Beaver tractors

[Anonymous-0]

I was wondering if anyone on here could help me. I"m doing some research on an old tractor that seems to be very uncommon to many people....its a 1919 Beaver tractor. If you go on google images and type in something about Beaver tractors you"ll find a colour photo of it. It"s on steel wheels, the front wheels look similar to a 10-20 McCormick-Deering as far as design is concerned, but the back wheels are narrow, and have the lugs going the same direction as the Titan 10-20. The rear fenders are square, or very close to it....they"re flat on the top and they curve to about an 80 degree angle at the back so they go in style with the wheels. It looks also to me from the picture I saw it has a hand clutch. The side panels by the engine are a little different then the McCormick. They actaully open up into 2 sections instead of one. Instead of there being one big panel to open up the entire engine like the McCormick 10-20, the bottom opens up in a downward manner toward the ground, and the other half opens up and is able to rest above the top of the hood in a diagonal way. This is the same for both sides. The colours are a really light Gray just like the Twin City"s I believe if thats the right colour for the Twin City"s, and the wheels are Red. If anyone has any kind of information about this tractor, pictures of any kind of it, or has/knows someone (with pictures preferrably) of one unrestored or restored, please get back to me. Thanks.

 

[noncompos]

I assume you've looked at the standard tractor guides (Standard Cat Farm tractors, I&T histories, Wendels Ency of American Farm Tractors-per my notes the Beaver is listed in all three, but I didn't note if any pix/illus). Built by Gould, Shapley & Muir Co., Brantford, ONT, it's possible there's a local Beaver group there, and the local Historical Society may well have some old advertising literature, newspaper items or, if you're lucky, company records that might be helpful. An ad in the local paper there might turn up some info from old-timers. Please pardon me if I'm suggesting things you've already tried. good luck.

 

[oldironlindy]

There is a beaver tractor at the Albany MN show I think it is owned by John Peternell. I will try to attach a picture of it.

 

[oldironlindy]

I posted a picture in the "tractors photos" of this sight. take a look.

 

[Settler]

Thanks very much for that information fella's that is going to help me a great deal, cause I want to find out as much as I can about this rare tractor.

 

[Paul Searl]

I just got done writing a section on the beaver for my new website; but the person you need to talk to is Rick Mannen, he's actually written an article back in 94? on the beaver and is the closest thing to an expert you'll find. He has some threads and pictures of his on and hangs out at Smokstak.

In short, the beaver was introduced around 1917 and was a copy of the Rock Island Heider C. The chassis was from GS&M's earlier 24-12 Ideal junior tractor, the engine was the same as a Heider C- a Waukesha M 4 1/2 x 6 3/4 and it used the same friction disk transmission system. A slightly larger version was introduced around 1920, but saw only limited production, and was rated a 30-15 (GS&M flipped belt and drawbar ratings). Theres no direct evidence GS&M and Rock Island/Heider were partners, but GS&M actually used Rock Island material for their ads. Mechanicly, the tractors were virtually identical, the beaver had a differnt set of fenders, gas tanks and drivers area, but the resemblence is there. The friction drive engaged one of two friction plates for forward or reverse and had 6 notches in either direction for speed. When Canada removed the tarrif in 1918 on US imports, it pretty well killed the ontario tractor manufacturers, and a lot like GS&M only stayed in the tractor buisness a year or two more.

I don't have the section up right now,but I will have some photo's and more detail in a GS&M section on the website I put up on Rock Island/Heider since they either were blatent plagurists and copycats, or they had some sort of agreement with RI. I tend to think there was an agreement, the timing and circumstances were right.

www.RockIslandPlowCo.com and you'll want the affiliates and clones section when I get it up, GS&M. Right now though, you could check out the Heider tractor section, I have a diagram of the friction drive up that might interest you. Like i said, give me a couple of days, since I need to do a couple of sections in one shot.