Roadless Traction was started after WW1 by a Captain Johnson who had been an army officer involved with the introduction of the first tanks. He had seen the advantages of using very large wheels in agriculture to help the tractors of the time travel over soft ground and set up a company to make tracked vehicles. The company made both full track and half track models of the Fordson F and N. The N's were used extensively in WW2, on airfields, for towing aircraft, fuel tankers and bomb loads on the grass runways during the early part of the war. The half track system, known as 'Driven Girder' was used on Fordson E27 N's after the war and exported world wide. Conversions were available for Massey Harris, MF, Nuffield and most other makes. They were very popular in Australia where they were used by farmers clearing and working newly cleared land.
Roadless crawler tracks were unique in that they did not use pins and bushes to join the tracks but they were bolted together using rubber blocks. This reduced the wear but the tracks were like a coiled spring and were lethal to split without the proper tools. (do not ask me how I know).
The company I worked for were Roadless Main dealers and were recommended by Roadless to repair all their tracked products. During WW2, we repaired many worn or damaged tracks due to the transport problems of shipping units across London during the bombing campaign, manufacturing the parts in the company machine shop.
After WW2 the company brought in Italian produced 4WD conversions for Fordson E27N's made from ex GM truck parts that were available in Italy from Manual and later Selene. Eventually Roadless manufactured their own units for the later Ford tractors. Roadless and County were very popular here until the time that Ford brough out their own 4 WD drive models and reduced the number of skid units available for conversion, along with MuirHill, the 4 WD market disappeared overnight and the companies closed.
Roadless conversions were available for some MF and IH tractors but Ford were their main tractor source.
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Today's Featured Article - History of the Nuffield Tractor - by Anthony West. The Nuffield tractor story started in early 1945. The British government still reeling from the effects of the war on the economy, approached the Nuffield organization to see if they would design and build an "ALL NEW" British built wheeled tractor, suitable for both British and world farming.
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