1935 Toro Tractor

[Bob McCarty 0]

A friend has one without the front reel gang that also steered it and is converting it to the tractor style.  Anyone have one or know someone who does that he might get a few pictures from? He found someone who was casting the front axle, tie rods, etc. but is unsure exactly how thy fit together . Thanks in advance.

[Ed Kennell 35,629]

[bc.gold 3,399]

Tomorrow I'll be visiting one of my favourite landfills, there's a golf course nearby that has some older Toro stuff but nothing this old. I'll post pictures from their bone yard on my return home.

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

2 hours ago, Bob McCarty said:

A friend has one without the front reel gang that also steered it and is converting it to the tractor style.  Anyone have one or know someone who does that he might get a few pictures from? He found someone who was casting the front axle, tie rods, etc. but is unsure exactly how thy fit together . Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to Redsquare, we would like to invite your friend to also join.

 

If your friends Toro is a fairway mower like the picture above and he's missing the gang mowers which also supported the front weight of the tractor in addition to steering.

 

Solid steering axles used on trucks and tractors in that era were drop forged from steel, a casting would have been brittle and subject to breakage.

 

The more modern domestic tractors use an axle formed from sheet steel with the two halves welded together, a very durable axle and much lighter that it's older drop forged sister.

 

In my next post will show how steering is accomplished on a newer Toro fairway gang mower.

 

Now if your friend is doing this tractor as a show n tell piece, for simplicity I would suggest a row crop style axle and steering using an orbital steering motor.

 

Personally I think his old Toro would look good as a Row Crop.

 

This Minneapolis Moline is good example.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

My Toro, with orbital controlled power steering.

 

In the last image you can see the seam where the two halves of the axle were welded together,

 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

4 hours ago, bcgold said:

Tomorrow I'll be visiting one of my favourite landfills, there's a golf course nearby that has some older Toro stuff but nothing this old. I'll post pictures from their bone yard on my return home.

 

 

Apparently tomorrow is a Canadian holiday, so my trip will be held over for Tuesday.

 

Civic Holiday

 

The first Monday of August is a holiday for people in many parts of Canada. It is a statutory holiday in some provinces and territories but in others it has another legal status. It is often called the August Holiday, Civic Holiday, Provincial Day, or other local names, such as Terry Fox Day in Manitoba.

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

Interesting history, the Bull Tractor Company and the birth of Toro

 

1913 Bull Tractor Co. Little Bull 5-12

 

Highlights

• Serial No. 2217
• Original Serial tag and the serial number is stamped into frame
• Centennial tractor featured for 2013 by Antique Power magazine (tractor of the year)
• The Little bull is complete and almost all original
• The magneto is not the original
• Has the original pointed lugs on the drive wheel
• The tractor has been gone through mechanically
• Professionally repainted by Hill Top Restoration
• Copies of the original sales bulletin, operator?s manual, and parts manual go with the tractor
• Bull Tractor Co. was formed in 1913 by Patrick J. Lyons as the financier and D.M. Hartsough as the tractor designer
• Bull Tractors were built on contract by Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company
• Lyons founded the Toro Company to build the engines, which is today a world leader in lawn and turf care
• The Bull tractor sold for $395
• A dependable small tractor at a price that makes horses too expensive to keep. This was the slogan of the original sales brochure
• The Bull Tractor became the best selling tractor in 1914
• The little Bull was the first of it?s kind
• The first commercially successful small gas engine tractor
• The Little Bull in its flash of brilliance lead to many copies, and you can see the Little Bull's influence as you look at the evolution of the gas engine tractors
• Ron (owner) has a picture of his father Albert, and his uncles John and Lewis with his grandfather?s Little Bull tractor on the family homestead in Roseau, Minnesota, in 1917
• For more than 20 years, Ron researched and looked for a Little Bull just like the one his Grandpa Asle had
• In 2000, he found this Little Bull tractor at Oscar Cooke?s Dreamland Museum Auction in Billings, Montana
• In 2001 Ron reenacted the photo from 1917 with his brothers John and Lewis
• The new photo was taken in the same exact location on the family farm in MN. , Ron middle name is Albert making everyone in the new picture named after someone in the photo taken 84 years earlier

The Bull Tractor Co. was formed in 1913 by Patrick J. Lyons as the financier and D.M. Hartsough as the tractor designer. With visions of small tractors as the future they sold their popular Big Four line to Emerson Brantingham of Rockford, Illinois, for $2 million in 1912 to pave the way for their new venture.

 

The company started taking orders for the Little Bull 5-12 tractor in late 1913, before they had a factory to build them. On December 30, 1913, Lyons entered into a contract with Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company to build a minimum of 50 tractors a day. Minneapolis could not fill the order of engines, so as an entrepreneur like Lyons would do, he founded the subsidiary Toro Motor Co. to build engines. Lyons paid Minneapolis Steel $195 for each tractor, and Toro furnished the engines.

 

The Bull became the best selling tractor in 1914, making it the first commercially successful gas engine tractor. Until this time, the only options were large tractors and steam traction engines for working large areas. There was nothing available for the farmer with a small plot of land.

 

When looking at the original sales brochure, it is apparent that the Little Bull’s main competition was a team of horses. The pitch was that the tractor could work all day and night and you didn’t have to feed it, no chores, no currying, and it could do the work of five good horses for the price of two poor ones.

 

The story of the Bull Tractor Co. ended up being that of a shooting star. With all its success, the Little Bull 5-12 had many flaws that were not worked out. A major problem was the exposed Bull gear wearing out very fast, and the tractor was underpowered to work the plows advertised.

 

To satisfy customer concerns, the company quickly rolled out the Big Bull in 1915. The Big Bull met all expectations in performance, but the competition was gaining, and in 1917 Ford started mass- producing the Fordson.

 

The Bull Tractor Co. built its last tractors in 1918. There were a few mergers to reorganize, but the death of Lyons in 1920 lead to the final dissolution of the company.

 

The Little Bull in its flash of brilliance lead to many copies, and you can see the tractors reaching influence as you look at the evolution of gas engine tractors. Directly and indirectly, the tractor influenced many farmers to switch to mechanical horsepower. Legacies from the company remain in business today.

 

The Toro Company founded to provide engines for the Little Bull survived to become a world leader in lawn and turf care. Another is Donaldson filtration Solutions that has more than 10,000 employees worldwide. Frank Donaldson worked for Bull, and went on to start his company with a three-man shop producing air cleaners for tractors.

 

This will be the first time Gone Farmin’ has offered a tractor 100 years old. The Little Bull offered is almost completely original and has undergone a world-class restoration. Ron even had the tractor out pulling a plow; he has completely gone through the tractor mechanically.

 

He had Hilltop Restoration completely disassemble the tractor for a professional paint job. This tractor is ready to go straight to a museum or out to the field. Only a hand few of these tractors have been offered in the last couple decades and we haven’t seen any restored like this one. The Little Bull will cross the block at noon on Saturday, April 5 at the fourth annual Tractor Spring Classic in Davenport, Iowa.

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

Bull, Toro engine amazingly pulls three bottom plough.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

Big Bull, 25 Hp Toro twin cylinder engine.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by bcgold