Unidentified Walk-Behind Garden Tractor in Australia

Reader Contribution by Staff
Published on January 9, 2018
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GEM reader Ted Domeney in Australia sends in a photo of a walk-behind garden tractor, with hopes someone might help identify the manufacturer. Ted writes: “The David Bradley machine, if indeed that is what it is, is not seen in Australia very often. Certainly, this is the only one we have seen. It has a small air-cooled single-cylinder gas engine labelled as a Wallis. There is a belt drive to the wheels and the clutch is a pulley that tightens down onto the belt. There are no gears, so speed is managed by the throttle. There is no power take-off for power-driven attachments, but it did come with a tiller cultivator and the drawbar could be used to tow a small trailer. Steering is by steering clutches, one to each wheel, and there is no reverse gear. When disconnected from the tiller, the machine needs a stand to hold it balanced on its two wheels. The grille is different to any seen on the internet, but is very similar to them. What can you or your readers tell us about this machine please? What is known about the Wallis motor?”

Ted Domeney
Tasmania, Australia
dombros2@clearmail.com.au

Update: Ted wrote in again shortly before we went to publication, letting us know he found a tag on the engine reading “Montgomery Ward & Co.” We can’t say for certain what the tractor is, but it’s definitely not a David Bradley. It does, however, look similar to a Montgomery Ward & Co. Plow-Trac, but we’ve only seen photos of a Plow-Trac and then only with rubber tires and a slightly different front grill. Montgomery Ward did market a 4-wheel mini-tractor called the Team Trac that featured a grill very similar to that on Ted’s machine. Ward most certainly bought the tractors from an established manufacturer, but who that manufacturer was is unknown. From what we can find, the Plow-Trac and Team Trac tractors all used Wisconsin engines and we can find no information concerning a Wallis engine.


Please send your questions and comments for Flywheel Forum to Gas Engine Magazine, 1503 SW 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609-1265 or email editor@gasenginemagazine.com

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