Cletracs!!!!

[Dave Downs (LT Ducky)]

"Snowtractor's" post on 30 Jul 03 in the 'Flying' topic attached a picture in which he mentions a 'Cletrac', more accurately, a "7 Ton High Speed Tractor M2". I've never seen any other reference to these vehicles, and thought I was the only one familiar with them.

Every spring and summer, 1958 to 1961 (I was 16 in 1958) , I would spend several hundred hours on one, plowing and harrowing for a local farmer here in SE Penna. The farmer was a local 'character', and had bought 3 of them, and converted them for agricultural use; removed the V-twin air compressor and the 100volt DC generator, and added a hydraulic pump for implement control. The addition of dual exhausts through the hood not only increased the noise level (and gave it a better 'look') but eliminated the chance of field fires from the original under-frame exhaust.

At the time a 55hp farm tractor was considered 'big', with 150hp (and tracks!) the Cletracs were the envy of the farming community. I would come home from high school and spend 5 or 6 hours plowing until 10:00 at night. Running them at full throttle for hours would result in a blue flame about 6-8" long standing out of the mufflers, and the manifold would be cherry red (great for lighting a cigarette) Fuel consumption was high, about 7 gallons/hour, and we re-fueled them from 5 gallon containers (slow!).

They were retired when the tracks 'stretched' and would 'throw' every time I turned at the end of the field. One still survives; the nephew of the farmer would like to restore it to running condition (he did a beautiful job on a 1952 Brockway truck-tractor I also drove) but cannot find tracks.

I've seen them in 2 WWII films, both times they were running around an airfield, but damned if I can remember the names of the movies.

(picture from Fred Crismon's "U.S. Military Tracked Vehicles" page 384)