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Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Those of you who were able to attend this year's Massey Exposition of North America may have seen that I finally got the orchard sheet metal painted and installed on my 1938 Pacemaker Orchard, as well as the correct magneto.  

I am interested in learning all I can about the Red/Styled 1938 Pacemaker Orchard tractors.

I was told once a couple of years ago that there were believed to be about 17 of these 1938 Pacemaker Orchards known to still exist.  For those of you in the know, does this still sound about right?  Has that number changed?  I was contacted late this summer by a Massey collector who somehow came onto a deal to buy three of these as a package deal...  Were those already in that 17 number, or perhaps those are now additional finds?

Also, anybody have any wild guess as to how many of the 1938 Pacemaker Orchards may have been produced?  Doubtful there is any way of really knowing, but thought it was worth asking this forum.

Any other interesting tidbits of information about these tractors would be interesting to hear and discuss.  Things that make them unique, like the set-back front axle, steering brakes, lowered operator platform, etc...  

Is there any interest in putting together a registry of the Pacemaker Orchard tractors, like what was done for the 201/202/203 tractors?

I look forward to your feedback.

Cheers,

JB
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RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

John

Good to see your refurbished tractor at Rushville, it looked great in your line up of tractors you hauled to the show.

I am sure Tom Seaberg will put us all in line with his number listing and detail on here, I too wonder if he has included the ones outside of the US and Canada? pictured below is one recently seen at a show in South Africa and if memory serves me right there are some in Australia, no doubt Aussie Massey will chime in here too.

I am also interested to hear more on the recent find of three more styled OPA's

Malcolm.
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RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Well Ervin and I have been keeping track of the Styled and Unstyled Pacemaker Orchards since 2006. We have learned many things about the Orchard and Vineyards along the way. From what we can tell by serial numbers they made at least 115 Gas Orchards and 69 Distillate orchards. So far we have not found a styled vineyard in gas or distillate.

We have listed 24 Gas styled Orchards and 6 Distillate Styled Orchards. I am very sure there is more out there waiting to be found! These are just the ones that are known to us.

Also for more info
Styled gas orchards there is 2 in Canada, and 22 in the US
Styled Distillate Orchards there is 2 in the US, 1 in the UK, 1 in South Africa, and 2 in Australia.


The one Malcolm posted from South Africa is a new one to me. Thanks for the pictures! Would be neat to see a serial number.

If you need any more info just ask or call.

RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Greetings from downs under again. Unfortunately, I live on the big plains part of the country and therefore no orchard areas nearby, so any orchard tractors are a long way away. In saying that, I have heard of an styled orchard pacemaker down south in the orchard areas, bug never laid eyes on it yet. I still have the unconfirmed un styled orchard mentioned in the challenger forum here.  It has the styling and features of an orchard without the extra bodywork, but with challenger serial numbers.  I am watching this thread in anticipation. You have some lovely tractors that we never got to see down here.  Keep the pictures coming...Buck
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RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Tom,

Thanks for the updated information.  I had talked to Ervin by phone earlier yesterday and he told me you would probably have updated numbers from what we knew of a couple of years ago.  

So, per those numbers, between gasoline and distillate, there were 184 total Sytled Pacemaker Orchard tractors built.  More than I realized.  (Higher production numbers than M-H 33 Diesels or MF 97 LP with FWA...)  And here I had been thinking the Styled Pacemaker Orchard was probably the rarest thing in the barn...

Thanks again,

JB

RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Back to the Pacemaker Orchard stream again.  I have always been under the impression that all of the Red and Yellow Pacemakers and Challengers were considered to be 1938 model year tractors.  I just noted in Keith's Massey Tractor Data Book, that he lists serial number ranges for 1937-1939...  Is it possible that Massey built a few in late calendar year 1937 which would have been considered 1938 model year, and then perhaps built a few out to use up inventory in early 1939?? 

I would appreciate thoughts and comments on that...

Secondly, from what I have been looking at tonight, it would appear that only the gasoline versions of the Styled Pacemaker were "Twin-Power", and that the distillate versions were not.  Any thoughts on that?

Thanks,

JB

RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Hi John, You bring up a great bit of info that is not very well known. The styled tractors were produced a lot later than most people generally think. 1938 year is associated with nearly every one of the styled CH, PA, and 25 tractors out there. They were advertised AND produced all the way through 1940. Quite a few Pacemakers that I have looked at are made in 1939 and a couple in 1940. A friend of mine has the newest pacemaker I have seen with serial number 111827 and casting dates of 4-11-40 on the transmission along with 5-21-40 in the engine block. Dennis Brown has been on a several year long search of the newest Challenger so it will be interesting to see the casting dates on that for a comparison.


Now for the styled orchard part of things. Both the Orchard and Vineyard are shown in the 1939 price list for sale (I don't have a 1940 price list yet). I do not have a large amount of casting dates but several years ago in the process of keeping track of these we tried to round up some casting dates just for conversation at the time and it turned out to be quite interesting, So luckily I was able to find one of my old hand written list's that shows some of the casting dates on existing Orchard tractors. Our styled OPA #200472 has 2-23-38 Trans and 2-15-38 Engine dates. Your OPA #200487 has 5-17-38 Trans and 4-20-38 Engine dates, 200499 is 9-20-38 Trans, 12-23-38 engine dates. 200506 has 9-21-38 Trans, and 2-12-38 engine dates. So that is a little bit of an indicator as to the time period when these were made casting wise. Who knows how long a casting was to be sitting around before machining and final assembly. Which could explain the large difference in date on 200506, Maybe my writing is incorrect but I am sure Ervin could double check it.

Also for the Twin-Power difference. Correct only the gas tractors were Twin-Power, and the Kerosine / Distillate tractors were "standard". 

Here is a quick picture of the transmission date on the late 1940 Pacemaker. Note the part number suffix too.
Now the question is who in their right mind would buy a Pacemaker over a 101 in 1940?
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RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Tom,

Thanks for the great info.  I had no idea they were still making castings for Pa/CH tractors in 1940!  Interesting...

Keep up the good work!   We need more young guys with your level of interest and enthusiasm!!

Cheers,

John

RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

Tom,

You have raised an interesting issue!

Have you documented evidence that they were actually produced in 1940?

Malcolm and I had a chat about this and we thought it possibe that MH had castings made after 1939 to provide spare parts so you may well be seeing replacemnets castings???

The tractor 111827 falls in the 1938-39 serial numbers according to KO's data book and original company records that I have which may suggest replacement parts????

All food for thought - keep searching!!!!

John

RE:Pacemaker Orchard Tractors

So John, what kind of documented evidence do you want that they were produced in 1940?

What do you think the chances really are that this high serial number tractor had the transmission AND engine replaced with different ones and then they stamped the correct block number on it?

The other bit of info that you may useful is the fact that this is not the only pacemaker or 25 out there with very late 39 and 40 casting dates. Did these all get replaced with spare parts too? I like giving things a reasonable doubt but this is just far fetched.