The Story of the General GG

Cooperation in manufacturing between companies is fairly common in the farm machinery industry. So when B.F. Avery (an implement-only maker) approached Cleveland Tractor (a crawler-only manufacturer) to build a rubber-tired tractor, the arrangement was acceptable business.

What was eventful about that arrangement was that the tractor the companies created, the General GG, ended up:

• Being sold under five different brands (B.F. Avery, Cletrac, Massey-Harris, Farmer Co-op, and Wards).
• Helping to launch B.F. Avery in the tractor industry.
• Eventually providing the foundation for a much-needed small tractor line for Minneapolis-Moline.

Yet, The General wasn’t particularly technologically advanced or uniquely designed to have such a huge impact. The GG was a solid, affordable machine, to be sure. It’s not like The General had an innovative feature such as the Ferguson’s three-point hitch, for example, that attracted attention and drove other manufacturers to seek the machine.

So maybe it was just kismet that resulted in The General becoming so widely distributed.

Original Design

The tractor’s roots hark back to a design created by B.F. Avery engineers. So much of that firm’s business records were lost when B.F. Avery was acquired at a later date that the specific details of the tractor’s development are not completely known. What is certain is that B.F. Avery asked Cleveland Tractor to build the tractor for them. It can be readily assumed that Cleveland’s prowess in engineering, which is reflected in the advanced design of its Cletrac crawlers, had a major influence on the final version of The General GG.

This lithe tricycle outfit employed a simple channel-iron frame that housed a Hercules model IXA-3, four-cylinder engine. The 113-cubic-inch engine turned out nearly 20 brake horsepower when evaluated at the Nebraska Tractor Test in 1939.

That engine was teamed up with a three- speed transmission (with a top speed of 6 mph) built by Clark Manufacturing. Decked out with 9×24-inch rear tires and a single 16-inch front rubber tire, the 3,115-pound machine was rated to pull a single-bottom plow.

Considering the tractor’s initial list price of $595 (Cleveland Tractor’s pricing), The General was certainly an affordable first tractor for farmers finally making the change from horses or mules to mechanical horsepower.

Crawler Version

In order to capture any potential sales, Cleveland Tractor also built a tracked version of the GG. Dubbed the model HG, the crawler was identical to The General GG except for its pair of tracks. That same crawler was also sold by B.F. Avery in select areas of the country.

How Cleveland and B.F. Avery divided up distribution areas for the tractor is not well known. B.F. Avery did control who sold the tractor. Plus, the company went on to provide distribution of The General to other firms interested in having the GG rebranded in their name. Such was the case when B.F. Avery signed an agreement in 1939 with Montgomery Ward & Company, giving that firm sales rights for Avery implements and The General in regions not served by a B.F. Avery dealership or branch office.

This is how Wards Twin Row versions of the GG came to be. B.F. Avery also signed an agreement with Massey-Harris, allowing it to sell the GG through that firm’s dealership network in Canada for two years starting in 1940.

Finally, B.F. Avery agreed to allow Farmers Union Co-op to sell The General – but only through the co-op’s outlets in Indiana for one year beginning in 1941.

Model A’s New Features

It is assumed (again, for lack of historic records) that B.F. Avery management encouraged the mass sale of The General in order to establish its presence in a fiercely competitive market. If that was the case, then the decision was ingenious since sales of the tractor were ample enough for B.F. Avery to take on the risk of building the tractor in 1943.

Not satisfied with building the same tractor, the firm renamed the tractor the model A, gave it a larger engine, and upgraded its features, adding such advances as the unique Tru-Draft hydraulic system, which utilized a mid-chassis lifting position for suspended implement. An advantage to this approach is that the weight of the draft created by the implement was transferred to the center of the tractor, providing better traction.

B.F. Avery also expanded the tractor line in 1946 by first adding the V and then the R. The boom of sales in the post-World War II economy slowed down, forcing B.F. Avery to merge with Minneapolis-Moline in 1951.

Yet, the legacy of The General lived on in Minnie-Mo’s models BF (built for one year in 1952) and BG (built from 1953 to 1955).