The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Tracking down crawlers’ past
TRACKED TECHNOLOGY, especially self-propelled potato harvesters, was a godsend to many farmers last year.
Large tractors also feature tracks, with Challenger, Case IH and John Deere all offering tracked options along with a host of companies offering after-market units for fitting to all makes. Combines can also be seen with tracks. This new tracked technology is based on rubber and equally at home on wet soil or metalled roads. It permits high speeds, relative smoothness and silence, and is a long way from the old steel-tracked machines.
There was a time when many farms with an arable acreage ran a crawler tractor for heavy cultivation or top work in the spring, while many were used in the cultivation of hill ground in the run-up to reseeding.
The driver sat in what was often a more comfy seat than a wheeled tractor but was still often exposed to the elements, stoor and constant noise from the metal tracks.
The market for crawler tractors was strong in the post-war period as farmers sought more grip for ploughing and cultivation equipment, especially in winter.
Many manufacturers offered a tracked version of the popular tractors of the day.
One company which only offered crawlers was Caterpillar, whose name was often inaccurately given as a generic name for tracked tractors. These crawlers were all backed up by local dealers, many with track presses for the constant maintenance of track rollers, chains and bushes.
Cat’s main rival was International Harvester. Like Caterpillar it concentrated on the construction industry, with agricultural-specified machines forming a small part of its business.
Allis Chalmers of the US also had versions of its crawlers working in fields.
British manufacturers got in on the act, with David Brown being one of the most recognisable. County and Roadless produced tracked Fordson derivatives while Fowler had its own range, eventually using Field Marshall tractors as a base for its smaller crawlers. Eventually this line evolved into Track Marshall, one of the last steel-track brands.
Rarer British crawlers included the Fraser and the Glave, which both sank without a trace, while the Lloyd Dragon had a more successful time in the 1950s.
Other British manufacturers produced smaller machines for horticultural use including the Ransome MG series, the Howard Platypus and the Bristol range that all found favour in the soft-fruit industry.
At the other end of the scale was the Cuthbertson Water Buffalo built at Biggar. Designed to work on very boggy ground on drainage or tree planting, it had flotation capabilities.
European firms such as Fiat arrived in the late 1950s to supply crawlers to the East Anglian area, which was the major stronghold by the 1960 and ’70s.
Eventually four-wheel-drive tractors did much to take the difficult-to-transport crawlers off the farms.
Although the popularity of crawler tractors was at its height in the 1950s, it was the war years that drew farmers’ attention to their capabilities. Caterpillar, International and Allis Chalmers machines came over in large numbers as part of the Lend-Lease-Act, and many found their way on to farms after being allocated by the War Agricultural Executive.
Military and construction needs saw big numbers of the larger machines sent over, and Caterpillar crawlers rolled off the production line in several colour schemes depending on which theatre of war they were destined for.
Many of the wheeled tractors were unsuitable for heavy cultivation as part of land reclamation in the drive for homeproduced food, and crawlers answered the call.
Such was the need for tractors that many crawlers were put to work out of season hauling binders and silage machinery, and many could be fitted with narrow tracks for row-crop work in potatoes and sugar beet.
The idea of using an endless track to support and propel a vehicle had originated in the late 1800s and many different systems existed in the 100 or so patents lodged in the US, GB and France.
Many of the steam engine builders in the east of England started to explore track propulsion for steam engines, but it was the new technology of the combustion engine that would utilise tracks best.
Ruston and Hornsby, Garrett and Foster were involved, with the latter building many of the first military tanks.
By the time of the Highland and Agricultural Society’s third tractor trials in 1917 several crawlers were available for farming operations. Many had unusual track layouts.
During the inter war years Caterpillar — formed by the amalgamation of American pioneers Daniel Best and Benjamin Holt — forged ahead with track technology and diesel engines, while International also pushed ahead with its range.
The big three US crawler manufacturers — Caterpillar, IH and AC — were joined by the British efforts of County, David Brown and Fowler (who were also famous for their giant tracked Gyrotillers) as the major players in the classic era of the crawler.
Throughout the winter, clanking and squeaking tracks could be heard above the noise of the engine as the track layers worked back and forward with trailing ploughs and cultivators.
Then in spring the same noise was joined by the squeak of the rollers and a cloud of stoor as the top work was carried out to get the grain crop sown.