20601 Old State Road Haubstadt, Indiana 47639
Did you ever see a 3 HP Arco brand engine built by Hercules?
Several years ago I found an instruction book and repair list put
out by the Hardie Manufacturing Company of Hudson, Michigan, for
their Arco brand gas engines. Much of the content was similar to
that found in the Hercules manuals. However, this book dated in
October 1925 covered only the three smaller size engines, including
the 2,2 and 3 HP sizes. In the very beginning of the Arco brand
production, these same engines were rated at l, 2 and 3 HP.
I’ve been to a lot of shows and have seen a lot of Arco
engines, but they were all the two smaller sizes.
This past August, at the Tri-State Tractor and Gas Engine Show
at Portland, Indiana, one of the vendors had an original 3 HP Arco
for sale. It was the first of that size that I’d ever seen. It
is pictured here, below. It is the typical Arco blue color with a
hint of gray. In a day or two it sold to one of the exhibitors
there and he had it running. The tag read HP 3E, serial number
223941, which dates it as a 1920. The first Arco brand engines were
built in 1920. In my records there is another 1920. It is a l E,
serial number 215051. Arco production really got under way in late
1921 around 260000 serial number.
It is interesting in that the Arco brand engines were rerated to
higher horsepower much earlier than the more common Hercules and
Economy brands. Arco brand engines often carried the letters GH
after the HP. The reason for this designation is unknown. About
half of the Arcos observed have the Lukenheimer fuel mixer on them
while the rest have the more common ‘J’ type mixer. A few
of the early ones had the regular Hercules ‘log saw’
mixer.
Production of Arco brand engines by Hercules continued until
late in 1928, with serial number 371669 being the highest that
I’ve observed. The Hardie Manufacturing Company then picked up
another supplier of engines (builder unknown) for their sprayers.
An example of one of those engines is shown here, above. Note the
odd shaped fuel tank. The conical shape assured that there would be
a fuel supply to mixer regardless of the topography the sprayer was
operated on.
Coming next time will be more on summer show observations about
Hercules and related engines.
