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
Amazing history. LARGE buildings on one mile square. Thanks.
At around 1968, 1969 the dream of every teenager in Greece was a pack of Marlboro!
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!
Yeah, funny, “smart enough” to not put their hands in a belt, but not smart enough to not smoke cigarettes. As a healthcare community, we’re still paying the price for that.
To review a comment that didn’t make it over the pass, apparently, 3 of my 4 grandparents all smoked, Kent, I believe and my grandfather smoked cigars. At family gatherings, there was a cloud of smoke, and my mom was a nurse, and never once thought about 2nd hand smoke. Riding in cars too, it was too cold to have a window open, we took in a lot of smoke.
My grandfather, the Packard one, was also a Sears guy, EVERYTHING in his house was Sears.
Love this!!! I can remember being a really little kid, going to Sears and my parents letting me pretend to drive their tractors that were on display. 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.
Sears must’ve been Acme’s only competition, in the day. They sold virtually anything manufactured.
I grew up in a Sear Roebuck house! I even have a reproduction catalog of models and, of course, our house had to be one of the last (1932) and apparently a one-off as it doesn’t appear in the book.
Then there were the pre-WW1 Sears auto, the Henry J/Allstate, Vespa-built scooter and Puch-built motorcycles. Oh, and David Bradley farm equipment.
My Sears “Suburban” was a ’67, essentially this same machine but with a 3 + R (x2) manual gearbox. Put thousand of hours on it over 30 years hauling firewood, plowing and blowing snow, grading the driveway, etc. Most of it was at full chat on that poor Tecumseh engine which once swallowed a throttle plate screw which did a nice peening job on piston dome and head. (pulled the head, recovered and reinstalled it in carb, buttoned it up and ran it another 15 years!) The only problem with the engine was that the compression release lobe on the cam (push rod?) wore off and often had to turn engine to back of prior compression stroke in order to get the “oomph” to kick it over.
Fun write-up SG.
Cigarette lighter: I’m thinking about the men (there would not have been any women) back in the 60’s doing the design/engineering for this lawn tractor. They are sitting in a room, drawing crude diagrams on the chalk board. (No computers, maybe not even anything like an overhead projector). They come to the “instrument panel.” Someone says (as they light up a Winston), don’t forget the cigarette lighter. It would not have even generated any discussion; of course, it needed that function.
Scotty with front wheel drive and rear steering are you sure you’re not driving it backkwards? I have an early 70s Sears tractor with a twin Onan engine and a hydraulic powered front bucket It even has power down it will lift the front of the tractor off the ground by pushing down
Ha!
Here’s a video of one in action on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYFbAGJ0IXs&t=3s
We had a ’59 Sears 12 horse. Bought it for nothing in 1979, and had it til 2015! Retired it from mowing in the 80’s, but equipped with tire chains, and homemade wheel weights? That thing would plow snow like a beast! Plus, with the low range transmission, we pulled out many a car and truck that got stuck on our undedicated road, that the city always “forgot” to plow. Sold it for $500 at the estate sale, when Dad passed.
I bought it. Seller was a nice guy, threw in some touch up paint. It seems to run well, looking forward to taking care of it.
Congratulations 🥳
Hey, that’s super cool, Super 12 Buyer! Congratulations!
Here’s my Bolens Articulator. I’ve only played with it, as just after I got it running and moving, the steering cable broke. I had several projects going at the same time and haven’t gotten back to it. The steering is similar to boat steering and I’m sure finding actual parts would be difficult. I’m retired now so this would be a fun day project.
I joined the sales team at Sears Roebuck in Toledo, Ohio in the department selling these tractors, fencing, and the yard equipment. My sales manager was a former marine drill, sergeant. He hired only veterans to sell in the department. One of the requirements was to deliver these tractors to the customerafter we sold them. I had a 70 1/2 Camaro that I used for my delivery vehicle with the Sears provided trailer.
After delivering a tractor one morning, I was driving down an old bumpy country road and then my peripheral vision, I saw the trailer passing me in the ditch. Luckily, the farmer that owned the that the trailer ended up in, helped me get the trailer back on the car and I was still able to make it back to the store when it opened.
We sold so many tractors that year that we actually had to drive to other stores and take their display models as our sales. Sears in their infinite wisdom would not order any more than 10% of the products we sold for the previous year for the upcoming year. That was going to limit my income and that’s what got me into a successful real estate career.
Thank you Sears!
My in-laws had everything Sears (including stock) since grandfather retired from 40 years at Sears headquarters in Chicago. He would always go in early, turn on the lights and make sure the heating systems were operational. And then sit down have some coffee and wait until it was time to punch in. One morning old man Sears came in while grandpa was making his rounds and asked what he was doing. He explained his morning ritual. Old man Sears said that he should punch in before he did all that. So from then on, he came in 2 hours early (instead of 30 minutes) preformed his routine and drank coffee on company time.
I managed a cemetery for many years and bought a new Husqvarna tractor, the largest belt driven tractor one could buy, fantastic unit but a little weak pulling the real heavy loads. One of these showed up in town for $100, I jumped on it. It would pull a ton of dirt on a dump trailer and was in this condition, chrome hub caps and the lighter as well! When I left that job in 2008, I sold it for $700! Excellent little tractor, stout!
Back when I was a kid, Dad always got magazines such as Montana Farmer Stockman, and The Farm Quarterly. There were numerous ads for the “Wheelhorse” line of garden tractors. Until then the garden tractor was a machine with the (2-stroke) engine up front that was bolted to the transmission. It was a similar color to the early Cummins H thru J engines. They went by the name of “Roto-Tiller,” and had a live drive axle. I was in charge of mowing all the grass on the ranch headquarters and thought a garden tractor with a mover attachment would be a welcome change from the Lawnboy 20 inch, or the Sunbeam 18 inch electric. I showed the ads to Dad who glanced at them and turned the page to grain and cattle prices.
Well, in 1966, Dad finally broke down and bought a Cub Cadet 122 which we had until ’79 when the family sold the ranch. That little tractor was used for EVERYTHING including powering one of the grain augers. I took it to work the winter of ’74 and rebuilt the Kohler engine which was worn out.
We continued to use it until it was sold at the auction sale. The guy that bought it still has it…
My neighbor (when growing up) had a, cheapie mower/rider tractor. It was old I. The early ’60s. I was at his house goofing around with his son and he was fighting getting the tractor to start. He was sitting in the seat and his son cranked it. (By pull cord) after emptying a large portion of either down the carb. It coughed loudly and Dad bailed off the seat. The spark plug was aimed right at your crotch and it blew the plug right out of the cylinder head! Luckily for Dad, it first bounced off the seat brace before finding a place softer to land! I had never heard so many swear words in my young 14 years.I also heard some new ones! Luckily, our trash pickup included once a month large item pickup. The larger the item the more 6 packs you piled on the item you wanted hauled away. The next day was trash day and a 12 pack was sitting on the tractor at the curb. Dad walked kind of funny that day!
i have the same tractor but 1 yr newer that’s been sitting for 25yrs. paint not as nice as this1. this the only other 1 i have seen. shame it’s not in Nj i would snap it up.
Our household was all Sears products. Air conditioner, stove,refrigerator, pump in the basement for the well water and of course a rider 2 blade mower ,when pop retired from cutting grass he gave me the mower,when I left for AZ in 92′ I gave it to my brother.oh all hand tools rakes ,shovels etc.all Sears
I guess most American homes were overwhelming stocked with products from Sears & Roebuck.
Several years ago I bought a reproduction 1901 (?) Sears Catalog and it is fantastic. It has everything from ox plows to jaw breakers.
You can buy a trapdoor ’76 Springfield for $1.50 or a gasoline heated clothes iron for the Mrs.
Sears had a great setup. As a kid in the 60’s, early 70’s, I remember going to the Sears Catalog store in our town with my parents and they would order what they wanted right there. A couple of weeks later, the Sears truck rolled up to the house and delivered their new purchases.
I also remember there being a Sears Service Center – basically in a row of warehouses – a few towns over where you could drop off your stuff that needed to be repaired. Very convenient that they serviced almost everything that they sold.
I really hope that the readers who complain about Barn Finds featuring articles about items other then cars read all 24 comments (so far) on this item. I just did, and really appreciate all of the memories that readers share – so priceless!
This community is the best!
PRA4SNW….. I’d give 10 thumbs up on that comment if I could. Well said, and I couldn’t agree more.
Man, talk about a trip down memory-lane. Pops use to have an old Bolen that looked a lot like this. We thought it was so cool when he taught my brother and I to drive it. I was probably 8 or 9.
“Hey, you boys want to drive the tractor?” “YES PLEASE!”
1st gear: we do a couple laps puttering around the yard getting the hang of steering, braking, etc. Yep. We’re big boys now!
2nd gear: a few more laps around the yard thinking “Boy this is pretty fun! but we’ve gotta keep our wits about us amongst all these oak trees.”
3rd gear: WE HAVE ACHIEVED LUDICRUIOUS SPEED! This is too much fun!! WHEEEEEE! This is insanely fun! We’re flying off the face of the earth!
Dad calls me back over, and teaches us how to engage the mower, puts it in first gear then tells us to leave it there and mow the yard. He walks away having Tom Sawyer’d us knowing he will never have to cut the grass again for the next 20 years.
Suckers.
Q: How mad will your father get when he sees the little slices you cut into his steering wheel with a hacksaw for no good reason other than to marvel at the brown dust coming out of a white steering wheel?
A: Mad enough to take your beloved SSP toys and hacksaw them into a dozens of pieces.
I had an employee that had twin sons. (His wife threatened to leave home several times while they were growing up) The stories he relayed to us were just hysterical! But your story reminded me of one of those. He came home to a steaming mad wife. She said “go see YOUR son!” “Tell or show me why Mom is so mad?” Lenny leads Dad into the living room to show him cuts in the brand new sofa. “How did you do this?” “Lenny replies, With a razor blade.” Why? ” “I wanted to see how sharp it was.” OK, it was wrong to do this to the couch, but I can kind of understand the logic. But why did you do it 6 times? “It was fun Dad!” He almost turned inside out trying not to laugh!
The first episode of the Cosby Show, wife sends husband to discipline their son, he picks up a baseball bat propped in the corner, steps into the room and says “your mother has sent me up here to kill you”.
SSPs – Another great childhood memory!
Someone here at BF needs to do a writeup on those.
I have a much newer (and not as rugged or cool) 1981 John Deere 111 lawn tractor with a mower deck. My dad bought it for me at a yard sale for $40 when I was 9 years old. I used it until about 12 or 13 years ago when I was in high school and then I parked it. It needs a restoration but I haven’t gotten to it yet.