[jdhon]

I was reading thru some Wikipedia info on garden tractors tonight. According to the article Wheel Horse produced the markets first production hydraulic drive garden tractor in 1965! Obviously wrong. Has anyone else noticed it and should someone correct it?? Here is the sentence. They also mention two references.
"In 1965, Wheel Horse introduced two tractors with a hydraulic drive system, the model 875 and 1075 "Wheel-a-Matics", making them the first hydraulically driven production machines on the market."

 

[Bill.H]

Which article? I looked under garden tractors (redirects to lawn mower) and tractors, but could not find it.

 

[Hydriv]

http://whtractor.15.forumer.com/a/looki ... 19238.html

 

[Hydriv]

Which article? I looked under garden tractors (redirects to lawn mower) and tractors, but could not find it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_Horse

 

[jdhon]

Tom has the right page link for wikipedia. It is about half way down under history. I see his first link has some discussion about the statement of being first. It seems so obviously wrong? Maybe they mean wheel horse had it's first hydraulic drive tractor on the market in 1965?

 

[case680rob]

I would hope that's what they mean. If you click the [2] notation at the end of that sentence it brings you to a book that was cited as the source of that information. Misinformation either way, just hope it's not out in print somewhere cluttering up the history of GT's.

Rob

 

[jdhon]

I have now read thru the posts from 2010 that Tom lead us to. I see he brought this issue up back then. Did they continue on with the discussion and what was the outcome?

I do not have a copy of this garden tractor book but it must have an article on Colt in it that contradicts the 1st yr production statement??

 

[Bill.H]

Misinformation either way, just hope it's not out in print somewhere cluttering up the history of GT's.

It is still in print, and it was on my Amazon wishlist until about 5 minutes ago :lol:

So it seems Wikipedia used Will's book as a reference but the book was in error. And why am I not surprised that Hilda seems to be the first one to ever notice it? Good catch! :trink:

How does this look for a correction? Change

In 1965, Wheel Horse introduced two tractors with a hydraulic drive system, the model 875 and 1075 "Wheel-a-Matics", making them the first hydraulically driven production machines on the market.

To

In 1965, Wheel Horse introduced two tractors with a hydrostatic drive system, the model 875 and 1075 "Wheel-a-Matics".

 

[Mjoe7]

Interesting. :headscratcher: Once again Colt Case Ingersoll GT's are under rated by the masses. :???: :thumbdown:

 

[Hydriv]

This is an example of a how a simple mistake by one person ends up becoming an urban myth on the internet. Several years ago, Will's released his latest book on garden tractors and he attempted to cover many brands. It appeared to me that Wills is a bit of an authority on Cub Cadets and much less of an authority on many of the other marques that he covered in his book. I read Will's book cover to cover and noted several mistakes about Colt, Case and Ingersoll tractors as well as that statement about the Wheelhorse models. I joined Red Square for the express purpose of finding out whether or not Wheelhorse actually made a true hydraulic drive tractor or not. Red Square is considered to be the top Wheelhorse forum on the internet and their top guys say that those models had hydrostatic drives in them, not hydraulic drive.


I don't necessarily fault Will's for his mistakes. Lots of people don't really know the difference between hydraulic and hydrostatic drives and Case themselves weren't very helpful in clarifying the difference back in the 60's and early 70's. I have been thinking about going back over Will's book and making note of the mistakes with a view to sending Will's a letter asking him to correct them for the next press run. As for Wiki, that too should be changed and if Bill knows how to get that done, then he should proceed.

 

[Bob MacGregor]

The Wheelhorse 875 and 1075 were belt driven hydrostatic drive tractors, they may have been the first hydrostatic drive units, but I think that Bolens was right there also.
Mad Mackie in CT :mrgreen: :crazy: :lol:

 

[Bill.H]

Wikipedia corrected, it now reads:

In 1965, Wheel Horse was among the first to introduce tractors with a hydrostatic drive system, the model 875 and 1075 "Wheel-a-Matics".

The explanation given in the source is:

(Correcting - there is an error in Will's book. WH made hydrostatic drives, not hydraulic drives, and Colt was the first hydraulic drive tractor in 1963.)

 

[Hydriv]

Thanks Bill. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[jdhon]

I just went and checked the Wikipedia article on the Wheel Horses. It is changed!

It is nice to see that system works! Now I am going back to see what it says about the Colts...

 

[InTroubleAlltheTime]

I don't necessarily fault Will's for his mistakes. Lots of people don't really know the difference between hydraulic and hydrostatic drives and Case themselves weren't very helpful in clarifying the difference back in the 60's and early 70's. I have been thinking about going back over Will's book and making note of the mistakes with a view to sending Will's a letter asking him to correct them for the next press run. As for Wiki, that too should be changed and if Bill knows how to get that done, then he should proceed.

Tom: I think you should contact him and point out the errors. It's the right thing to do. I would think he would want his data to be accurate. Once pointed out, to knowingly continue the inaccurate info for future prints would be a disservice to those who pick up the book to learn about the hobby. I am not criticizing the author, but just being objective. I like the book overall, its' in my tractor book collection.
:222: :446: Best Regards, Rich

 

[jdhon]

I am not sure if I am searching Wikipedia correctly or not. It doesn't seem to have anything on Colt or for that matter Case Garden Tractors. Just notes from other articles that mention them. There is an article on Ingersoll tractors..

They say you can start one? I do not know enough to start one but maybe someone would be interested in it?? I think it is an important site that would be nice to get some history of these tractors recorded.