Interesting lot coming up for sale at Cheffins
Details: 1918 HOLT 75 4cylinder petrol CRAWLER TRACTOR Reg No: N/A Serial No: 102425 This Holt 75 is a machine of great historical significance - being the sole surviving example operated by the British Army during the First World War. An iconic machine, feted on both sides of the Atlantic, the 75 was a product of the Holt Manufacturing Company and was built at both its Stockton (California) and Peoria (Illinois) plants. The model was in production from 1914-24 and 4,161 were made, including a total of 1,810 military tractors, supplied from Peoria to the British, French, Russian and US armies during the First World War. The military specification included full-length canopies with canvas side-screens and a sheet-metal cover over the steering clutches. Inadequate cooling, an endemic problem with the 75 tractors, saw most of the military models, particularly those supplied to the British Army, also fitted with an auxiliary 54-gallon header tank to feed the radiator. The military tractors had no belt pulley but were fitted with a rear-mounted capstan, which was driven off the steering-clutch input-shaft. With both clutches disengaged, the capstan would revolve without the tractor moving, making it ideal for recovery work on the battlefield. Of the 1,362 tractors supplied to the British War Department, most were used as gun tractors, hauling heavy Howitzers. Some were also used as prime movers for supply trains in various theatres of war. All were manned and maintained by the Army Service Corps. The big four-cylinder petrol engine developed 75hp at a leisurely 550 rpm. A crude design by modern standards, it featured an exposed flywheel, governors and magneto drive. With flat-top pistons, it was a largely inefficient unit that drank fuel like it was going out of fashion. The tractor's big 74-gallon tank would not have represented that many hours' work and keeping the big Holts fuelled must have been a logistical nightmare all in itself! The chassis of this tractor carries a number of 102425, which reveals that it was shipped from Peoria in October 1918. This meant it would have arrived in the UK after the Armistice had been signed on 11 November, which explains why our Holt was not sent to France and remained in Britain. The Allies arbitrarily cancelled any outstanding orders for Holt tractors after the cessation of hostilities, so this tractor may have been the last 75 to arrive and the last to enter service with the British Army. The chassis is also stamped with T.5972, which is the engine number from Holt's Aurora engine plant in Illinois. The tractor eventually ended up with a dealer in ex-military equipment. Stored in a quarry in Essex along with several other 75s, it was the only one not to have had its engine removed. At the end of the Second World War, the Holt was purchased by the Ferguson brothers, who farmed at Whitfield, near Dover. The Ferguson brothers, Joe, Bill and Dave, had come to Kent from Northumberland with their father in 1925. T Eventually, the 75's incredible thirst for fuel saw it relegated to the nettles to be replaced by a wartime 7M model Caterpillar D7. In later years, a shed was built over the Holt and Dave continued to periodically start the engine until the tractor was sold for preservation to a Suffolk collector, the late Peter Fordham of Badwell Ash, from whom Paul purchased the tractor in 2007. An extensive restoration programme was carried out by Fred and John Goldup at a cost of over £60,000 to bring this historic tractor to a condition far better than it would have been when it left the factory in Peoria, Illinois and deservedly so, as there is no other like this with such important provenance in existence. There is a large history file containing copious invoices of restoration work, email correspondence, archive images from the First World War, photographic record of restoration and copies of price list and operators manual etc.