All in all not too bad.
After getting that thing wrestled on to the trailer I can't imagine what wrangling one around a field must have been like. It is by far no David Bradley.
Had a small question, what is that gear coming out of the belt pulley gear box on the right side of the tractor? Its right snug up in the wheel to the point I thought it would hit the spokes when we tried to roll it.
Edit: uh oh, hope thats not a drive sprocket and the rings missing of that wheel.
I can't believe it took them 4 years to sell these off, they look like a work horse.
This was an odd deal all around, there was a local auction coming up this Tuesday where it was a hoarder that started collecting junk in an old elevator. Village took the guy to court on it and apparently was forcing him to clean up his mess, forcing the auction to sell everything in one big lot. The guy that owns the place was scrambling to move stuff off the property before the sale, and this tractor happened to be in that mess. This was in Mulliken Michigan (just west of Lansing), we live not to far from there.
Its a bit rough, but for something a century old its doing okay Wheels are rotted through on the left side, right side is mostly solid but has a few spokes that don't make it to the rim. Both rear casters are missing but should be to hard to come up with some small cast wheels to fix that. Most of the important stuff is there, radiator, mag, carb. No handles though, but again nothing an afternoon of tinkering couldn't solve. All in all not too bad.
After getting that thing wrestled on to the trailer I can't imagine what wrangling one around a field must have been like. It is by far no David Bradley.
Had a small question, what is that gear coming out of the belt pulley gear box on the right side of the tractor? Its right snug up in the wheel to the point I thought it would hit the spokes when we tried to roll it.
Edit: uh oh, hope thats not a drive sprocket and the rings missing of that wheel.
I can't believe it took them 4 years to sell these off, they look like a work horse.
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Congrats on getting number 13. Must be your lucky number. I don't see the bracket for the handles. The gear sticking out should be the drive gear for the wheel. That will be a shame if all that drive assy is gone. Maybe the previous owner would know where they are? I'll try to get you some pics. I'm setting up a new computer and haven't got things switched over and working yet. Probably easier to just take more.
Managed to get a few moved over. This is the bracket that holds the handle bars. The shiny piece doesn't belong. 
Here is a right hand view. You can see the drive gear assy from the outside.
Here is the drive gear and diff from the inside. There should be a tin guard covering it all. There is also a brake band there.
This is the implement lift assy that mounts on the handlebar.
The Kingston 4 ball carb was original
The radiator emblem.
Only one of mine has the tag.
Here is a right hand view. You can see the drive gear assy from the outside.
Here is the drive gear and diff from the inside. There should be a tin guard covering it all. There is also a brake band there.
This is the implement lift assy that mounts on the handlebar.
The Kingston 4 ball carb was original
The radiator emblem.
Only one of mine has the tag.
Thank you for those pictures Dougt that helps explain a lot. That drive assembly is one impressive piece of cast, which unfortunately is likely lost to time for ours. We were spit balling ideas on how to get it mobile again this afternoon and may have a few ideas on ether replacing the ring drive with something else or even possibly having a new one water jetted. First things first though will be just slowly working at getting casters under it, then picking away at the motor to get it free and running. That handle mount is much more complicated than I would have guessed and that's going to take some thinking to replace. From your pictures it looks like there may be a replacement mag on this one which they grounded 2 of the spark wires off to the frame that weren't being used. Would have thought a mag wouldn't need a load on wires it was not firing but maybe? It looks like at sometime in its past someone spent a bit of time getting or trying to get it going again. Seems like a long road ahead but should be fun to try and bring it back from retirement.
For turning, is the drive wheel intended to ratchet and act as a diff? This one seems to have the axles locked solid on it, which I suppose is likely just rust in that hub but haven't looked into it that close yet.
For turning, is the drive wheel intended to ratchet and act as a diff? This one seems to have the axles locked solid on it, which I suppose is likely just rust in that hub but haven't looked into it that close yet.
If you look at the front pic I posted where you can see the inside of the drive gear there is a toothed hub and pin and spring. I think that is supposed to be what acts as the diff. I had a manual but can't find it. One of the guys I copied it for is going to copy his copy and I'll try to scan it into a PDF. Be a couple weeks before I can get to it. Take a pic of the inside of your front wheel and let me see what's there.
Thanks Bill! We were glad to be able to rescue it as well. While I respect how hard most scrappers work, I hate seeing old machines even in rough shape get sent to the crusher, this one survived almost 100 years now and hopefully will be around even longer.
Thank you again Dougt, and apologies for not getting back sooner. A copy of the manual would be amazing! This is what is left of the hub/break assembly on the tractor:
I'm not 100% sure on this, but from what I can tell at some point in the machines past life it looks like someone tried to maybe get the wheel off and gave up. You can kind of see a few of the bolt heads in the crack of the hub being half turned out. I wonder if when they couldn't get the wheel off if they then just torched off the drive gear to get the wheels free to move it. Who knows I guess. Looks like any options forward though on getting the hub to work will involve a lot of heat and some very careful and gentle hammer taps.
Thank you again Dougt, and apologies for not getting back sooner. A copy of the manual would be amazing! This is what is left of the hub/break assembly on the tractor:
I'm not 100% sure on this, but from what I can tell at some point in the machines past life it looks like someone tried to maybe get the wheel off and gave up. You can kind of see a few of the bolt heads in the crack of the hub being half turned out. I wonder if when they couldn't get the wheel off if they then just torched off the drive gear to get the wheels free to move it. Who knows I guess. Looks like any options forward though on getting the hub to work will involve a lot of heat and some very careful and gentle hammer taps.