There’s a big world of vintage vehicle collectibles out there that doesn’t involve street-legal transportation. Who doesn’t want to avoid taxes, insurance, license plates, and all those things whenever possible? This 1969 Sears Hydro-Trac Super 12 lawn tractor can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in Chilton, Wisconsin, and the seller is asking $600. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the Hydro-Trac tip!
We’ve seen quite a few vintage garden tractors here on Barn Finds over the years, and they always seem to be fairly popular. I don’t know if it’s because a lot of folks are tired of the high prices of old vehicles, or because these things can be super fun to find, get working again, and even restore them back to looking like new, and keep the budget at a fraction of what a vintage car or truck would cost to own. These tractors came with a 7, 10, or 12-horsepower engine, and this is the big one. For $600, this is a no-brainer for a nice Sears-branded lawn tractor from the 60s. This one is just over 5 feet long, 3 feet wide, and weighs 725 pounds.
Or maybe it’s because these small vehicles are still powered by gas or sometimes diesel engines, so they involve a full range of skills to get them running and keep them running. Or to rebuild the engines and other systems, on a smaller scale than what it takes to do a car or truck, but on the same principles. Or for me, they’re just easier to store, and I don’t have to worry about license plates and all of that stuff. For all of my oddball vehicles, I only have one that’s licensed, the ’76 Honda CB200T, that’s it. You can see how nice this example looks, other than that one little wrinkle in the back of the left fender. It was available with either a 42-inch or 48-inch mid-mount mower deck, snowblower, and all sorts of attachments, 40 in total.
Sears offered this Roper-made lawn and garden tractor from 1968 through 1970, and please check out the Facebook link to hear this one running in the video. The steering wheel hub appears to be missing, and this one has not just working lights, but since this is a 1969 tractor and times were a bit different back then, it has a working lighter! How can you possibly think about mowing your lawn without having a smoke in the 1960s? Yes, this one has a lighter and it still works! Make mine a cigar. I found a couple of fun ads showing Hydro-Tracs, and also here. Roper made this model, having reportedly made their first tractor in the mid-1960s and built a business with Sears over the following few decades.
The engine is a Tecumseh HH120, a 12-horsepower single-cylinder with electric start. Power is sent through a Sundstrand hydrostatic transmission with forward and reverse. The seller says it starts, runs, and drives, and everything works, right down to the much-needed cigarette/cigar lighter (I love that feature). They say the tires are original but weathered. I’d want to change those ASAP, but otherwise, this beauty looks like it’s ready to work. Are any of you into vintage lawn tractors? If so, what do you have? I just have one, the super oddball 1960s Montgomery Ward Garden Mark (Yard-Man) with front-wheel drive and rear steering.
Now how cool is that?!
Garden tractors are great machines, this one is a bit lax on the gee-gaws, I had a similar vintage Simplicity Landlord, with a rear and front pto to run attachments, it seems all this can do is a mower deck. Images show attachments were hooked to the ball hitch, and pulled around with their own motor. The starter is also a generator, and a cig lighter is a bit much, but in 1969, almost half the population in America smoked. Even Dick Trickles race car had a cig lighter. The most popular cigarette? Why, that was Marlboro, of course. Nice find, looks like it could use a chrome stack, though, :)
Popular cigarettes were also dependent on the State that you lived in. Camel employed 30,000 people at its peak. I don’t think that you would want to pull out a pack of Marlboros in the lunchroom!
https://youtu.be/0phJhjvKlXQ?si=h_Kowgj76h0gRrfj
Too cool 👍 👍
Kinda looks like a Wheel Horse of the day. Mower deck/ snowblower ran off a belt on the right side, no guards, this was in the day when people were smart enough not to stick their hand in the belt!
Love this!!! I can remember being a really little kid, going to Sears and my parents letting me pretend to drive their tractors. I’m sure I was not the only one. I can still smell fresh cut grass and leaded gasoline. ( That and the smell of Lacquer paint is way up there on my favorites list). This looks very solid and glad to see it has 2 original wheel covers too. Those ads are great too, typical late 60’s style houses, people and clothing. This is great, thank you Scotty for writing this up and Lothar for finding it.