Cockshutt '30'

My Cockshutt is really a Co-Op 'E3'. There. I said it. After all these years of believing it was a Cockshutt, I discovered in the last year that it was really a Co-Op in Cockshutt colors! The tractor is painted in Cockshutt colors and has Cockshutt decals. However, the manuals that I have for it are for a Co-Op 'E3' (the Co-Op equivalent of the Cockshutt 30), and in some places where the paint is chipping, the color underneath is Co-Op orange! I remember my Dad telling me that he repainted it at one time, but I have pictures of it from 1964 and it has the colors you see in the pictures here. One other interesting thing about this is that we always called it "The Co-Op" as in "Go get the Co-Op and pull the wagon around to the front of the barn.". Since Dads' gone now, I may never know why it has the colors it does! My Cockshutt, er, Co-Op is a 1948 model E3. My Mom bought it for my Dad as a wedding gift for their first farm which was 40 acres. I inherited the tractor when my dad passed away in 1996. For those of you who may not be familiar with Cockshutt, they were a Canadian company that made tractors and other implements, shipping them throughout Canada and the U.S. They also liscenced their tractor designs to other manufacturers who then made them under the Co-Op name and painted them a uniform burnt orange color. The Cockshutt and Co-Op were mechanically identical, the only difference being the color and the decals. The Cockshutt 30 was made from 1946 through 1956 and during those years several versions of the tractor were available. The standard engine was a Buda 4 cylinder gas engine. However, you could also get a 4 cylinder diesel, or a model converted for LP gas, or for distallate use. Hydralic power was optional (mine does not have it) and there was no three point or other type of quick hitch available. One very appealing feature of Cockshutt's was the live power take-off (PTO). Almost all tractors at that time had a PTO that would stop when the clutch was pressed, thereby stopping the machine. The Cockshutt design has a secondary shaft that passes into the differential where an independant clutch controls the PTO shaft. Therefore, you can stop, change gears, etc. without stopping the equipment you are powering. This was an extreme advantage when using a combine as the ground movement could be stopped if necessary without stopping the operation of the combine.

On this side of the tractor is one of my Dads' additions - a frame mounted tool box. It still has an assortment of stuff in it, most of which I can't imagine why it's in there! The toolbox is mounted on brackets that just hang on the frame, so every once in a while while doing field work, or pulling a tree out, the tractor would bounce and the toolbox would come flying off, scattering it's contents on the ground. The next 10 minutes (or 30 if it was at night!) would be spent picking up all the stuff and putting it back in. I don't know how many times we did that!

Another addition was the dual horns on the hood. These came off an old truck and we put them on there when I was a kid. They still work! You can see the flat belt pulley on this side, still in very good condition. Our tractors had the luxury of always being housed so they don't show the effects of sun and weather. The muffler rusted away years ago and we just stuck a piece of exhaust pipe over the broken stub sticking up from the manifold. It makes it sound nice!

Other than two valve grinds and replacing one sleeve when the wrist pin came loose in a piston, the engine has never had any work done to it. It still runs very well and uses little oil. It does tend to sound a bit "loose" though with a few knocks. I'd like to go through it one of these days and do a complete overhaul. You can see that the tin is in excellent shape. No major dents or damage. We always took good care of our equipment.

Last Update: 01/11/01