By Landis Zimmerman

By the late 1930’s, many farm tractor manufacturers were taking notice of the many small farm owners that could benefit from a small tractor. In 1936, there were 3.5 million small farms that could not justify tractor ownership as there was not anything being built to fit their need. Cletrac wanted to fill that void and did so very well with one of their most successful little machines.
The Cletrac model E served the farmer well but was a full three-plow tractor. In the late 1930’s, Cletrac began to design not only a small crawler tractor, but also a wheel tractor to fill the needs of the small farmer.
This small crawler tractor was known as the Cletrac HG and the wheel tractor was to be the model GG, also known as the General. Many components were shared between these two models to keep the cost low. Both of these tractors were designed by a team headed up by James George Heaslet. Actually, I was told by Jim Herendeen, former Oliver-Cletrac plant service manager, that the "H" in HG stood for Heaslet.
The HG and the GG were introduced to the public on March 3-4, 1939 at a large meeting held at the Cleveland Tractor Company in Cleveland, OH. More than 700 Cletrac distributors, dealers, and salesmen were present at the largest ever gathering in the history of Cletrac. They traveled from 42 states, Canada, and other foreign countries. The new tractors were introduced by James G. Heaslet, vice president of engineering. William Abildgaard, general sales manager and W.E. Miles, sales manager outlined plans for protected dealer’s territory with penalties for territorial infringement. Boyce W. Knight, Cletrac’s advertising and sales manager told about advertising plan for the new tractors. During this two day meeting, more than 2,300 Cletrac tractors were sold of all sizes.
James G. Heaslet, vice president of engineering, had been recruited by Rollin H.White in 1923 from The Studebaker Corporation for the purpose of building the Rollin Autos. When this project ended in 1925, Mr. Heaslet stayed with Cletrac as an excellent engineer. When the HG was introduced in 1939, it was a very light crawler tractor and retailed at $875 for a 42-gauge model. The 68-gauge model could be had for an additional $20. Weighing in at 2950 lbs for the 42-gauge model, it was powered by a 4-cylinder Hercules lXA gas engine with a 3" bore and 4" stroke operating at 1400 RPM. It was rated at 16 drawbar and 18 belt horsepower. The rated RPM was soon increased to 1700.

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