Walking tractors David Bradley, why they are not used more? and other discussions.

The old engines can be problematic. I have had great luck with the predator line of engines. Just switched from a 6.5 to a 3hp engine. The 6.5 was way over powered for the gearing, never had it off idle. The 3hp needs to warm up and is full throttle to plow but still no issues. The lifan was supposed to fit under the hood with out the tank but i got 2 bad out of the box. Im looking at now how to get the predator to fit under the hood. Its a slant cylinder vs vertical, which the original engine was vertical and so is lifan. Custom exhaust and change the motor plate think might work.

Sulkys are the wheels to stand on behind them. You can get some with seats too. Most items will be custom built, they still make those items for commercial mowers.

My david bradleys are all working hard  on the farm.

3hr

I have a BCS 732 walk-behind tractor with a tiller, brush mower, chipper-shredder, and hydraulic splitter. I bought it because unlike a 4-wheel tractor, it works well on a hillside. Our place has no flat ground, our large garden is on a slope that cannot be tilled with a "standard" garden tractor (that's been tried, if you don't tip it over you just dig holes and pull dirt downhill). At this point, it's the only remaining tool we have that burns gasoline, and I would really like to go electric, but I would prefer not to have to replace all the implements. They are all in good shape. Any ideas welcome.

John

In my opinion they make more sense to use at the slope like John mentioned above, otherwise it's for people that do not value their time or money. I used walk behind brush mower - at the end of 2 acre field mowing I was beaten up like I worked in some penal quarry.
Before I purchased my compact tractor I was considering BCS and Grillo, but the price of implements was very high and their availability on the second hand marked extremely limited. On top of that they would never work stone-hard soil that I have.
I'm glad that I purchased a normal tractor (33 HP) - besides soil working I use it for moving logs for my mill, chipping wood, moving building materials, lifting stones, grading.

John Collins wrote:I have a BCS 732 walk-behind tractor with a tiller, brush mower, chipper-shredder, and hydraulic splitter. I bought it because unlike a 4-wheel tractor, it works well on a hillside. Our place has no flat ground, our large garden is on a slope that cannot be tilled with a "standard" garden tractor (that's been tried, if you don't tip it over you just dig holes and pull dirt downhill). At this point, it's the only remaining tool we have that burns gasoline, and I would really like to go electric, but I would prefer not to have to replace all the implements. They are all in good shape. Any ideas welcome.

John

I'm waiting for electric too.  I found this but I'm not sure if they're in production yet.

https://www.koeppl.com/en/produktauswahl/elektrischer-antrieb

Richard Cleaver wrote:I'm waiting for electric too.  I found this but I'm not sure if they're in production yet.
https://www.koeppl.com/en/produktauswahl/elektrischer-antrieb

That looks really neat, but it might be a while for pricing to become reasonable. The small version of the battery is a 48V 150Ah [1] and batteries like that [2] tend to cost as much an entire gas powered tractor [3].

I want to see some one come out with a bolt on 6hp electric replacement motor. With so much equipment out there with gas motors that size. There should be a large market for them, snowblowers, rototiller, minibike, walking tractor, power wagon, lawn mower, chippers, and more. We keep several new in box engines on hand, just to replace them. My son gets free equipment and fixes and sells them, he has it down to about 30m-1h to replace the engine. We have looked but the cost and custom fab is more than is feasible for small equipment. Plus the specs are all over the place, when you look at comparable power.

Hey so Im in semi rural Portugal and they use something similar for everything including a ride to the cafe and grocery store. There are many different types larger smaller engines but all have the attachments, well i think so. It was amazing to see at first now i just want one.
Moto  cultivador its a mini trator walk/ride behind that ataches to a trailer. Some the seat is only with the trailer, some seat is attached all times.
I don'tknow but I think these are pretty cool,not sure why not more popular in all areas.
Here is a link to an old Ferrari, yep there is lamborghinis too!
Ferrari Moto Cultivador

Sorry that link only went to a pic
Ferrari motocultivador
Hope that goes to the site, most are about 2k€ great for around the villages but not highway worthy haha

We just picked up a troy bilt PTO horse rototiller. It has a PTO connection like a bcs, its a 3 dog clutch. Works different but has attachments similar chipper, log splitter, going to look at adapting a mower deck. It also has a mount to attach a snow blade. Can beat it running for 300$, and my son is tilling gardens each spring making money.
We also picked up a trailer with a long tongue for 10$ we are going to put a seat on. Use on the troy bilt or the david Bradley, parades and the farmers market it should get some attention.

Thanks
3HR

Trying to find parts for a David Bradley I just acquired.  Starts but missing several parts to get it pulling

We have several parts tractors, haven't had to replace much on the gear case. We had to make new clutch pads, and small items like nuts and bolts. Engine wise unless you are a restoration person, go with a predator 6.5hp from harbor freight. We just switch back to one from a 3hp because it was always hard to start. My son is working on a david bradley with a custom lifan engine to fit under the hood. Most of the later version did away with the hood. Looks cool more complicated than needed.

Alot of parts will have to be fabricated or used parts found, hardest parts are the clutch assembly. Looks like everything switched to belt tension, these use a fly wheel and friction plate assembly. There are 2 friction pads inside, belt attaches to an idler and the clutch fork pushes on pressure plate clamping the idler to the flywheel there is a friction pad on both sides of the idler. There are oil holes for the bearings, but no oil should get on the friction pads and dont over oil them. These units need constant oiling and greaseing, we have a oil can and grease gun with the machine at all times.

You have to love old equipment to care for these units but they last generations. The engine bolt pattern fitts 6.5hp or briggs 5hp as is, we modifyed to fit the 3hp. Contact me if there is something you're looking for, we can also help with con version to other units, we have had problems with the clutch and are looking to swap one of ours to a friction belt or a modern clutch, but as we stole a clutch from the sickle bar we haven't done it yet.

Thanks
Brian
3H.R.

Note on clutch pads:  One of the first things I had to solve back in the 1950's.  I had scraps of indoor outdoor carpet and it proved to be a perfect material to cut out new pads.

Here are a few pics, as we have finished conversion to the market garden, we use alot of the mechanical tools less but we have found just to reduce our work load that tilling the walkways is easier. We had grass grow over 12inches in just a week, our fertility is so high it brings its ouw problems. We also use alot of potatoes, we use this to prep a bed area as we reshape after harvest. Now because we sell produce some of our management is a little different. I would not plant as much of some things if it was just for the family. We are introducing alot of permaculture ideas to management, including habitat for birds and plantings for pollinators and predators. We planted sun chokes last year and i cant wait for the plantings to sprout this year.

Hummmm ??  Cheaper way to go ?
Buy a decent old 8N Ford.
It'll beat a walking tractor by a mile everyday.

Peabody Coal wrote:Hummmm ??  Cheaper way to go ?
Buy a decent old 8N Ford.
It'll beat a walking tractor by a mile everyday.

Welcome to the Permies Forums.

Ford Ns aren't quite as cheap as they used to be, at least near me.  Someone decided that they are "collectible".  But, a pair just showed up for 1800 USD, one needing new rear rims due to chloride ballast rusting them out, but both otherwise functional.  So, that's pretty cheap, but is it the "right" choice?

Ns have a lot in their favor: 3 point hitch, wide (thus stable, compared to tricycle row crop layout) front end, relatively compact, ubiquitous parts support (at least in the Lower 48), used attachments and implements galore are readily available, etc.

But, Ford Ns don't have a live PTO, may still be entirely too big for some circumstances, were built to the safety standards of a bygone era, are only two-wheel drive, may require unavailable heavy maintenance tools (splitting a tractor is non-trivial, even a little one like an N), etc.

The suitability of an N to a particular circumstance may be debatable.

My brother is considering purchasing an N, for some of the reasons I enumerated above, and he's well aware of the drawbacks.  But, he has a total of 37 acres in two parcels, one of which is wooded and heavily dissected (ridge and gully) and covered with mixed northern hardwoods.  He also has a lot of other arrows in his quiver - two end loaders, a mini excavator, knuckle-boom man lift, two dump trailers, etc.  He also has my dad's old Troy-Bilt Horse tiller, though it now has a replacement engine (I think the flywheel magnet was getting weak on the old Tecumseh engine - it was hard to get a reliable spark).  He's used that quite a lot the last two years to open up new root vegetable beds and incorporate many cubic yards of goat manure.

I had a David Bradley - Art Deco aerodynamic tin, cultivator points, manually angle-able push blade, wheel weights and tire chains, etc. - when we lived at our previous house in town.  But, I found that for the size and aspect ratio of lot I had, it was just too big and unwieldy.  I sold it to a couple who had small acreage.  I tried to make sure they knew what they were getting, and they seemed to understand.  Their intention was to do long beds.  It was probably a better match for that.  I don't know if they're still using it.  I've kind of lost contact with them, though I could probably track them down again, since she was a research scientist or some such at our local university.

I have a fleet of old gear drive Cub Cadets, right now, from the 1960s, mostly - runners, rollers, parts, etc..  Cheap local availability, toughness, ready parts availability (same transaxle as a Cub and Lo-Boy, but without the final reduction drives, and lots of them being used as pullers, so many high strength aftermarket new drive parts also available).  But, I am trying to to do more and more by hand, and less and less with mechanical power.

If someone has the capital to allocate for something like a BCS (especially one of the units with a ground speed PTO), that opens up a lot of options, which can be legged into when, as and if needed.  They're a real Swiss army knife of a small acreage tool.  If I found the right one (ground speed PTO is key, for me) at the right price, I'd jump on it, even with my present heavy investment in Cub Cadets.

I guess my point in saying all of this is that someone should carefully consider their needs, both current and best guess for the future, before picking up a cheap N, just because it was cheap.

Again, welcome to the Forums.

If, like me, you don't know anything about tractors, I found some good explanation of Kevin's "ground speed PTO" over here: https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ford&th=346661