Early Massey Harris Pony. ???

Brought home my latest find this morning. Cant find a serial number plate on the tractor but there are some number on the engine. It has twin plow on the frame rails. Hopefully someone on here can help me figure out what model it is for sure.

You're in luck. The last issue of Oliver Heritage had an article on the Cletrac General. It says that Massey Harris sold them, but only in Canada. It didn't tell what the Massey Harris model number was for them, but said they did have a Massey Harris tag. Also that it's not known how many were built since they used the same serial numbers as the General. My guess is that production would be pretty low since Cletrac only built the General from 39-42, then Avery took over production of them.

It also mentions the same tractor being sold as a Montgomery Wards Twin Row and Farm Bureau selling them under the Co-op name. It says that the Montgomery Wards tractor had their own serial tags as well, but that they used the same series of serial numbers as all the rest. Are you sure the frame says Twin Plow, or does it say Twin Row?

The engine is n IX series Hercules. The tractor looks like one of those orphan budget tractors.

Mike

Nice find. Not MH Pony. BF Avery? Cle-Track? Wards Twin Row? MM I forget.

Thank you for your help.

Thanks for your help mike.

Hi rrlund. The frame rail does in fact say Twin Row and not twin plow. Im glad it is actually a Massey Harris. Hopefully I can find a tag somewhere on it. Your fairly sure it was made by Cletrac? Thank you for your help and information.

According to that article, yes, it was a Cletrac General. Just looking at it I can confirm that much for sure. Even though the article didn't say specifically what the model was, from the pictures, it looks like they must have called it a Massey Harris Twin Row. Maybe since the paragraph on the Massey Harris came right after the one on the Montgomery Wards Twin ROw, we were supposed to assume that the Massey Harris version was also called a Twin Row.

I did find a little blurb about them on Wikipedia I think that said they where called Massey Harris The General. Hopefully I can find out more info on them. I quit looking around on it as it is currently 4 degrees below freezing here with a ne wind at about 20 kph and snowing. Thank you for the information and your help.

I would say it's an Avery model A. The link below is posted here on the YT Articles section .... I had one of these once and I wrote the article. The serial number of the original tractor is on the upper surface of the right side frame rail ahead of the footrest but before the clutch housing. The numbers are hand stamped in there but not too deep, probably filled with rust and paint. Let us know if you find the serial number, then it's be an Avery A or maybe a General GG. I believe Massey in Canada only marketed the Avery versions of the tractor.
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Hi Crazy Horse. That a very well written and interesting article that you wrote. This tractor has electric start with magneto and used to have a crank as well. Some one cut it off with a torch !! No pto and no belt pulley. There is not a tag on the frame rail and I cant see a serial number but its still snowing so Ill look on a different day. I scraped some of the red paint off down to bare metal and it appears to be red all the way. I did find some paint that kind of looked orange as well in a different spot. Its a good addition to my rusty tractor line up any how.

It is probably a BF Avery A. Or a Wards twin-row. (Same tractor) If you had found orange paint under the red, maybe then a Cletrac General.

The original tractor was designed by Cleatrac. It shared the engine and a lot of drive train parts with their small crawler. BF Avery supplied the cultivators for it. When World War II was about to start, Cleatrac got a lot of government contracts and let BF Avery have their wheel tractor.

Yours has hand brakes. I would guess that makes it a pretty early model.

Yes it is The General, sold by MH, built by Cletrac. The serial number plate was on the rear of the RH frame rail. There is a doubled up section for the bracket that bolts to the rear end. The plate was riveted there. Similar chassis to the HG crawler.

I had one at one point. Not sure where it went off to when I had to liquidate some stuff. Might still have some pictures.

Thank you T.R.K. There is hints of orange paint or maybe just what the sun has done to the red paint.

More good information. Thank you more smoke.

There is no 'tag' or serial number 'plate' .... the number is stamped into the upper surface of the right hand steel frame rail. In your second photo above with your reply it would be in the vicinity of the ROW stenciled letters but on the top surface. Being the red colour it is, I would say an Avery A (and not an earlier Cletrac GG), the paint looks original. I suspect some dealer might have put the decals on and painted the stencils. If you get busy with a wire brush I suspect you will find it, I don't think it is stamped too deep into the steel.

An interesting little thing about the similarities with the crawlers, if you look at the gas tank on an HG crawler, they even have the indentation where the steering column goes on the wheel tractor version.

Here's a little more from that article. It says one way to tell an Avery A from a General is that the Avery had the serial number punched in the top of the right hand frame rail, just ahead of the rear axle. The Cleveland built General had a serial number plate ONLY.

Because of that, I'd say if you don't find those numbers punched in, but maybe do find little holes where the rivets were, for a serial tag, it was built by Cletrac. The article states too, that the Massey Harris version had a tag stating that it was sold by Massey Harris.

Where some of the confusion might come from concerning an Avery vs a Cletrac is that Avery designed and built all the implements for them, and the article says that Avery had exclusive distribution rights through it's branches and dealers in 13 southern states. Throughout the balance of the United States, the Cleveland Tractor Company (Cletrac) would have charge of the tractor distribution.

Cletrac dealers weren't too keen on even selling a wheel tractor after extoling the virtues of track tractors for so long. The HG crawler would actually out pull the General. In February 1942, Avery purchased the General from Cletrac, including all work in progress, parts, inventory, dies, jigs and patent rights. Avery was allotted a limited amount of steel and raw materials to keep production going during the war.

That's one more thing that makes me think the Massey Harris General was likely made by Cletrac, not by Avery. Did Avery even export any tractors to Canada during the war, given limited production and such strong domestic demand?
The Pony came out in 47 and they were built in Canada. Tractors were still hard to come by for a few years after the war due to the shift back from wartime production and the high demand, making me question whether Avery would have exported tractors to Canada before the Pony came out.

Minneapolis-Moline BF

Braved the elements this morning to find the serial number and I did. Its right where moresmoke suggested it would be. On the riveted brace by the rear axle. Any how now that we have the serial number maybe the year etc. will be able to be determined. Thanks to everyone that has helped me figure out what tractor this is so far.