More info on GULF TRACTOR!!!

[slinville]

Hey guys, sorry it has been a while since I have left any information. I talked to the guy about the tractor. He ended up knowing quite a bit about it. He said it was a B.F. Avery that was made by Sears and Roebuck (I guess I didn't realize that Sears and Roebuck made B.F. Avery?), but the Gulf Oil Co. put their name on it. I am not sure if that is the exact name of the oil company, or exactly what the company used it for. He said it used to be a "sweet" runnin' tractor. But I will have to cut it out of some trees to get it up on my trailer. He said he took the heads off of it. Bad idea!!!! But I just don't remeber the heads being gone. I should have time to go pick it up by the end of the week. So I will get pics on here as soon as possible. Any information that you might have is welcome. Thanks

 

[glennster]

sears used to sell the david bradley line of farm equipment. i think, not 100 percent sure that the david bradley tractor was made by cockshutt of canada. cockshutt tractors were also sold buy gambles department store re badged as the gambles farmcrest tractor. i think they used buda 6 cylinder engines, so parts shouldnt be too much of a problem.

 

[slinville]

Are the David Bradley and B.F. Avery tractors the same? So Sears produced them both?

 

[glennster]

here is a picture of a cockshutt 30, the david bradley and the gambles farmcrest look like this also, yours should look kind of like this too
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank">

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Untitled URL Link

 

[Solid Junk]

BF Avery tractors were built by BF Avery. The design originated with the Clevland Tractor Co. They sold the little tractors through Monkey Warts as the Wards Twin Row. The same exact tractor was also sold as the General GG. They were also sold as same crawlers badged CleTrac. BF Avery had an agreement to build the implements for Cleveland. When the Cleveland Co. got into financial trouble BF AVery bought the wheeled tractor portion of the business. Oliver bought the crawlers. The BF Avery tractors were sold as the Avery model A. Oliver sold the crawlers as the HG.

Hope that helps
Joe

BTW Wards did not "build" anything. They were just a huge mailorder business that sold products produced by many different manfacturers, David Bradely included.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Did you ask him WHY he "took the heads off" of a "sweet runnin tractor"?? Sounds like your getting a real snow job. Run. Tom

 

[slinville]

The way I took it was that it ran good and then something went wrong, and then he took the heads off of the motor. I don't think he just took the heads off when it was running good. Wished he would have left them on.

 

[slinville]

Do you know anything about the Gulf Oil Co.?
Is this a tractor worth getting? Collectible? Rare? Or just another old tractor that needs restorin'.

 

[noncompos]

Slin: If I understood your previous posts correctly, the name "Gulf" is cast (not painted, impressed, embossed or in a medallion on sheet metal) but "cast" on a cast-iron radiator shell...none of the BF Avery or Cockshutt wheeled units had a cast iron radiator shell...(that I know of, at least!);
ALSO: "...removed the heads..." (plural noted). The BF Avery's used Herc IXB's and ZXB's: one head per my gasket book. The Graham-Bradleys, sold by Sears as the David Bradley, used a Graham-Paige 6 cyl, cast "en bloc" (one cyl head). The Cockshutts, sold as Gambles Farmcrest and CO-OP "E", used Buda's 4B-153, with larger models using Buda's 6B-230, both with one head per my book.
So: if that thing has a cast iron radiator shell, and more than one cyl head, it doesn't sound like anything mentioned so far, and the owners recollections seem a little off, to say the least.
Gulf Oil Co was one of the largest Oil Co's, probably merged/swallowed by one of the others, if not still operating in some areas.

 

[noncompos]

Forgot to mention that I was advised Wendels book with the 900 or so names (which include announced but never produced tractors, one-off (always thought that should be "one-of") prototypes, etc., had no "Gulf" listing.

 

[Mike (WA)]

Lots of stuff flying around on this one, a good portion of which could be cleared up by visiting "tractor photos" on the left of this page. David Bradley was a little walk-behind number (look at the 1953 model after searching "David Bradley" in tractor photos). Far as I know, neither David Bradley nor Gulf name was ever put on Cockshutt tractors, and David Bradley was not mfg by Cockshutt. Avery story as set out by Solid Junk is correct- just lacks the further fact that B.F. Avery became a part of Minneapolis Moline in the early '50's. Main result of that is that they started painting them yellow! As the tractor photos show, the Avery looks a lot like a Farmall Cub or Oliver 440. Slinville, does the tractor you're looking at resemble any of these?

 

[slinville]

I agree it seems that we are going everywhere. I just looked at the David Bradley tractors it is not that. The tractor I am looking at is yellow, all I know is what the guy told me about it. I am hoping to talk to him about it soon and get some pictures on here to help clarify everything. He said it was a B.F. Avery. He told me HEADS but I think he just meant HEAD. From what I remeber looking at it a while back it was a 4 cylinder.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Gulf Oil was one of the majors until T. Boone Pickens made a run at them in 1982, they ended up being bought by Chevron. The name was long gone from the market until recently, when I noticed that is back in some areas. This is like Texaco, who was recently purchased by Chevron, but we still have Texaco gas stations around Houston. Sinclair was another oil company that was bought by someone years ago but now I see there are Sinclair stations in the Rockies now.

Regarding the Gulf name on a tractor, I find it surprising. Gulf Oil was based in Pittsburg for many years. I don't recall seeing any big marketing efforts by the big oil companies targeting the farmer specifically, and if there were, I would not have expected for it to be Gulf. There are (were) other oil companies with more of a farm-belt market, such as Marathon (based in Findley, Ohio) or Amoco (Chicago).

 

[Anonymous-0]

The Gulf brand never disappeared from New England.

Chevron owns the brand name, but the rights to use the name in North America is owned by a company that is controlled by Cumberland Farms, which is a big convienence store chain in New England. Most of the Gulf Station are at Cumbies, but they also have some independent stations under that brand, too.

Pretty good prices usually, it's just a marketing name so they buy the gasoline from homever, and sometime's it funny to see older trailers with the "Exxon" logo peeled off, and a magnetic "Gulf" sign slapped over the Exxon logo on the much newer tractor towing it

**Usually** it's Gulf branded tractor trailers delivering though.

 

[Solid Junk]

I left out teh MM connection, because I felt it was beyond the history of the tractor in question. But to continue or finish the story. Afte BF Avery began producing the A they added their own "Tru-Draft" hyd system. By the time MM took over BF Avery was producing a small model V, about the size of a Farmalittle Cub, and a larger R, about like a IH A. MM continued to produce the V adding the MM hyd system and painting them Prairie Gold, however MM was alreadying building a very successful model R of their own. To avoid confusion they rebadged the model R BF tractor as the model BF MM tractor adding of course the MM hyds. They also built a model BG. This was the exact same tractor as the BF except that the axles front and rear were shortend on the left hand side to create an offset design to compete directly with the IH offsets.

I think that just about covers it

Joe

 

[noncompos]

Mike: The David Bradley pix you noted are all POST-war (altho didn"t look at all of them); the David Bradley built by Graham-Paige was PRE-war. If you"ll search Graham Bradley there"s pix; there"s also a nice little thumbnail on beltpulley.com, saying Sears designers had their fingers in the pie, and briefly detailing history, saying gone from Sears around 1940, altho some catalogs show Std and RC models thru 1945.

 

[PowerstrokeMan]

cant wait to see
the pictures i
have never that
brand

 

[Aaron Ford]

I am dying to see how this turns out. Post pics as soon as you can. I am absolutely sure this crowd will not be stumped, but you certainly may have a one-of-a-kind there.

Later Aaron

 

[rrlund]

Well now,lets not get ahead of ourselves on that. Avery built steam engines. Maybe this was their first entry in to the gas tractor market. Most of the major companys started out selling somebody elses tractor.

 

[Eric SEI]

Sears produced very little if anything that they sold. Major manufacturers contract with Sears. As an example: when I was in college in 1977 Craftsman, John Deere, Montgomery Ward, and Campbell Hausfeld were all produced on the same lines in the Campbell Hausfeld plant in Harrison, OH. The only differences were paint color, decals, and the plastic shield over the belt. The actual hardware was interchangeable.

 

[slinville]

I finally have some new info on the tractor. It is a 1946 Avery. The Gulf Oil Co. used it in Pittsburg, Kansas at a gas station. Or an oil field, not for sure. And put their name on the front. It is amazing how your memory can play tricks on you. Last time I saw it was about 8 months ago, and it does not look like I remeber. The gulf is not cast into the radiator, it is just a decal or painted on the front of the tractor. The HEADS are not gone but the HEADERS are. (exhaust and intake manifold) It had a bad valve so he started to take the motor apart to rebuild it, and never got around to it. He thinks it is stuck. As you can tell by the tree it has been sitting for a while. The tree was not there when he parked it. Here are some pics if I can get them on here. Any and all info is welcome, the more I learn the more I will let you guys know. Thanks
PICTURES ARE NOT WORKING!!!!!!!!

 

[slinville]

I POSTED PICS IN THE TRACTOR PHOTO GALLERY. SEARCH FOR 1946 AVERY. Thanks

 

[Gene Davis (Ga.)]

Think you will find this is a 51 or 52 tractor. Moline BFW or prehaps an Avery R series. I had a 51 BF that had the grille that looked like the 50 & 60 series John Deere grille screen inserts. The Avery "A" grille slots are horizontal, not vertical screen like this one is. This is the later development from the B.F. Avery line which was purchased by Moline. The Avery would have a much different front grille and an oval chromed (till rusted) emblem saying Avery. The fine mesh screen on the radiator gtille tells me that it is a BF or possibly an Avery R. The W in the model designation means wide front axle which is a desirable tractor. Should have a Hercules IXB3 or if a late series would have an IXB3SL engine. The 3 means 3 gears in the front cover of the The SL meant replaceable sleeves in the block. Check the serial number located on top of the right frame rail at the transmission and then run it on the B.F. Avery Club website to get the year and model. The 46 Avery was not as nice a tractor as this one will be. Avery that old would have a 3 speed transmission and the BF would have a 4 speed. Think the R had a 3 speed.
This tractor is definetly later than the 46 looking at the grille.

 

[slinville]

The guy said that somewhere on the tractor it says Avery. I do remember numbers on the engine being IXB 3SL. What do you mean by 3 gears in the front cover?? It also had a 4 speed transmission. I have more pics to put in the photo gallery. Would anyone have any rough idea of what it would cost to restore it?? Thanks.