Gray 18-36 - Western Development Museum - Yorkton, SK - Old Tractors on Waymarking.com

The Gray 18-36 was manufactured from 1917 to 1922. It is an extremely odd looking design, having a single, wide, chain driven drum instead of the more conventional setup of separate rear wheels. The entire machine was protected from the elements by sheets of corrugated iron. Powered by a four cylinder Waukesha engine, it could pull a four bottom plow without much difficulty.

The operator seemed almost an afterthought with this design as he found himself dangling on a seat mounted to the right rear corner of the tractor. This particular example bears serial number 7864.

(Coordinates are for the centre of the tractor and machinery section, as I expect you'll want to see them all.)

From steel-wheels.net:
The Gray tractor has its origins in the orchard tractor developed by the New York fruit grower, W. Chandler Knapp. Knapp marketed his two-cylinder design as the Knapp Farm Locomotive, which was notable for its two rear drive wheels that were joined together to improve traction.

Further modifications saw the use of a four-cylinder Waukesha engine and the replacement of the two rear drive wheels with a single fully-enclosed drum that was driven by a chain. Chandler Knapp's company was bought by the Gray Tractor Manufacturing Co. in 1914 and the "drum-drive" tractor was renamed the Gray Model A 20-35 tractor. Several years later, the smaller Model B 15-25 was added to the lineup. The year 1917 saw the company renamed as the Gray Tractor Co., and this coincided with the introduction of the 18-36 model, which was built until 1922 and was probably the most popular tractor produced by the company. Other models were also introduced in the 1920s, including the 22-40 "Canadian Special", but the design was starting to show its age and the company ceased tractor production in the early 1930s.

A bit of Gray history, from WDM:
“Wherever tractors have been demonstrated, the Gray has been recognized as the best built machine. Its Wide Drive Drum and exclusive features enable it to do a wider range of farm work and do it better.”

The Gray Tractor Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota was one of dozens of companies trying to make it big in the tractor business in the teens and 1920s. What set the Gray apart from its competitors was the large drum which took the place of rear wheels. According to company advertising, the drum offered ten advantages: “Simplicity of construction; does away with all bevel gears and differential; distributes weight over a larger surface; avoids packing of the soil and injury to seed bed; ideal for soft and wet land; gives double traction surface; supplies more power to the drawbar; produces a never-slip grip; affords easy steering and turning; and rolls everything flat before plows.”

One Gray owner agreed with at least some of these claims. Roy Mitchell and two partners bought an 18-36 HP Gray tractor in Winnipeg during the summer of 1918 and drove it out to the farm two miles south of Headingly, Manitoba. Mitchell said he hauled four-wheel tractors out with his Gray “when they got down so bad in the mud in the gumbo soil in the Red River Valley.”3 He went on to say that the Gray was good for travelling through snow. Mitchell took his Gray tractor with him when he moved to Star City, Saskatchewan in 1927.

The Gray Tractor Company of Canada Limited was headquartered in Winnipeg with distributors in Lethbridge, Calgary, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. The parent company built a model especially for the Canadian market. Its 22-40 HP Canadian Special had two non-driving wheels in front and one 54-inch drum at the back. A Waukesha four-cylinder motor provided enough power to pull a four-bottom plow. The Canadian Special sold for about $2600.

There were two practical problems with the Gray drum drive tractor. One was that, given the wide bearing surface of the drum and consequent low soil pressure, the tractor bumped over every stone it encountered, and in many applications, it would hit just about every stone in the field.

The second problem was that the operator was at the very back of the machine, making it hard for him to see. This was partially alleviated by swinging the seat out from the side of the tractor so the operator sat sideways to the steering wheel and looked over his shoulder to see where he was going.

Production dates for the Gray are difficult to pin down. Company beginnings have been traced to the work of W. Chandler Knapp of Rochester, New York about 1908. After a move to Minneapolis and a reorganization of the company, the first Gray tractor was introduced in 1914. The Canadian Special came out in 1925. There is some uncertainty about when production ended. Some say 1933; others say 1935. One writer said that production was short-lived because of patent disputes with Caterpillar. Indeed, the drum drive may have been an attempt to by-pass Caterpillar patents.

The Western Development Museum has five Gray tractors in its collection: one at the Yorkton Museum; one at North Battleford; and two at the Saskatoon WDM. Roy Mitchell’s Gray is in storage at the WDM Curatorial Centre also in Saskatoon. It made its last hometown appearance in Star City’s Saskatchewan Golden Jubilee parade in 1955. Later that year, it was acquired by the Western Development Museum.

Engine Type: Internal Combustion Wheel Type: Steel Make: Gray Tractor Co. Model: 18-36

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