Oliver Crawler Tractor

[Bob_Skurka]

I'm a big fan of Oliver tractors but I know very little about the technical aspects of the Oliver Crawlers tractors. They bought the Cleatrac company and folded into their model line, and kept producing them until sometime in the early-mid 1960's?

What I want to know, if anyone knows, did Oliver produce a small (under 35hp) diesel crawler tractor that had a LIVE PTO and standard 3pt hitch? I'd be interested in buying one if I could figure out what model has those two things.

Anyone out there know thier crawler tractor history?

 

[art]

Bob, you might already know that the last model of there dozers are OC-4-3 and the next one up is the OC-9 a good sized machine for the three point to be on as it weighs in at five ton. I can't remember seeing any set up the way you are looking for. There are some books that have been put out thru Interac that might tell more.

 

[lwh]

Bob, Sounds like you'd be looking for an OC6. They were based on the 77 wheel tractors. 3pt was available, but I don't think it was standard.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I just read an article on the OC6 but I was hoping for something smaller in size.

Does anyoneknow if the OC 3 or OC4? have a 3pt or a live PTO?

What about the HG?

 

[professor]

You will not find a live pto on the OC3 or 4. The pto was a transmission driven shaft in fact it was the same pto used on the Avery and later the Minneapolis- Moline Avery. I have owned both OC3 & 4 and even though these were tough tractors the pto was weak with a bushhog. I replaced 3 ptos in my OC4. As for the 3pt I have not seen one on an OC3 but have seem one or two on an OC4 but are extremely rare.
The previou post was correct in that the OC6 came with a live pto and 3 pt hitch if ordered as an option. The live pto was only available on the 6. The tractor was actually a Fleetline 77 put on a letrac undercarriage. If you are going to do brush clearing the OC6 would be the way to go.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Well I suppose that I don't NEED a live PTO. I just want one. And the point of buying an old Oliver Crawler would not be to work it, but just to play with it when the weather is nice. I'd like a small crawler for the fun of it, to restore, to pull the kids around on a hay ride, to race the neighbor's garden tractor, to pull out into the sunshine and wash & wax on a nice day, and only occasionally to actually do any real work, like pulling a box blade or maybe clearing some snow.

To sum it up, I want one for all the reasons that I can't get the wife to understand, but that she puts up with because I'm a guy.

I just was looking for the most practical one I could find that was still small.

Sounds like maybe an OC 4 might be the compramise, smaller than the OC 6 and still has the ability to have a 3pt hitch, but not the live PTO???

 

[sweettractors]

I have a neighbor that has this Cletrac AG 6 Gas with little engine blow by for $3750--I have no idea of the value of such a machine?--Ken Sweet

 

[EquipmentJunkie]

Bob, whatever Oliver you decide to buy, be sure to keep the following name & phone number at hand:
Zimmerman Oliver Cletrac
Ephrata, PA
717-738-2573
They are a tremendous resource and the authority for parts & service on these machines.
Funny story: I was at the CA Farm Show in Tulare a few years ago and saw someone wearing a Cletrac hat on his head. I mentioned that I used to work with someone who is in the Cletrac parts business. He said.."You mean Landis Zimmerman? I am on the phone with him at least once a week!" I figured that if a man 3,000 miles away depends on Landis that much, then Zimmerman Oliver Cletrac should be recommended at any appropriate time.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I've never met him, but he is in EVERY issue of the Hart-Parr Oliver Collectors Association magazine!

At this point I am leaning toward an OC 4 or an HG. The OC 6, while it has what I put on my wish list, is just too big to slide past my wife without me first buying an elephant to hide the OC 6 behind. . . and then I have to come up with a really good drinking story to explain the elephant.

 

[Junkman]

I had an OC 3 tractor with a blade and a hitch on the rear. I don't remember it being a 3 point, but more like a sleeve hitch. Mine had a Funk automatic transmission in it and was sold to Boston tractor as an incomplete unit and they finished assembly with the transmission. I sold it a few years ago to a fellow in Maine, but don't recall who it was. Last summer, while moving some things, I found a new bull gear and some transmission friction disks for it along with the original data plate... was thinking of putting them on e Bay along with the parts and service manuals. It was an interesting tractor, but was a pain to keep together... I used it for back filling my foundation and clearing the land when I built the house in 1983. It was very wide and would walk up a wall, but hated to start unless it was 70 degrees out.... that is why I got rid of it... Hope that it found a good home........