IH Shop Mule

[jasondepinto]

I went to look at a few tractors today, and what did I find there, but this sweet little A14V W.F. Hebard Shop Mule! Waiting to hear back from the seller if it's for sale or not. This thing was so cool. I know these ran A and H engines..maybe Cub too, but this definitely wasn't a C60. Based on the numbers, can anyone help me identify this tractor? I also find the brass "CCC" tag above the serial number interesting. Wondering if this could have been used by the Civilian Conservation Corps, of which, my grandfather was one. Shop Mule Serial reads as H6285. Engine Serial reads as UBHM9941. Type is A 14 V. There's another tag on the tunnel though, that says Model : U4 and Serial: UBH96OZ26M. Any help greatly

[Jim Becker]

Yes, a Hebard A-14V. It and the A-14 and A-21 are the most often seen of the Shop Mules. The A-14 and A-21 used Farmall A drive trains. The A-14V used an H engine (U-4 Power Unit) and transmission/axle from a truck.

The serial number on the Shop Mule ID plate is the Hebard-assigned serial number for the tractor. The second tag, that you describe as "on the tunnel" is the IH serial tag. I presume it is actually riveted to the flywheel housing. It identifies the Power Unit s an IH model U-4 power unit. The serial number on that tag was assigned by IH for the unit. It appears to break out into 3 sections:

UBH - Prefix indicating it is a power unit based on the H engine.
96O - Sequential number (1940).
Z26M - Suffix codes indicating how this unit was optioned (I don't have the breakdown of the codes).

The engine serial number has 2 parts:

UBHM - Prefix indicating it is an engine for a UBH power unit.
9941 - Sequential engine number.

It isn't clear to me how the engine number is so much larger than the power unit serial number. You might be able to figure out more by looking for date codes in the castings. I can't shed any light on the "CCC" tag.

[jasondepinto]

Wow Jim! Top notch information. Thank you for this!

[Gary Dotson]

As they say, ask the man who owns one!

[SamsFarm]

Cute little buggers!

But I dont have a building big enough to use one in!

One of those needs a building measured in multiple acres to motor around in!

[Don McCombs]

Or an airport.

[indy61]

Or an aircraft carrier.

[Barnyard]

As they say, ask the man who owns one!

Or two.

[Jim Becker]

Machines like the A-14V tend to need a fairly good surface to run around. The tires are small and carry a lot of weight. Having pneumatic tires helps. Ones on hard rubber tires are worse (just like forklifts). The A-14 and A-21 with regular tractor tires are as capable as any similar sized farm tractor. Note that the A-14 on the Hornet has somewhat smaller tires than a Farmall A.

[Barnyard]

We had one somebody traded in for a new Plymouth when I worked at our local Chrysler/ Plymouth dealerin 1969-70. The motor was about shoy so they swapped in what I thought was a Plymouth slant six. We mounted an old used tire on the frond and used it to push cars and jumpstart dead batteries.

[Farmalldr812]

Z26M= "kerosene automatic oil and water temperature control" from a U4 parts book

The engine serial # is larger than the power unit serial # because IH used that engine in other equipment than just a power unit, a W4 tractor used it for 1

The A14 on the Hornet has the 7.50x18" rear tires and 6.00x9 fronts

There is a webpage with some info and a Facebook group for Hebard stuff and the occasional Unitow