Built in 1903, the Waterville Hotel has been around at least 20 years longer than has this tractor. This McCormick-Deering Crawler is on display in front of the hotel. The other tractor on display, a steel wheeled McCormick-Deering 15-30, is at the southeast corner of the hotel, in the corner of the parking lot. The TracTracTor is a tracked version of the 10-20 wheeled tractor. While the 10-20 wheeled tractor was in production from 1923 to 1939, the TracTracTor only remained in production from 1928 to 1930, with only 486 being manufactured before being superseded by the Model 20 TracTracTor.
Using the 10-20's 4.6 litre (283.7 ci) 4-cyl overhead valve kerosene engine, the 10-20 TracTracTor claimed the same 10 drawbar horsepower, which was actually quite conservative, as Nebraska Tractor Tests gave it a much more generous 27 belt, 23 drawbar horsepower. As well as the engine, the TracTracTor also used the 3 speed transmission from the wheeled version. While the wheeled version weighed in at just 3700 pounds, the TracTracTor was nearly twice as massive, at 7350 pounds.
For the serial number, the specification plate seems to read TT (?) 979. If this is correct, this unit came off the assembly line in 1930, with only eight more 10-20 TracTracTors being produced before the end of the production run. With so few having been produced (486 in total [the first was numbered TT501]), it's no wonder that this is the first one of the type we've encountered.
Way back when, when the writer was a teenager, he operated a McCormick-Deering Crawler, possibly a TD-40, for part of a summer as a farm tractor, doing summer fallow. He can assure the reader that a crawler creates a lot more dust in the field than does a wheeled tractor.
Model History
The McCormick-Deering 10-20 TracTracTor, International Harvester's first production crawler, was basically a tracked conversion of the 10-20 wheel tractor. The crawler was steered by means of individual steering clutches and brakes for each track. The external clutches were contained in dome-shaped structures in the driving compartment, structures which came to be nicknamed "camel humps". Steering levers protruding from the domes could be pivoted upward so the tractor could be driven from a standing position. Other distinguishing features of the crawler were the larger rear than front sprocket, causing the top of the track to be slanted, and the air cleaner placed in front of the radiator. The 10-20 TracTracTor was superseded by the McCormick-Deering Model 20 TracTracTor which has smaller camel humps, straight fenders and completely revised under carriage.
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