Baird Beaver Tractor

[papermaker]

I have a friend that deals in antiques. We both have the same interest in old farm equipment.He recently acquired a Baird Beaver Tractor.It's an early garden tractor from the 1950's powered by a Wisconsin engine . It has a tiller type steering. Just wondering if anyone has any other information about these tractors?

[Eugene]

Standard Catalog of Farm Tractors, Page 75: Beaver Tractor Company, Statford, Connecticut.

Beaver Garden Tractor. Trade directories list this firm as being the manufacturer of the Beaver garden tractors between 1948 and 1953 but aside from a single illustration, little information on this tractor has been found.

A photo is included. Tiller steering, bare bones tractor.

Nothing on Baird Beaver.

Try usbaird.com

[Jim Becker]

The Beaver Tractor Company first appeared in the Red Tractor Book in 1949. It appears that they were acquired by The Baird Machine Company some time between '53 and '57. They evidently had several variations, all similar. A steering wheel became an option in '57.

[Trent M]

Sounds interesting. I'd love to see a pic of the thing.

[Eugene]

Sounds interesting. I'd love to see a pic of the thing.

Web search.

There are a number of pictures. Apparently they are not as uncommon as the Standard Catalog of Farm Tractors indicate.

I also found it interesting that the Beaver company has a support section for their antique tractors. I didn't look into the site.

[papermaker]

Thanks for the information about the Beaver. I'll get a picture of the tractor the next time I visit.
I read somewhere that the company that made these was a tool and die company. The company owner needed a small narrow tractor to get around his property because the fields were connected by narrow paths that wouldn't accommodate a conventional sized tractor. I guess that explains the simplistic design.From there I guess they just took off. I did find a couple pictures of the tractor on YouTube.com Thanks again for the replies!!

[BigBill]

They were manufactured by the US Baird company in Stratford,Ct which is now out of business. They were a machine tool company which manufactured Piston manufacturing Chuckers, fore slides which made ignition point plates(example) these machines could bend 4 sides of sheetmetal plates one shot forming. They also manufactured drum turning deburring/polishers too. But the piston machine was the one to watch when i worked there. This machine popped out either one or two pistons every 7 seconds depending on the setup and tooling a finished turned piston came out. The only other operation it needed was the piston pin bore to be machines. Most of the auto manufacturers purchased these piston chuckers. We lost a lot of great manufacturing companies in this industry hub here in Ct. I guess you might say it was the machine tool industry of the world here at one time.
Fact;
The US Baird Chucker was no where near the size of the Bullard machine tool company Chucker. The bullard chucker had 6 or 8 spindles or 12 and 16 spindles depending on the work to be done. I've seen 1,000lb chucks on the 8spindle machines which manufactured trailer truck brake drums for Gunite(kelsyhaze brakes). These were 25' tall and were around 65,000lbs. The machines were all mechanical and unmatched in there production output even today. All the car manufacturers around the world still use the bullard chuckers even today. The brake drums would go in a rough casting and come out a finished part ready to install on the trailers in minutes a finished part.

My dad and my older brother worked there too. My dad tried to purchase the last of the wisconsin engines they had left over from the beaver tractor.