Super A followed me home...

I had a Super A follow me home last night. Been stored indoors, but not started in 3 years, but motor is loose. PO died and the family has no interest in tractors. Everything seems pretty original, down to the hand crank and the crank holder, silver canvas seat, even the PTO shield. Bad part--- no battery box, needs one rear rim, and one front tire/tube. Motor not stuck.

One thing puzzles me though. Everything indicates---including the larger bolts attaching the drawbar and serial #, (which I know could have been changed by switching seat supports) that this is a real Super A--- there were a lot of Straight A's "converted" to Supers around here going back 25 years or more--- but this one has the older-style square-lug front wheels... Anybody ever seen these on a Super?

just wondering does it have the heavy fenders for the lift rockshaft? and hydraulic pump on the engine? the A's ive seen didnt have a place for the pump heck ive got one that dont even have a place for a starter just asking

Mine is a 1953, verified by both the casting codes and serial #, and it's the same way. Apparently the adjustable width wheels were still an option on the Super A.

I'm interested in what a Super A "conversion" consisted of... Must be justa coat of paint and Super A decals? You can't add the hydraulics to an A unless you swap out two of the major castings, the engine and torque tube... and that's the major difference between an A and Super A.

MKirsch - What I meant by "conversion" was that a straight A was "converted" to a Super A by the swapping of the bell housing (torque tube) casting, and engine from a Farmall C or Super C, (or even a Super A damaged in some way) then adding the touch control unit, hydraulic lines, and controls to the A to make it a Super A. Combine and baler power unit motors were used often, too. This was done a lot around here in SE Indiana/SW Ohio in the late 70s when you could pick up a straight A for a $100 - 400 bucks, and find a Farmall C in a fencerow with a good block for $50 - $100. We would then add a Woods L-59 belly mower for $400, paint the whole setup to look brand-new with new Super decals and advertise it in the local trader for $2500 - $3000. Many times, we netted over a $1000 profit. We always told the prospective buyer that this was a Super A conversion, and explained what work we'd done to make it a Super. Spent the winter "converting" these several times, when the parts were available. The biggest bother, as I recall, was cutting the instrument panel down from the Farmall C and welding the steering column support on it.

Remember, this was in the days before everyone had zero-turn mowers, and before you ever saw 3-point hitch finish mower. A Super A with a 5-ft. belly mower was a real godsend to someone who had a big yard to mow.

TN Terry--- the one that followed me home yesterday is a true Super A, complete with hydraulic pump and touch control. Yes, it has the fenders for the rockshaft for lifting the cultivators, although they're not with it. The fenders show signs of them having beenon it for a long time, though.

You're right, straight A's don't have the place for the hydraulic pump in the engine block casting.

Farmboy856: What you describe doesn't make a Super A. Super A have a sequence of serial numbers both tractor and engine and every casting has a date code. First Super A was tractor serial number 250000 and the last one was 355679, now pray tell how you fitted another one in there.

Must have been a damn small production line, there weren't that many C and SC in fence rows. Where did you get the final drives? SA final drives are not the same as A.

Hugh,

I didn't intend to open a can of worms. We didn't make a Super A or did we ever claim we did. We never once changed or altered a serial number tag, and always went to great lengths to point out that this was NOT a true Super A. We merely put hydraulics on a straight A to make it more salable with the Woods mower deck.

We originally put a new Woods mower deck with the Woods-provided hand lift on a good-running, repainted and correctly decaled straight A. We couldn't sell it, as the handlift was extremely awkward and you had to have the arms of a longshoreman to lift the mower deck without stopping and standing up, as I recall.

We then did the so-called "conversion" with parts from a junked C and left the straight A decals on it, which we felt was correct. Several guys stopped to look at the completed outfit and told us that we had the wrong decals on it--- to them, an A with hydraulics was a Super A.

I repeat, we never once changed or altered a serial number tag, and always went to great lengths to point out that this was NOT a true Super A. I even would point out out the notch in the bell-housing/engine joint ot a prospective buyer when we used a power unit motor. It turned out that most buyers didn't care, as long as it ran well, looked good, and the touch control worked to lift the mower deck.

As for finding enough donor tractors, it's been 25- 30 years ago, but as I recall we literally bought several C's out of fencerows/treelines, one Super C that had burned while wearing the mounted one-row picker unit (I now wished we had kept that), and at least one true Super A that had rolled down a Kentucky hillside (the driver had jumped off when she started to tip) and busted the front casting and the block and the the steering shaft and beyond repair. One other C that comes to mind was one that was complete, except for the front end, which had been cannibalized for another tractor's whose front end was busted when it dropped into a tile hole while raking hay. Back then, you could buy these fairly easily for scrap price or less. My only regret is that some of the C's we cannibalized weren't beyond repair. Over the course of maybe 12 years we probably "converted" 10 - 12 tractors. It was a good winter project in a heated shop for a couple of high schoolers, and my brother and I learned a lot about mechanics while doing it.

Wow, I didn't intend to open a can of worms either. I thought this was something other people were doing in your area, similar to what many people do/did with their Hs and Ms: Put Super stickers on them after a paint job because they were "super (implying great, awesome)" tractors, not actual Super models.

The fact that you had a supply of running As and fencerow Cs to build these mowing machines is impressive, very cool. Right place, right time, and you put out a quality product and made some good money off the effort. How much more Amercan can you get?

Hugh, I know you're particularly sensitive about your little offsets, and I love 'em too (I have three now). However, the snarky remark about not changing the final drives (the tone implying that he was trying to pull off a scam) was uncalled for. As he has REPEATEDLY said right from the get-go, he never tried to pass them off as true Super As, and was completely honest with the buyers.

You tractor purists need to ask yourself: What's better, one tractor working in the field or two tractors in the scrapyard? Had FB856 not been making these admittedly "mutt" tractors, it's likely that the two tractors that were used to make each mutt would've ended up being sold for scrap. He made something saleable and useful out of other people's junk, and should be applauded, not berated.

Farmboy856: Don't get me wrong, I really have no problem with what you did. That was good use for those old C's, C-113 engine never had enough horsepower for those 36" tires anyhow. I could also see your prediciment trying to show and sell a guy an A with hydraulics.

Having said that; how about the wording, "converted A" rather than "converted SA", since it was more A than SA. Maybe you should have called it a AC, naw that would annoyed customers even further. Perhaps Super AC.

I saw a neat setup the other day, beauitfully restored A with 12 volt alternator system, a Woods mower and a reversable winch mounted on torque tube for raising mower.

Hugh,

I agree with you on the wording--- "converted A" is indeed more accurate. On the thread of "converted tractors", we actually at one point had enough parts left over from several of these conversions that we cobbed together--- over a weekend--- a C with no touch conrol, using the C113 engine/gas tank/etc. out of an A. A neighbor of ours thought this was pretty ingenious, and bought it from us and used it to rake hay and run an elevator---for years. Last I knew, one of his sons had it up in northern IN, and had painted it. The biggest challenge, as I recall, was that we had to weld the little clip or holder for the steering shaft on the torque tube, as the A torque tube didn"t have the little milled place with the two 1/4 bolt holes drilled in it for the clip. Again, this was a 16 and 17 year old's wild idea as to how to use up parts laying around.
Again, this was long before the "Super
HTA" craze arose.

I"d like to see/know more about how they fixed the electric winch to raise and lower the mower on the A you mentioned.

Farmboy856: I don't know a lot about the winch, however I'd say it was a self contained unit off a store shelf. The electric motor part looked very similar to a sprayer pump I have, a little 2.8 gpm pump off one of those ATV sprayers. I expect an ATV store might have been the source of the winch.

I wouldn't give up building small tractor Woods mower combo's. The fellow I bought my used Woods from, wants to buy it back. I heard by the grapevine his Kubota Zero turn is yielding him some high repair bills. I also notice a landscape company that was all specialty mowing devices three years ago, once again have tractors in their lineup.

Well that was some spirited conversation! My take on everything says that if we didn't have the "TRACTOR PURISTS" in our midst,we'd all be repairing these things wrong!! My 2

Coax: If your refering to me as the purist, you missed the call on that one. I've done all sorts of modifications with these tractors. I have alternator conversions on all my tractors, and yes my Super A has a 6 volt alternator and battery.

There is one thing I don't do, that is call it something it's not. These guys that put Super decals on NON Super letter series tractors just because they increased the cubic inches, could find themselves in a heap of trouble if the right person wanted to push, and enough money was involved.