B crawler?

[Crawler440]

anybody seen one?Any info onthem?I know someone who has one!!!

[Lavoy]

Do you mean B, or BO Lindeman?
Lavoy

[Crawler440]

Not sure.He just said it was a B.I never heard of one.

[jdemaris]

anybody seen one?Any info onthem?I know someone who has one!!!

It was orchard tractors only. I've had two of them. Basically the first crawler Deere ever sold, although Deere did not make the crawler conversion parts. They were made by Lindemann Brothers in Washington State 1939-1947. The conversion kit was offered on either the B orchard tractors (BO) - or the larger G.

I've had two Lindeman BO crawlers, but never had nor have I seen a G in my area in New York.

[Crawler440]

I'm told this is pre-Lindeman!

[Lavoy]

Nothing I have ever heard of earlier than the Lindemans. My guess is he was talking about a Lindeman.
The Lindemans were built on predominately BO chassis, although there were a handful of BR's and 1 BI.
There were never made on the G chassis, it was the GPO chassis which predates the BO. Only roughly 27 GPO Lindemans ever built, and they are in the really big bucks range now.
The Lindeman boys did a couple of D's on tracks about the same time Deere put some D's on half tracks. None of the D Lindamans are known to exist, but a gentleman in OR built one from scratch that is really neat.
One of the half-track D's sold in Western ND last fall, but it was on steel, none of the crawler components were on it.
I know of a crawler made on a styled B, but it was built with OC3 Cletrac undercarriage, in fact it will be on the fall Polk auction this Labor Day.
Lavoy

[Crawler440]

This tractor is unsyled,GP look.

[Lavoy]

Then it is almost certainly a Lindman.
Lavoy

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Yes, that must be a BO Lindemann. They are fairly rare, but there's still quite a few here and there. I always wanted one myself.

My uncle had a GPO Lindemann. It sat next to one of the few remaining Model C wheel tractors in the showroom area of our Pine Plains, NY JD dealership back in the 1970's.

The Model C was recalled by Deere way back when to be replaced with the GP, but some of them never made it back and he had one of them. So, since the C became the GP and then the GPO, he had a tractor and crawler pair much like I do with a 420c and a 430w.

When he told Deere to 'Stuff It' in 1982, he dropped back to only the Copake, NY location, which was a Ford franchise by that time. He didn't put the C and the GPO-Lindemann into that building, as they'd have little appeal in a Ford shop. He bought an old Boy Scout camp and stuffed his collection into a large metal building out there.

The last I saw either of them was in 1984. Someone offered him too much $$$ for them, and so they went away. That was one thing about my Uncle. He was never too attached to anything such that a wad of dough wouldn't induce him to part with something!

Later!

Stan

[Crawler440]

This man says it's pre-Lindeman.He assures me of this.

[snoopy]

How about a picture or two?

[Lavoy]

The GPO was produced from 31-35, the BR/BO and B were not introduced until 1936. Given that the Lindemans were producing GPO crawlers before the B was introduced, and switched to the BO chassis as soon as it was introduced would make it impossible for any B related crawler to pre-date the Lindemans. I do not know your friend, but I believe he is mistaken. If you could post a pic, that will most likely answer all the questions.
Lavoy

[Ray III]

Could be a custom job.

[jdemaris]

This man says it's pre-Lindeman.He assures me of this.

The first crawler in recorded history that Jesse Lindeman built onto a Deere tractor was the model D, not the General Purpose nor the B Orchard. So, to be technical - the first Deere tractor converted to a crawler by Lindeman is the D. It has tracks and rollers from a Best 30 crawler. John Deere Company also made a few D crawlers with their own parts - but they never went beyond the prototype stage.

Considering the fact that Lindeman was a Deere and Cletrac dealer- seems he may of built many one-of-a-kind crawlers that did NOT make the history books.

One note about the Deere General Purpose tractor. I've read several large Deere history books, and a few dealing with the Lindeman brothers. Some of the recorded facts differ a bit. The best I can tell - John Deere Company hired Jesse Lindeman to transform the Deere General Purpose wheel tractor into the General Purpose Orchard model - and from there - the Lindeman crawler conversion was added. So, it seems that even the General Purpose wheel tractor was a creation of Lindeman.

[jdemaris]