Back by Popular Demand

Due to the interest that visitors have shown in the David Bradley Tri-Trac post I decided that a closer look was in order. You don’t see them at every show, fact is, I’ve only seen one of them, so this year I made tracks for the 28th Annual Power from the Past Show held just outside Greer, South Carolina. Sure enough, the Bradley was there, sitting on a trailer near the entrance to the show.

Iber Tripp isn’t your average collector.  He doesn’t own dozens of tractors and this is about the only show he attends. What’s even more unusual is that he is the original owner of the Tri-Trac. He bought it new in 1953 along with a plow, cultivator, mower and a few more items for about a thousand dollars. His father had to cosign for him because he wasn’t old enough at the time to execute the contract. The Tri-Trac served faithfully on the family farm until about twenty years ago when it was replaced by newer equipment. Iber is a member of the Foothills  Antique Power Association so he brings it to the hometown show once a year. 

Locked inside a plexiglass covered display case were several of the original documents that came with the tractor that include the owner’s manual, the setup and operating instructions, parts list and an assortment of photocopied sales brochures and flyers. This is the type of documents that usually provide the most accurate information available and they provided most of what’s reported in this post. Needless to say, I was eager to have a look. 

The Tri-Trac could be purchased from the factory for $395 cash which didn’t include freight, or from the Sears mail order house for $409 cash or $41 down and monthly payments of $18. Two 27 pound weights for the front wheels were included . If you wanted to run a sickle-bar mower attachment the necessary PTO pulley would set you back another $2.75. 

Like most of its competition, a full complement of accessories were offered to make the Bradley as versatile as possible. In addition to the sickle-bar mower a 58” cut belly mower attachment with 3 overlapping 20” rotary blades was available for $152.95. There was also a three gang reel-type lawn mower that would cut 57 ½” offered for $198.50. A bulldozer blade for grading and terracing could be had for $32.45. By spending another $17.95 you could own a conversion kit that would turn your dozer blade into a snow plow. 

The farmer and gardeners weren’t neglected either. Accessories included: moldboard plows, disc harrows, dump rakes, spike tooth harrows, spring tooth harrows, middle busters, cultivators and two row planters.  

A one cylinder, air cooled Wisconsin engine was the prime motorvator. A bore of 2 ⅞” by 2 ¾” stroke displaced 17.8 cubic inches to produce six horsepower and a maximum torque of 10.7 foot pounds at 3200 rpm. It was fed 70 octane regular gasoline from a 3 ¼ gallon fuel tank through an up-draft Zenith 87 B 5 carburetor. Clean air was provided by an oil bath downdraft air cleaner. Sales flyers claimed it would run for 4 hours minimum on a tank of gas.  

The clutch was described as being the single plate-dry type-rotating ball wedge engagement type. Power was transmitted by way of a B-42 belt to the variable speed changer and to the transmission via a 53” B belt. Transmission : all spur gear with sliding gear forward , neutral and reverse.

Tri-Trac dimensions were listed as: total length, 102”, maximum width, 80”, Minimum width, 56”, height, 48”, wheelbase, 68 ¾ “.  

In this near operator’s view you can see three of the Trac’s controls. In front of the steering wheel is the draft adjusting screw crank. On the left in front of the saddle is the throttle control lever, To the right is the clutch control lever. Iber pointed out that the original seat upholstery was smooth. He said that the upholsterer decided to add the seams because that’s the way he does motorcycle seats.

The wide stance of 80 inches at maximum adjustment, plus the extra weights on the front wheels don’t lead you think that the Tri-Trac was a particularly unstable machine  yet if you do much research online, you soon find suggestions that tipping was such a problem that it led to a short production run. With that in mind I decided to ask someone who should know. Iber gave me a strange look and replied, “You soon learn what not to do on a Tri-Trac.” So there you have it from an expert. 

For information about next year’s show visit: www.fapasc.com .