Tractor Dave's visit

Lee Mys     Dave Rottier    Dave Wolfsen aka Tractor Dave

Tractor Dave standing next to his 1951, 1953 and 1999 International Truck

Today I had the privilege to meet an amazing man he goes by the name of Tractor Dave. As I was sitting working on my next blog post ( yes, I know it is a day late) three gentlemen walked through the Museum doors. It was then that Tractor Dave introduced himself and his two friends at the time I did not remember their name at the time. Tractor Dave told me about his mission, he is driving across the United State. He started his journey on June 1, 2011 on a 1937 Co-op tractor. His plan is to visit all 48 states while stopping to talk to Americans about ending hunger and to help give relief to disaster survivors. Tomorrow, Tractor Dave will be speaking at the Prinsburg First Christian Church about two topic and about his adventure he is having while he travels across the U.S. Dave is raising funds for

CRWRC-Disaster Response Services, CRWRC Food Security Programs, and Foods Resource Bank.

CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) and the FRB (Foods Resource Bank)

If you are interested in hearing about his adventures you are invited to stop out and hear him speak here is the address it is the Prinsburg First Christian Church 106 6th Street Prinsburg, MN United States (320) 978-4581

Prinsburg, Minnesota, is in Kandiyohi county and it is 66 miles SW of St. Cloud, Minnesota (center to center) and 94 miles W of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The city has a population of 458.

He gave me some flyer to put in the Museum if anyone is interested stop in and pick one up or check out his web site www.TractorRideAcrossUS.org while there fill out a donation form and give. As Tractor Dave and his two friends went through the museum I stepped outside for some fresh air and noticed a gray international semi truck. I took a few pictures and when Tractor Dave and his two friend exited the museum. I asked about the truck he had arrived in and he told me. It is a 1953 Extended Cab International Semi (ok, I know what you are thinking they didn’t make extended cab semi’s in 1953, and you would be right.)Dave use the body from 1951 truck (I know he told me what it was but for some reason I didn’t write it down) and the chassis from a 1999 low profile 4700 ambulance and feature a DT466E International with a 5 speed Allison air ride. He uses this truck to pull a 36 foot fifth wheel travel trailer.

Here are a few places Dave has been so far and a few dates left on this leg of his journey, July 5^th Winamac, IN, July 6^th Tipton, IN, July 6^th Westfield, IN, July 7^th Wingate, IN, July 8^th Pennfield, IL, July 8^th Urbana, IL, July 9^th Decatur, IL, July 10^th Mount Olive, IL, July 11^th Travel day, July 12^th Keytesville, MO, July 13^th Quincy, IL, July 14^th Chillicothe, MO, July 15^th Chillicothe, MO, July 16^th Travel day, July 17^th Fairfax, MO, July 18^th Friend, NE, July 19^th Malcolm, NE, July 20^th Wayne, NE, July 21^st Canistota, SD, July 22^nd Volga, SD, July 23^rd Sioux Falls, SD, July 24^th St Peter, MN, July 25^th Mountain Lake, MN, July 26^th Fairfax, MN, July 27^th Travel day, July 28^th Spicer, MN, July 29^th ,30^th ,31^st & August 1^st Prinsburg, MN, August 2^nd Edgerton, MN, August 3^rd Sioux Falls, SD, August 4^th Sioux Center, IA, August 5^th Cherokee, IA, August 6^th Lohrville, IA, August 7^th Fort Dodge, IA, August 8^th Travel day, August 9^th Urbandale, IA, August 10^th Pella, IA, August 11^th Waterloo, IA, August 12^th Hazel Green, WI, August 13^th & 14^th Oosburg, WI, August 15^th Fremont, MI.

Thanks again for stopping in Tractor Dave and good fortune on your journey.

May God protect and bless you.

1986 Minikin

1986 Minikin built in St.Cloud, MN. Front view 1986 Minikin side view Minikin In 1983 D & A Vehicles (USA) first introduce the Minikin to the public after acquiring the rights of the Freeway. H.M. Vehicles produced over 700 Freeways before they went into bankrupt. Mechanically the Minikin is almost identical to the Freeway it would use the 16 hp 453.25cc Tecumseh engine, which was a air cooled four stroke engine. The Minikin allows two people to be seated side by side, just like in a regular car. The Minikin utilized the frame work and running gears from the Freeway and was featured as a soft top convertible, the body had a different look than it counterpart but it was still made of fiberglass with a (gel coat) finish. The Minikin could be purchase in yellow, orange and red. When researching the Minikin, all I could find out was that D & A Vehicles was based out of St. Cloud, Minnesota. In 1983 D & A had placed a few two page ads in bubble notes for the Minikin in local publications. only 17 Minikins were produced between 1983 when they started production to 1986 when they stopped production.  When researching the Minikin I was only able to find a few articles written about the Minikin and the Freeway. I did not find any mention of the car in any of the small car publication. So if you have any more information on the Minikin or even the Freeway it would be a great help. Just send me at email at schwankemuseum@yahoo.comit would be appreciated.

1981 HMV Freeway

1981 Freeway

I decided to write about the HMV Freeway because it is such a unique vehicle. Below is the history of the Freeway the company was based here in Minnesota. The company was way before its time and I believe if the company would have succeed, we would see these cars everywhere today with fuel prices as high as they are today.

History of the Freeway

Burnsville

In the 1970’s Detroit believe that anything above 20 MPG was considered “ECONOMY “and when they said “IMPROVED” it meant that the car was bigger and heavier than the model year before. Even in the 1980’s Detroit manufactures believe that it was “IMPOSSIBLE” to improve the fleet of cars being made to average 25 mile per gallon. Ask yourself why then are the cars being manufacture today getting 30 to 50 MPG. Part of the reason many of today’s cars have better fuel mileage is because of big government stepping in and forcing manufactures into developing new and better fuel efficient automobiles. But back in the 70’s one man had a plan to build a more economical vehicle. His name was Dave Edmonson of Burnsville Minnesota. Now Dave took the guild lines that the government of the time had set and did just that he built small and light.

Dave started his project in 1970; he would compete in SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) contest where real life mileages were based on actual road driving conditions. By 1977, Dave would come up with a design that would blow the competition away. The design looked nothing like anything anyone else was designing at the time and he would call it the Freeway. Dave would win the contest hands down. The Freeway would blow everyone out of the water with its 80.3 MPG and then again in 1978 with 88.3 MPG’s. Ok so you are thinking to yourself Dave had to be using some exotic technology that he invents but he didn’t. He just use a simple idea that would stump the big 3 for years to come and that idea was to make it smaller and lighter.

With trials finished Dave sought financial backing and found backer who would help get his company off the ground. So in early 1979 David Edmonson would begin production at his plant in Burnsville Minnesota.  He would offer two body styles and three types of engines, the open air Freeway it would be his less expensive model which would feature a smaller engine and a snap down cover. The second choice was the more expensive freeway 2, which was the fully enclosed all weather vehicle it featured a larger engine and more standard features. Both freeway were powered by Tecumseh engines the 340 guaranteed that it would get 100 MPG’s at a steady 40 MPH this motor was the featured engine for the open air Freeway. The 450 Tecumseh was expected to get 80 MPG at 40 MPH but with more power. Top speeds were around 65 MPH with great handling and fast acceleration. There was also an electric model that was offer but because of the range it had was not a popular model, it could only go 20 miles at 40 MPH before it would need to be recharged.

With the factory set up and production schedules posted, documents published and order taken all was ready to begin production.  Then David Edmondson’s financial backing fell through which meant David wound need to restructure his production. One of the moves he made was to scale back production, then move his production facilities to another location and to start manufacturing on a smaller scale. This did not stop him from adding more options to his all weather hard top. He would offer a standard model and a deluxe model. The deluxe model featured front fenders, a bent bumper and dual headlights.

When production began in late 1979 they only had 200 orders, only after posing for a newspaper article with his prototype did the orders begin to pour in. The orders would increase to over a thousand. It was then that they realized that people wanted this car. Many were willing to put up a small refundable deposit for this unique vehicle. But when production slowed down some people withdrew their deposits. David Edmonson would write a letter to them explaining the delay in production many would reinstate their deposits.

Deliveries on some orders were over a year behind originally expected. Some orders were not delivered till august of 1980. Even though David was short of funds David was still able to make new molds and frames along with retooling and completed the first six production cars to roll of the floor in early march. In April they realized that they had enough part to build 50 more cars. It was said that they had shipped out those 50 cars in May of 1980. It soon became hard for the company to get part because of the shortage of funds and many suppliers were demanding cash up front before they would ship part thus making it hard to maintain production and each freeway required 30 hours of work to complete. To make things worst approximately 2/3 of the original order were canceled before they were able to get shipped out.

The Freeway is small but can still be easily seen by other drivers. The high mileage is due to the fact that it is very light and only weights 750 lbs. they structured the body so that the car was very aerodynamics.  The bottom or as others may call it the belly of the car is enclosed in a smooth shell, the drag coefficient is low and surface area even less. The freeway offers two fuel tanks a 3 or 9.5 gallon tank it was estimated that you could get 900 miles on a single tank. When a deluxe model was ordered it was shipped with items that were optional on the standard. This included the oil filter & heater, the larger engine and fuel tank, and a complete instrument package.

Because of their size and for safety reasons you had the choice of having your car painted yellow, orange and red, with other colors optional. The frame used a ladder design for added strength and safety. One of the weak spot was the door area so a 3 point safety harness was standard. It has been reported that the car could rolled or flipped over there have been no reports of anyone suffering more than bruising. There has been a reported of a head on with a full size truck and the Freeway was knocked off the road and the driver only received a few bruised, but the other vehicle and its passengers received far more damage. The fog lights or side marker lights and the single bright headlight offered plenty of light for night visibility. There had been many changes, but the basic design on the freeway remained unchanged.

The Freeway had a variety of engines that could be purchased. The Tecumseh gas engine was available in 340, 390 or 450cc that could produce 12 to 16hp. The Freeway also has an Italian diesel and electric motor powered versions that were also available. The Freeway used a power transferred through a variable ratio belt drive it was the same kind of drive used on snowmobiles this would provided automatic transmission. The rear pulley was mounted on a shaft and that would transfers power to the rear wheel via chain drive. Reverse was available although it was only on the Deluxe models. A small motor drive and gears were used but they could not get them manufactured at an affordable price. A heater was available and it used the oil that was pumped thru the engine then through a filter then through a under dash oil cooler. Some models had the oil cooler moved then they would slip a factory fan housing over it and that would help keep the windshield clear. I have heard that there were 15 or more Freeway that had the electric motor and there were no diesels. The mid-sized 390 engine was another engine that was not used in the Freeway. The stock Freeway had most of the weight on the rear wheel, as both the motor, drive, and 4 batteries were mounted behind the seat. A DOT report states the electrics were extremely unstable cars.

1981 Freeway as displayed here at Schwanke Museum

The Freeway 340 guaranteed 100 MPG at a steady 40 MPH, or your money back now what other company at the time could make that kind of statement. OK Big 3 let’s see if you can top that one even today! About 700 freeways were sold before the company went bankrupt in 1982 but the freeway would live on in June 1982 and Minikin bought the rights to build the Freeway in the bankruptcy procedures but they only produced 15 cars in 1984 and that was a 2 seat convertible.

When HMV went out of business they paid many of their outstanding bills with excess inventory and gave other cars away rather than have them ship them back to the Burnsville plant. In one case 3 cars were given to an employee to compensate for wages.

1921 Overland 4 cylinder Touring and 1930 Willys 6 cylinder Sedan

1921 Overland Touring  4 cylinder 

side view of the 1921 Overland Touring

Another front view of the 1921 Overland Touring

1921 Overland Badge

front view showing where the placement of the badge is on the 1921 Overland

1930 Willys 6 cylinder Sedan

rear view 1930 Willys Sedan

Side view of 1930 Willys Sedan

Willys Badge

Willys Overland Automobile Company History

When looking into the history of the Overland I found that Claude E Cox designed and built the first Overland’s and took the first test drive on February 12^th, 1903. With little or no money at all Cox’s would be initially financed by the Standard Wheel Company. Mr. Cox operated at the Standard Wheel Company’s plant which resided at 671 Ohio St., Terre Haute, Indiana and after a boiler explosion at the plant a year later Standard Wheel Company lost interest but Cox was able to buy the fledgling company for $8,000.

Cox realized he would need more money so he approached David M. Parry and on March 31^st, 1906  they created the Overland Automobile Company. Cox and Parry would incorporate the company with Fifty One percent of the share being owned by Parry and Cox would have Forty Nine percent of the shares. Parry made his fortune in manufacturing two wheel horse drawn carts; unfortunately a short but severe economic depression in 1907 would see Parry’s two wheel cart empire come crashing down around him, even to the extent of Parry losing his house.

Sometime during the spring/summer of 1907 the Overland Automobile Company had received and order for 500 cars from John N. Willys and a deposit of ten thousand dollars. When early fall came around he began to wonder why he had not began to received any of his cars, it was then that Mr. Willys decided to take a little trip to the factory and when he got to the company, he found that there were not any cars that were complete, just a few partially assembled ones. It also came to his attention that the company would not have enough money to pay the weeks wages let alone finish his order. It was then he decided to purchase controlling stock in the company. With some financial backing from friend from Elmira, he gained control of the Overland Automobile Company. He was able to keep the company out of bankruptcy thus keeping the company going.

 
Willys would go on to reorganize the company, he started by making important upgraded to the production facilities, a new factory would be built in the summer of 1908. Demands were beginning to exceed the capacity of both plants, even though production of the current Model 24 had totaled 465 vehicles that was ten times more than what they had done in 1907.

With sales soaring and production numbers up, the need for expansion became an important issue. In 1909, Willys would acquire the Marion Motor Car Company of Ohio. Then in September Willys bought the Pope plant in Toledo, Ohio. The Pope plant was huge and one of the more modern plant of the day. It proved to be a bargain at the cost of $285,000 because of the surplus material he was able to sell off.

 
Willys would reorganize and change the name of the company to Willys Overland Motors; the reorganization was done by using the Toledo plant as the empire capital. The Overland Model 38 was the first model to come out of the plant in Toledo. They would replace the epicyclic transmission with the Sliding gear transmissions replaced; this was an interesting fact when you consider that in1909 Ford would introduced the ever popular Model T, and it would use the epicyclic transmission right through to 1927.

 That same year Claude Cox would leave to follow a career in photography, he would also go on to obtaining patents on new instruments he would invent and new processes that he would create with his inventive and creative mind.
The Willys Overland facility in Indianapolis would be used for component assembly work only by 1911. The Willys Overland vehicles were growing in popularity and production figures reached 18,745 and this was compared to Fords production figures which were at 34,979 in the fall of 1911. With production up and sales figure moving up Willys Overland became the second largest producer of automobiles in 1912 only one other car company had more cars in production and that was Ford. Willys Overland would add the Garford plant in Elyria, Ohio in 1912; this helped keep Willys Overland in the second place position behind Ford until 1918.

Willys Overland offers many different cars the more expensive cars would carry the Willys badge and the lower costing brand would carry the badge of the Overland and by 1917 the consumers were offered the choice of Overland, Willys or Willys Knight depending on their budget and choice of engine sleeve valve or poppet valve. J.N. Willys preferred the Willys Knight over any other vehicles his plants produced, but he could see that the Overland’s cheaper poppet valve were his "bread and butter". There were many Overland models the car company offered, but it was the cheaper ones that sold in the higher volumes and this was even more evident during the war years 1914-1918. Sales margins were tight during the war years, but when a serious strikes that directly follow the war threatened to cripple the Willys Overland empire still fought to overcome the challenges. Whilst the Willys Knight vehicles proved the companies excellence at precision engineering it was the Overland line of vehicles that would put the company back on its feet.

Willys Overland produced a succession of 4 cylinder models which were designated 4, 4A, 91 and 91A - all on 100 inch wheelbases from 1920 - 1926. 1923would be another year Willys would introduce another 4 cylinder model designated Model 92, it would sit upon a 106 inch wheelbase many collector remember this as the Bird series. Red Birds had red bodies, Black Birds had black bodies and Blue Birds of course had blue body’s collector also know them simply as the Overland Four. The goal of the company was to sell the car for $500 to compete with the Ford Model T. Because of the war the prices for steel had increased along with the labor cost increase thus making it hard to compete with Ford so the cost for a 1920 would ended up at $845 or more.
The total combined production of the 4 cylinder models 4, 4A, 91, 91A and 92 over the August 1919 to May 1926 period amounted to some 642,000 vehicles. All of Willys Overland vehicles would use the Triplex 3 point cantilever spring system consisting of 2 quarter elliptic springs mounted at angles at both the front and rear of the car. However the 6 cylinder Model 93 would use a conventional semi elliptic springing.

 The 1921 model year Overland Four Touring car that is featured in the Schwanke Museum is a 4 door touring car. This model features rear wheel drive, courtesy of a front-mounted inline 4 cylinder engines with a capacity of 2.3 liters. It produces a maximum power output of 27.4 PS (27 bhp) (20.1 kW), which is transmitted to the wheels via a 3 speed manual transmission. The car sits on a wheelbase of 2540 mm.

also featured in the museum is a 1930 Willys 6 Cylinder Sedan

Below is a time line of the Overland and the Willys Overland motors

1906: Overland Automobile Company founded by Claude E. Cox
1908: John North Willys buys the Overland Automotive Division of Standard Wheel Company.
1912: John North Willys renames the Willys Overland Division to Willys-Overland Motor Company.
1936: Coming out of bankruptcy following the Great Depression, the company is reorganized as Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.
1940: Working from a Bantam Car Company design, Willys contracts to build military Jeeps for the war and produces about 360,000 vehicles by 1945.
1945: Willys-Overland begins producing the Civilian Jeep (CJ) line, with the introduction of the CJ2A model.
1946: Production begins on the Willys Jeep Wagon. Over 300,000 are manufactured between 1946 and 1965. Initially the all-steel wagons are only available in a burgundy and cream color scheme, the appearance of which suggested the "Woodie" wagon look typically found on wagons of this era. 1947 Production begins on the Willys Jeep Truck. From 1947 to 1965, more than 200,000 are manufactured.
1948: Production begins on the Willys Jeepster. Only 19,000 vehicles are manufactured from 1948 to 1950.

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1954 - 1955 Minneapolis Moline

One of the two tractors that are feature outside the museum is a 1954 - 1955 ZB Minneapolis - Moline. The ZB features a tricycle front end and used a 206-ci  four-cylinder engine with a 3 5/8 x 5 inch bore and stroke and had 36-horsepower. If interest the tractor is forsale, it runs very well. You can give us a call or send us an email.

Minneapolis Moline

The Minneapolis-Moline company was formed in 1929 after a merger between three established companies. Moline Implement Company, est 1852, the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, est.1887, and the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company, est. 1902.
The newly joined company kept the production going with their production of the Twin City models this was a carryovers of the formally built Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company. Production of this tractor continued through 1934 and was followed by many other popular models of tractors - one of the most extensive in the industry at that time.

More on Minneapolis - Moline later in my blog