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Funky Farmer: 1950 Crosley Farm-O-Road

Most of us have seen Crosley cars of one variety or another and some of us have seen Crosley pickups, but have you seen one of these? This is a 1950 Crosley Farm-O-Road and it’s listed on eBay in Kent, Washington. The bidding is just over $3,700 currently, but the reserve isn’t met. This one will sell for $8,000 to $10,000+ or I’ll eat my hat, as they may have said in 1950.

This is a neat little thing. This Farm-O-Road has been “restored”, but the color isn’t super appealing compared to the bright, toy-like colors that they offered. Also the Superman theme is.. different, and it probably won’t appeal to a lot of buyers who may have to repaint portions of it to get rid of those logos. Crosley made the Farm-O-Road from 1950 to 1952 to take advantage of the agricultural market and a lot of them that you’ll see have dual rear wheels with aggressive tread for farm duty. They were meant to use as a tractor, or at least for light-duty tractor uses, and then a person could take off one tire from each side in the rear and go to town, literally.

This Farm-O-Road is the pickup style and they also made a dump box model. This model doesn’t appear to have the optional dual rear wheels which would have added to the value and the seats look like they need some help. Both a front and rear PTO was optional which Hagerty says adds $1,500 to the value. Speaking of that, Hagerty lists a #3 good-condition Farm-O-Road as being valued at $7,500 and a #2 excellent, condition model as being worth $12,300. This one has to be close to the #2 condition but I personally think that the color will hold the price down a bit. If it were a standard light, lime green model I bet the bid price would be double this already. The light green color was standard for the F-O-R but they could have been ordered in any Crosley color. I’m assuming that this is most likely a Jeep tribute or something, I don’t think that it’s an original Crosley color, but I could be mistaken. I would have strongly suggested that they not go through the trouble of doing a nut-and-bolt restoration and then painting it this color if they were going to sell it.

According to the Crosley Auto Club website, the Farm-O-Road “used a stock Crosley transmission with a 4:1 Auxiliary transfer case that also supplied power to optional front and rear Power Take Off.” The only information that the seller gives about this one is “no rust, body off restoration.” It would be fun to own something like this if a person had some land/acreage where they could drive it off-road. I don’t know if anyone would actually use one of these for farm duties anymore, at least for plowing or anything like that. There are three speeds and a reverse Warner gear, but six forward gears are available because an “auxiliary transmission unit follows the main transmission, with the shifting lever permitting direct drive through this unit or four-to-one reduction to the rear axle”, according to a 1950 Crosley company letter to dealers. Fancy!

This is Crosley’s CIBA (Cast Iron Block Assembly) 44 cubic-inch inline-four with 26.5 hp! The F-O-R weighs around 1,100 pounds and would reportedly do around 40 to 50 mph. After Crosley went out of business in July of 1952, Crofton Marine Engineering bought the rights to the Farm-O-Road and created the Crofton Bug from 1959 to 1963. The seller has this Farm-O-Road listed as a 4WD, but of course it’s just rear-wheel drive. Some owners jokingly said that they had 4WD because there were four rear wheels and they were the drive wheels. Have any of you seen a Crosley Farm-O-Road before?

Comments

  1. giorgitd

    Superman logos appear to be on floor mats, easy to fix that. Is that a blue and white Crowley in the lead photo?

    Like 0
    • GB Fisher

      Metropolitan- first edition- no trunk lid or wind wings. Likely an original color combination.

      Like 0
    • Mike

      You have to be Superman to pinch your cheeks together to grab enough of the seat cushion to keep yourself in the car.

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    • Scotty Gilbertson Staff

      giorgitd, if you click on the highlighted / underlined word, Superman, you’ll see the Superman logo painted on the hood. I thought that everyone knew about clicking on the red highlighted words, sorry about that. I’m not worried about tossing some floor mats out, I’m worried about repainting the hood.

      Like 0
      • harold

        Thanks for the info.

        Like 0
    • Solosolo UK KEN TILLY Member

      Superman logo on the hood as well.

      Like 0
    • Guggie 13

      Nash Metropolitian in the back ground

      Like 0
  2. geomechs geomechs Member

    Sure is a cute little devil. If I brought that home I’d have some grandkids quarrelling over it; it’s just their size. Well, some have yet to grow into it. Never heard of one before. I LIKE the Superman mats!

    Like 1
  3. Ben T. Spanner

    Crosley certainly offered a variety of vehicles, sedan, station wagon, pickup, convertible, and 2 roadsters, plus the Farm-o-Roads.

    Every Crosley i have seen in person,(I’m old) or on line was very small. They certainly didn’t stock a full line of vehicles.

    Like 0
    • Andy

      First you say they certainly offered a variety of vehicles, then you say they certainly didn’t stock a full line of vehicles. Both can’t be right. Considering that Powel Crowley only wanted to sell small cars, he deserves a lot of credit for offering so many body styles. Would you knock Cadillac for only offering V8s for forty years? That’s who they were. By the way, there’s a gift shop in Lake George, NY, that has a Crosley fire engine in it, so that’s one more body style, and one of the few fire engines small enough to be a prop in a gift shop.

      Like 0
  4. John D.

    The first one I have seen was several weeks ago when I watched the videos of Haggerty’s Great Race. The Norwegian Team had one to use in the ‘pits’ and the host of the videos used it one day to tour the paddock. I had never heard of it before. I think I would still rather have a Mini Moke.

    BTW, your page is back to hanging up.

    Like 0
  5. DrinkinGasoline

    Crosley automobiles earned their reputation in American automotive history, as did other companies such as White, etc. Crosley was a well diversified company with many subsidiaries. They were not a “pigeon hole” corporation.

    Like 0
  6. Oddimotive Cason Oddimotive Cason Member

    I’m strangely drawn to these. Look up Crofton Bug for something related and even more obscure…

    Like 0
  7. Tom

    This is awesome. Never saw one before but love it!

    Like 0
  8. greg weaver

    the superman on the hood is not painted on. it is a vinyl sticker.
    I know this because I built this from the ground up.
    Where is this car now ?

    Like 2

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