Cute little English crawler tractor that sold at auction recently.

Was in Canada, sold for Canadian $ 4,935 ($ 3,928 US) , not including sales tax.

Neat bobcat. Thanks, rombo nandri, for posting.

L7

Here are a few pictures that I took in 2011 of another one that was in far less nice shape and less complete .
It was on display here
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...blondeau-ont-230638/?highlight=Chute+Blondeau
I probably posted the pictures on PB at the time but I can't see them now.
I'm guessing that it was owned by someone from near Montreal or somewhere in eastern Ontario at the time .
Jim

Two More Pictures
Jim

Sweet little crawler, now I want one!

It's a sickness.

-Ron

I can't imagine these were very successful. Ground clearance alone is an issue.

The dozer blade would have been for snow clearing and similar light duties, the Ransomes MG2 (etc etc) crawler was primarily built for the market garden** trade's cultivation work.

** small scale vegetable production

ransomes MG2 - Google Search

& market gardening - Google Search

One doing a bit of ploughing MG2 Ransome crawler ploughing - YouTube

Thanks Limy; good info.

I watched the video and read this link: Small but Mighty: The Ransomes M.G. Crawler - Farm Collector | Dedicated to the Preservation of Vintage Farm Equipment

They were successful for quite a few years. I guess the camera perspective of the photos posted above made it look like it had very low ground clearance.

Here is a video that does a quick walk around. You can see some of the parts better. RANSOMES MG2 PART 3 - YouTube

I could put one in the living room. It would be cute.

Fun

Dunno what one would do with it, but fun

gustafson said:

Fun

Dunno what one would do with it, but fun

Click to expand...

No it wouldn't! they were made up the road from here, mostly horrible to start, particularly when hot...then add centrifugal clutch so you crash it into gear, likely stall then it won't start again....mmmm the little Bristol was bigger but more of a thing. IMHO.
Richard.

Ruston3w said:

No it wouldn't! they were made up the road from here, mostly horrible to start, particularly when hot...then add centrifugal clutch so you crash it into gear, likely stall then it won't start again....mmmm the little Bristol was bigger but more of a thing. IMHO.
Richard.

Click to expand...

My girlfriend's brother in law has one. It's been parked in the shed for over 2 decades. He's a hoarder so no chance he'll sell it, and with hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land no reason to do so.

Nice little toy to take to displays etc but I don't want one. I have a IH TD9 Drott tracked loader. Doesn't run ATM, but one day it might get to the top of the project list. Or I might sell it on.

PDW

There is a long thread on the Mig welding forum on one of these.
Ransomes MG5 Crawler | MIG Welding Forum

I don't need one, but it is a cutie.

gustafson said:

Fun

Dunno what one would do with it, but fun

Click to expand...

Some place in the US made a similar little dozer. The rental place down the way from us had several. I desperately wanted one, when I was about eight. But $4 grand ? Oivay.

My brother had one . We were playing around with it and my BIL got his foot jammed between the drawbar and the rear end of the little tractor - panic ensued but luckily he wasn't hurt. They were ok on flat terrain but somewhat underpowered and tricky to start. They sold quite a few in Australia and probably other Commonwealth countries. Can't believe it's worth that much ...my brother paid about $80 for his but that was in 1976.

Emmanuel:

I believe the 'baby dozer' made here in the USA was the "Struck Mini Dozer". It also used an air-cooled gasoline engine, and was a lightly built machine. Probably more toy than workable machine, IMO.

I know the small crawler the OP posted about is a 'collectable', but the price seems ridiculous for what it is. I've seen what I'd call smaller older tracked tractors and dozers go for 1500 bucks at auction. Stuff with 4 cylinder water cooled gasoline engines like small, older Allis-Chalmers, Case, or John Deere machines. Admittedly, they needed work, and the cost of undercarriage work is a major consideration. Still, if I wanted a tracked machine to use around our home and property, I'd likely latch onto something with a little more beef. The older small Oliver/Cletrac machines, as have the "Johnny Popper' (2 cylinder Deere crawlers) have always caught my eye, but they are becoming 'collectable' and are small/cute enough to command a disproportionately high price.

A bro of mine has an automative repair shop and does restorations and all sorts of off the wall jobs. It is common to see Amphicars parked on his lot next to a Ferrari or old British sports cars, maybe a Rolls, and plenty of 'roached-out' local vehicles like rust bucket pickups and beat-to-hell Jeeps. One of his customers has him working on the repair of a WWII 'Weasel". It is a fun vehicle. It has a Studebaker flat-head 6 cylinder engine in it, which has some issues, which is why the Weasel is at his shop. The tracks are made with rubber, so kinder to pavement. My bro got in the Weasel one day and ran down the road with it to get his mail. He took it out and went romping around an open field with some dirt mounts and grade, a big kid having fun. Must be something about these small tracked machines.

I am glad I am living in this time of history where we can afford to have things like this.

Just a short while ago these were serious machines that helped put food on the table. Now most small tractors are used to cut lawns and move snow.

I remember seeing ads in old Popular Mechanics for the Struck Kits mentioned by Joe Michaels .
I'm not sure if the machine in the picture is one of them or the product of someone else's imagination .
I saw it at a show in Cumberland Ontario in 2010 .

FrankR

You are correct about small tractors being used for 'truck' type farming (vegetables). Many of the major tractor builders did build what looked one step up from 'toy' tractors for this market. One really odd looking light tractor was built by Allis Chalmers, and resembled a 'go kart' with a small 4 cylinder engine mounted behind the operator's seat, and cultivator tines hung midships. John Deere built a very small 2 cylinder tractor, but the most popular of these small tractors was, IMO, the Farmall Cub. These turn up all over the place, and must have been in production for decades. These were used on small vegetable farms as well as for mowing large lawns and miscellaneous work around rural properties.

Another 'assembled' tractor which was capable of a lot of work was the "Economy". This beast had a one cylinder air cooled engine ( Briggs and Stratton, usually), and was assembled from automotive parts. Some had hydraulic pumps and could run a small loader. Most had belly-mounted mower decks and some had snow blades. Many were used for light farming on vegetable gardens. Now, the "Economy' tractors are quite collectable.

An overlooked specie of 'real working tractor' is the original 2-wheel Gravely tractors like the Model L. These were a solid little workhorse, having a cast iron transaxle and massive all geared drive. Gravely made their own engines, a "T head" configuration with an assembled crankshaft (the original inspiration for the first Gravely being an Indian single cylinder motorcycle engine). These little tractors featured full pressure lubrication, and a wide variety of implements was available- there were mower decks, sickle bar mowers, reel/gang mowers, snow blowers (including the infamous 'Dog Eater'), orchard sprayers, buzz saws, a PTO shaft to allow the tractor to drive other equipment, cultivators, rotary soil plows, and much more. The Gravely tractors saw use in a wide range of applications, which extended even into cities where they were used for clearing snow from sidewalks and schoolyards. Small farmers used the Gravely tractors for getting vegetable plots ready for planting and for cultivating. These were serious little beasts and could be ordered with a belt-driven governor (Pierce governor, I think). There was nothing lightweight or 'homeowner grade' about anything the old series of Gravely tractors had. The Gravely tractors were built in Dunbar, West Virginia until maybe into the 1970's. Somewhere in there, the cost of building the Gravely engines in-house got too expensive, and the low horsepower rating ( 7.6 HP at maybe 2000 rpm) forced Gravely to go over to Kohler engines. The Gravely tractors fell out of favor due to the fact you need some muscle to run them, and you need a wrench to change implements. Modern suburbanites are not going to put up with a multi-purpose 2 wheel tractor where you have to undo four bolts and have some muscle to swap implements. The Gravely tractors have given rise to a cult following. I bought a Gravely 7.6 HP 'Super convertable' (2 speed axle option) in 1983 when we bought our first house. I am still using it occasionally, having picked up a Gravely Commercial 10A with the Kohler engine and 34" snow blower attachment. My wife has a little fun when she either sees someone riding on an old BMW "Airhead" motorcycle, or, hears them discussing having a lathe in their home shop. My wife will ask these people if they own a Gravely as she is convinced that there is some genetic link that causes people who either have a lathe or ride an Airhead motorcycle to have at least one Gravely. Surprisingly, this is not too far off the mark.

I see the 'light power equipment' sold to homeowners and property as 'commercial grade' or similar. While it certainly does the job and does it a lot easier than horsing a Gravely with a mower deck around, or trying to maneuver a Farmall Cub with belly mounted mower, the new equipment just does not seem so rugged or as if it is going to last as long as the older tractors and implements. My other tractor is a 1979 Yanmar 195D, a little 2 cylinder compact diesel tractor. All geared driveline, front axle drive, and the engine is amazing. It is an iron block diesel with sleeve liners. Successive generations of compact diesel tractors have gone to 'ladder block' design, a light webbed iron block, non rebuildable. The little Yanmar develops a whopping 19 HP at 2100 rpm. Gravity feed fuel system, simple injection pumps and nozzles, and factory hydraulics with a 3 point hitch. I bought the Yanmar used at a sealed-bid auction in 1991, and have been using it ever since. Other than routine maintenance, it just runs. No electronics to get out of whack, no complex diesel exhaust treatment system. It's a basic little tractor and plenty for our needs. I plow our driveway with it in winter, keep a boom pole on it to load/unload my engine driven welders from my pickup, and use it for other odd jobs. It looks like a tractor ought to look. The new breeds of Japanese and Indian subcompact and compact tractors went for 'sports car styling' and look bizarre, at least to my eye.

There is a young guy on Youtube that has a channel,
5 Tractor Guy
and he took 2 Gravelys and spliced them together
and made an articulating tractor out of them.
Super neat.

--Doozer

PS- I have a '48 Farmall Cub with a Woods belly mower.
It is gutless as shlt (9hp ? ? ?) but it just keeps mowing.

-D

I worked on and drove (a few minutes) a Lamborghini vineyard crawler tractor.

It had a convoluted 6 way blade, but also a 3 point hitch and PTO.

My neighbor has a JD "MC" and we looked into track pins and grousers.
Seems no-one wants to pay for new pins & pads for a parade machine.

FWIW I have an old Case-Davis trench on tiny tracks, it is about the same footprint
as the Struck.

The drive train looks healthier than the Struck, but the final drives are open dog face clutches
for steering, pretty harsh.