This is my dad’s McCormick-Deering T20 TracTracTor. He purchased it used around 1950. He loved to drive tractor, but he had to let me take over around 1985 as he just couldn’t handle it any more. He passed away in 2004.
Photo of me next to tractor with dad driving and my son riding, 1976
He said he liked the T20 tractor because it was easy to repair. He said Caterpillar tractors were too hard to work on.
It was started using the hand crank. It turned over easy and always started. There are prime cups on the valve cover where you pour a little gas into the cylinders to help it start.
It has an “orchard seat” so the driver rides low under the trees when working in an orchard. We grew apricots and prunes. The orchards were pulled out around 1970.
With the low orchard seat the manufacturer had to add extension linkage so the operator could reach the control levers.
International TracTracTor model T20
The front of the radiator has a “McCormick-Deering” label. International Harvester took over the McComick and Deering companies.
It has check breakers on the front of the tracks to knock down irrigation berms so the tractor doesn’t have to bounce over them. They fold down to scrape the ground flat.
Here is the 4 cylinder gasoline engine. There is no electrical system or battery. A magneto provides high voltage for the spark plugs.
When it was not in use my dad always cranked it over every few weeks to keep the pistons free. Unfortunately, after he passed away I didn’t do it and after a couple years the engine froze up. The engine will need to be repaired.
Exhaust and intake manifolds The updraft carb hangs below the exhaust manifold. The lower part of the exhaust manifold is a carb heater for warming the fuel vapors in freezing weather. We never used it.
The bar sticking out to the left is for connecting a “right turn chain”. The chain is connected to the disc so when you make a right turn it pulls on one side of the disc to close it. If the disc is left open it is very difficult to turn to the right.
Last Day On The Ranch
Video of the T20 loading and being hauled away
After 70 years on the ranch I sold it to a farmer/collector who will restore it for display in antique tractor events.