Terry Harper

Timely thread. Got to examine these two beauties from 1926 a few days ago. Both have their original Climax R6U engines. While a bit worse for wear they have a fascinating story behind them which I will have to share at another time.

Funny you should mention that. The aforementioned 1928 Lombard Tractor-Truck took 16 quarts (4 gallons) on the last oil change. And goes through the better part of a tube of grease per 4 hours of operation. If we hit all 64 grease fittings (once per year) that jumps up to two tubes. I really need to invest in one of those battery powered grease guns! However, the fun quotation is tipped way to far into the positive for the cost of oil or fuel to be of any concern. I am sure most of us feel that way about the automobiles, trucks, etc. we love so much.

On the other hand, the 1907 Lombard averages about .143 cords per mile. Preferably well seasoned hardwood cut in 16 inch lengths and split not too fine.

The 8 ton, 1928 Lombard dump truck can eek out a miserly 0.625 mpg if we don’t get too heavy handed with the throttle. We run non-ethanol.

Love it! Davis, in spite of being an "assembled" car it appeared to be well regarded.

What am I working on? Being patient while I Impatiently wait to have the beast out and about. Recent snow storms seem intent on extending mud season. Actually, working on headlight parts and pieces. More correctly… trying too! Finding time to focus on this and other projects has been a major challenge of late. Lot of great stuff in the works! Just not enough hours in the day. thanks to the generosity of a fellow forum member, we have the perfect headlights for the 1919 Lombard. Now we are working on a set of the latter large drum style lights for the beast shown above. Paul found this one at an antique shop years ago. The plan is to assemble a mate from the parts and pieces he has gathered over the years.

An early Brooks Stevens designed and built Excalibur (which this appears to be) is far removed from a kit car built in someone’s garage. Amazing talented designer.

Hello Bill, you can purchase water slide decal sheets with a white background. That is what I used for the decal on the dump truck.

About 4 years ago I made a large water slide decal for the radiator shutter for the dump truck. Not the smoothest surface! I did wash and clean it well with a final wipe using isopropyl alcohol. I used a nice soft bristle brush to place it and nestle it into the surface then sealed it with a matt clear coat. It's held up pretty well.

Circa 1917-1920 Lombard Tractor-Truck and sleds on the streets of Lac Frontiere, Quebec. We currently have one of these beast undergoing mechanical work in preparation for a move to the Maine Forest & Logging Museum where it will be on long term loan. Few things can compare to the un-muffled sound of a 964 cubic inch T-head. Looks like this one was a hit with the local boys.

Walt, I am sorry to read this. I always enjoy greatly your posted content and fathomless depth of knowledge. However, I also understand having had content that I spent considerable effort researching and crafting messed about with. It’s the key reason I have not posted much for the last few months and of that I am very sparing.

Hello Charles, That could prove to be quite a challenge. Yours is the first "J" I have heard of in existence. As you probably are aware, there are quite few A and B models out there as well as at least three model L and several model P engines in existence which are in fire trucks. I have a model PT which is the tractor version of the P (5-3/4" x 7"). Are you missing blocks or are they cracked or otherwise unserviceable?

Sargent plow. They were designed so the tractor actually pulled the plow rather than pushing it.

Yes, bore and stroke at the very least.

Very good price with a lot of parts support and an active community.

Fantastic work Roger! Regardless of the title I always have to check and see how this amazing project is coming along. True craftsmanship! Thank you for sharing!

Little bit of but important clarification: The 1909-1910 Mercers used the Beaver built engines. Later Mercers 1911 versions used a Findley Robertson-Porter T-head. Yes, I wonder too who else bought these engines! I have found Beaver advertising through 1924 so they must of had a decent customer base. I suspect that most manufacturers that bought engines from outside suppliers tried to minimize that fact to maintain the impression that everything was made in-house. I find the same thing with Wisconsin engines as well. We know Stutz used them but outside of that not much is know in regards to who they supplied.

No connection with Wisconsin Motor Manufacturing. Beaver was based in Milwaukee with the parent company listed as Filer & Stowell Co. They appear to have maintained a pretty good level of advertising visibility in period publications. Their advertising targeted manufacturers of cars, trucks and tractors. This was a screen shot taken with my I-Pad so please excuse the un-cropped areas. I am pretty confident this engine powered the Mercer featured in the original post. T-Head, six cylinder, proper time frame and by Beaver of which Mercer used almost exclusively until the advent of the Delling designed L-Head. This was clipped from “The Automobile Trade Journal” (February 1913). Note the reference to 1913 being the “…sixth successful year building six-cylinder motors”

Mercer sourced engines from Beaver though one source claims that Finley Robertson Porter tuned them if you will. However I cannot find any primary source material that supports that. The outlier are the race cars built I believe in 1908 under the Roebling-Planche name that used a beast of an engine that may have been designed by Etienne Planche but no one knows for sure. Remember also that Finley Robertson Porter seemed to have an affinity for large four cylinder engines as witnessed by his development of the big thumping four cylinder, overhead cam FRP and his swan song Porter automobile which used the FRP engine as well. As far as I know, until the introduction of the later L-head, the T-heads used by Mercer were traditional T-heads with no separate head. Since Mercer, like many other manufacturers, purchased their engines from various suppliers, they seem to have tended to keep that knowledge hush hush to a certain degree. For instance there are a number of period articles on the various Mercers which dive into great detail on the engines but seldom mention that they were supplied by an outside source. the later Mercer L-Head was designed in-house by Eric H. Delling who later designed and attempted to bring to market a fascinating steam automobile. Do a Google Books search for Mercer automobile, Beaver engines etc. Pretty cool period articles crop up. It can quickly turn into a very deep rabbit hole!

I was always understood that Mercer purchased motors from Beaver Manufacturing while Stutz did in fact use Wisconsin T-Heads. All of Wisconsin’s 6 cylinder motors were large, low rpm (1200-1400) beasts designed for marine, truck, tractor or industrial use.

Back on February 17th we had our winter event at the museum. This got me thinking about a set of skis for the 10 ton Lombard Tractor-Truck. These machines were designed for winter use with skis for steering, however the factory also offered a kit that allowed wheels to be swapped for the skis. This particular machine was purchased new by the city of Waterville, Maine in 1934 and used for plowing and either lost the skis at some point or never had a set. anyway, with the Tuesday crews help we have logs on the way to the mill and will shortly have 5x8 Timbers to cut out the skis from. Being a logging museum with a fully functional mill complex and having plenty of salvage logs after a recent winter storm makes this aspect of the project that much easier. Today, Paul removed the pedestals, stock and axle from another Lombard that is in the restoration queue. now we just need to gather it all together and purchase the steel and fasteners. Update: 3-5-2024 It being a beautiful day at the Museum, with the infamous Tuesday Crew out and about working on various project, Charlie, Aaron and Byron ran the logs through our vintage Hackett & Witham sawmill. so we now have some lovely 5”x8” Timbers to work with.

Of more recent vintage, the short lived but clever Costin Amigo comes to mind which used a wood chassis.

If only Pebble was an event held in snow country

They have a wonderful video on as well: