Simplicity Model VA Garden Tractor

It's February so it’s time to head back to the Steam Expo. and take a look at another gem from the Kahler Collection. Visitors that have been hanging around for a while might remember the Snappin Turtle post from Feb. 15, 2017 and the N.M.P. Hurricane Jr. post from Feb. 14, 2019. This year we’ll continue the tradition by featuring his Simplicity Model VA walk behind garden tractor with a reel mower attachment.

Simplicity can trace its roots back to 1872 when The Western Malleable and Gray Iron Manufacturing Co. opened a foundry to produce castings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sometime around 1900 they began building gasoline engines that they marketed using the Simplicity trade name.  In 1911 one L.M. Turner bought the firm and renamed it Turner Manufacturing Co.  He continued to build gas engines and added farm tractors to the product list. The company changed owners again in 1920 when William Niderkorn bought the Simplicity name and produced machine tools using the brand name.   

Simplicity got into the garden tractor business in 1937 with the introduction of a two wheel, walk behind model. Montgomery Ward was the principal distributor for the tractor and the implements they supplied for it. In 1939 they added a sulky to their list of accessories that converted the walk behind to a riding garden tractor. 

More attachments were added as the years passed, and by the early fifties the list was impressive indeed. For the gardener they offered: 6 ½”8”, and 10” plows, rear hitch cultivators, spike harrows, compressors and sprayers, front hitch rotary cultivators, seeders and specialty cultivators.

Say you don’t have a green thumb, just a yard to maintain? Not to worry, Simplicity had that covered with: reel mowers and rotary weed cutters, a 30” sickle bar mower, lawn rollers, seeders and fertilizers. For colder climates they provided snow plow and bulldozer blades in two sizes: 30” and a 42” model. A 26” rotary snow plow was also offered. If all that wasn’t enough to keep you busy, a power take off kit was available so that the things you could find to do was limited only by your imagination. It was a truly versatile machine. 

The model VA made its debut in 1954 and would remain in production until 1957. It was powered by a Briggs and Stratton model 14 engine that produced a respectable five horsepower. Three forward speeds plus reverse were provided to turn the 6” by 12” tires.  

The mid to late 50’s was a busy time for Simplicity. They introduced their first riding lawnmower in 1957. This model was so well received that it remained in production until 

the 1970’s. In 1959 they added a 7hp. 4 wheel garden tractor followed by a 6 hp lawn tractor in 1963. The last walk behind garden tractor they built was the eight horsepower model W that would remain in production into the 1970’s.  In 1965 Simplicity was acquired by Allis-Chalmers who owned the brand until 1983 when it was spun off and returned to being the Simplicity Company. 

Simplicity had a longstanding relationship with Briggs & Stratton, using their engines almost exclusively on the machines they built. In 2004 Briggs & Stratton bought out Simplicity and added it to the Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group where it remains today.  You can see the Simplicity products that are available today by visiting www.simplicitymfg.com . The snow blower on that website looks to me like it might share some DNA with the Model VA from back in the fifties. What do you think?

Sources:

www.smokstak.com 

www.simplicityva.com/simplicity/1955.html 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/simplicity_manufacturing_ company 

www.tractorfriends.org/lawn&gardentractors/simplicity.html