Wards tractors

Anybody know anything about the Wards tractors sold by Montgomery Ward about 1950. Was there more than one engine avaible and what size was it. Told there were 2 different size engines but would like to know more about each. If there were different engines what plow size were the tractors rated at. Our neighbor had one he farmed with for years and pulled a 3-14" Oliver clutch lift plow. Anybody have a owners manual or parts list that would show the hitch setup that you could scan and send to me? I am on the pull comity for a local show this weekend and we have rules that the tractors have to be strictly out of field models with NO nodifications to the drawbars and only normal after market repower engine kits that are sutible for field work. We have a Wards that has been comming in and taking top place for years but I knowing more about them than any of the other pull commity members know he is not legal as he has no drawbar but he says that is the way it was made, I think we have him on that now as at Portland I got pictures of 4 different Wards tractors with 3 different owners and they would not all have hand built the same type drawbar. The pull is based on 1 plow, 2 plow, 3 plow & 4 plow sizes with a Farmall M being a 3 plow and a Farmall H being a 2 plow and a C being a 1 plow tractor. I know our neighbors tractor was very closed to match his Farmall M and as a 3 plow tractor. This person claims they made a smaller model that was a 2 plow tractor and that is what he has and insests on pulling with the Farmall H and late John Deere B tractors but I think it belongs with the Farmal M and late John Deere A tractors. So far we have not had anybody challange him but we know that he is not following the rules and want to get him out of competion (would let him pull as exibition). We do not have a scale and fluid or 2 sets of rear wheel weights are allowed, no front weights and no weight brackets, the weight bust be fastened like for field work and no cut and widened rear wheel rims and with 1 size over rear tires. With these rules we have all the pullers that we can get thru in a half day and always a good size croud watching. Would appreciate any help in proving correctness of this tractor.

Suposidly made by the firm that made
LEHR BIG BOY. Others on this forum should have
lots of information.

I have a friend that has a big wards row crop.It used a chrysler 6 cylinder.He replaced it with a bigger 6 cylinder from an old Dodge truck and it runs real strong

There is a brand new Wards tractor sitting in the old Mongomery Wards building,now called Mongomery Park in Baltimore,Md.

you might try tractor data .com i think pat erthel at antique power had an article or 2 about the wards tractor a couple of years ago.

He is probly thinking about the BF Avery that was sold by Montgomery Wards

My dad worked for Wards in that building. He talked about selling those tractors in the late 30's. I think that they were the Avery-built ones. The others came after the war.

I've mislaid my CO-OP notes (the original, not the Cockshutt), but the Wards Chrysler Cptn 6cyl powered was probably built by Custom, who was the successor to the original Chrysler Cptn powered CO-OP; they apparently also built the Lehr Big Boy, a couple other names sold in Canada, the Jumbo/Simpsons Jumbo and others I probably can't bring to mind.
The Wards Twin Row was a completely different tractor, a Herc engined (General??) originally built by Cletrac, and sold to Avery when the tracked line was sold to Oliver. Avery sold as their "A" and to Wards, as already mentioned in this thread.
There's a nice history of Custom online somewhere.

Wards had 2 engine options that I know of. The most popular being a 6 cyl Chrysler the other was an in-line 8 cylinder. They were also fluid drive. Sort of like an automatic, but not quite.

I know of a couple Wards Riversides. one up in Stanley , VA. at the tractor dealership there . the other in Maryland , it use to pull at St.Marys fairground every now and then. one was an standard clutch the other had that torque converter. both had a Chrysler 231 cu in 6 in them , I think. Custom B is the same tractor.

I would sure like to have that tractor. Hal
I have the one with the plow. They made another
tractor shown in the picture with the sulky.

Would that have been the Dodge 230.2" engine or did they use the Plymouth 217.8" in any of them?

I know about the Cletrac that became the Avery A and also the Avery V and the big Avery, the R that later became the Moline BF, those tractors are small acording to what I am asking about. The ones I am asking about were I think only made for a couple of years with 1950 being one of them. They were the same physical size as an M Farmall. I know about the Custom, Lehr Big Boy and the Rockall that are all on the same design, Altho I have heard that two different companys were responsible for making the different models. I think the Custom had the standard clutch while the Wards had the fluid clutch used in Chrysler product autos and they also had a 6 cylinder Chrysler built engine and as far as I know a Dodge truck transmission. Did they put the Dodge-Plymouth 217" in any of them or just the Dodge 230. The 230 depending on year was rated at from 102 to 105 bare engine horsepower at 3600 rpm with a taxable horsepower of 25.4. The 217 rated at 87 @ 3600 with the same taxable HP. I have seen the articals mentioned and they did not give the information I need. Anybody have a link to the Custom club?

Jumbo and Simpson are two names I just could not think of and tractor data has nothing on them.

Leroy: FWIW, engines in the Custom units, as far as the references I've seen, are either to Chrysler 6's and straight 8's, or Dodge 6's, sometimes named as Dodge Truck 6's...unfortunately, there were a considerable number of these, of varying power.
I don't recall any of these being referred to as using a Plymouth engine as original power.
You might try to turn up someone who has some original Wards literature, or perhaps a Farm/Ranch catalog that described them, which might have engine displacement etc.With sympathy, Bud

Leroy: There's a nice piece on Custom in Antique Power Magazine online; if you'll Google Custom tractor it should come up. It gives some engine info for the Customs, and while I'd guess the same engines were in the Wards units, it's just a guess.
I didn't note the issue; it gives an address for the Custom Club then. Good luck.

I have been around Wards tractors since the late 1960's.I have owned and pulled them.I also have original sales literature.They were built around 1949-51 by the Lowther Corp at Joliet,Illinois



This Wards was at Rantoul,Illinois last weekend.Simpson,Jumbo,and Lehr Big Boys are similar tractors.

There were two size Wards tractors built.

HR And HW had the 230 Chrysler engine
ER and EW had the 250 Chrysler engine.

http://www.whatnextfarm.com/

Heres a guy that knows Wards tractors.He won the light class at the 1969 M&W Pull with a Wards ER.I owned and pulled this tractor from 1971-83 before trading it back to him.I also had several diiferent HR's.

I take it the HR was row crop and HW was wide front and ER & EW would have been the same. How do I tell the E from the H? Not famiular enough with chrysler engines to know the difference? Would the E have been a 3 plow tractor while the H a 2 plow tractor?

(quoted from post at 02:54:46 09/04/09) I take it the HR was row crop and HW was wide front and ER & EW would have been the same. How do I tell the E from the H? Not famiular enough with chrysler engines to know the difference? Would the E have been a 3 plow tractor while the H a 2 plow tractor?

Click to expand...

The serial # tag tells what they are and the frame is thicker on the ER-EW,maybe 1/8th inch or so. An ER should have been a 3 plow tractor.

A 230 Chrysler is 23" long and a 250-265 Chrysler is 25" long.My old ER puller had a 250 block with a 265 crank,bored .125 with Jahns 10-1 pistons and a factory 2-1 bbl carb setup,Isky cam-etc.Made 120 hp at 2200 rpms but we cranked it 6000 in 4500 SS class.