Issue # 5: Cletrac Facts

As I write this in late November, I have to say that we have been blessed again in 2004. We are privileged to live in the greatest country in the world. This year the crops have produced record yields.

Even though the largest acreage I farm is our large vegetable garden along with a field of hay or corn, I have been watching for a large moldboard trailer plow to use with my bigger crawlers. Thanks to John Repsher of Pen Argyle, PA, I now own an Oliver 4440 5-bottom pipe frame plow. When Esther heard about this purchase, she said “Oh good, now we can get into farming on a full-time basis!” My Cletrac 55 lacked a hydraulic unit to lift this plow. I am planning to build a hydraulic unit which will be similar to a BE-GE hydraulic power control unit. Not wanting to wait until the unit was built, I decide that this plow could be lifted by a hand-operated Porta Power. So we hooked the Cletrac 55 to the plow and away we went, turning 5-16” furrows at a time. Guess what? We might want to expand our farming operations after all! That was a lot of fun!

This fall our neighbor, Isaac Zimmerman, passed away at the age of 88. “Old Ike” as we always knew him, had a Cletrac connection that went quite a ways back. I don’t think he ever owned a wheel tractor in his life. He did, however, farm with International crawlers for a time. Ike had a Cletrac HG with a loader for cleaning out stables. At some time in the crawler’s life, the original Hercules IXK3 engine gave up. Ike bought an Avery model A tractor for its Hercules IXB3 engine. The engine from the Avery was put into the HG and beings the HG sheet metal was pretty rough, Ike put the Avery hood and grill on the HG as it bolted right over. Now, my friends, that’s how an Avery crawler is made!

For many years Ike had a track press to do track pin and bushing work. Beings he didn’t have electricity on the farm years ago, the hydraulic pump on the track press was converted to be PTO powered. After the tracks were lifted up on the roller conveyors with the HG, Ike backed the HG in place and powered the track press with the tractor PTO. Later Ike installed an Oliver 66 diesel engine in his HG. For a number of years, Ike did all our track press work. Ike was changing pins and bushings for us in a set of OC-4 tracks when his track press broke down. He came up to me and said “My track press is worn out and I’m almost worn out.” From that point on, his son, Harvey, took over this work.

Ike still enjoyed using his HG around the place for small jobs. He had an orchard sprayer, which he sprayed his fruit trees with that was PTO-powered with his HG. This spring his sprayer pump quit working and Ike was trying to get it to build pressure when he was accidently caught in the PTO shaft and injured. While this injury wasn’t fatal, it was quite a blow to an 88 year-old. “Old Ike” passed away in November – a dedicated, long-time Cletrac user.

Our thoughts go out to everyone who has lost a friend or family member in the last year and we wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2005!

Sincerely,
Landis Zimmerman

Thought:
Tis easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows along like a song;
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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