1934 CO-OP #3 family heirloom (Chrysler Powered!)

I thought Id like to share the story of one of my families greatest heirlooms. Its a 1934 Farmers Union CO-OP model #3 tractor that my grandpa bought it brand new back in 1936. If anyone here knows anything about CO-OP's, they didn't start production until 1936. The story goes that Farmers Union CO-OP wanted to build a tractor out of their base in Battle Creek MI that was capable of doing field work faster and that meant speed. They primarily farmed out the drive train that they felt was suitable and built the chassis around it. They opted for the Chrysler flat head 6 to adorn their new tractor. The company built 2 tractors, both of which were model #3's (model # 1 and 2 came later) and campaigned them through the mid west, driving the tractor to each demonstration, pulling a small trailer for them to sleep in. The new #3's were a big hit for their capabilities and to make a point of their speedy tractor, they got a speeding ticket with it in western Minnesota! 2 years later, Farmer Union decided it was time to start mass production and retired the first 2 tractors. On their way back, they were going to stop in Ridgeland and while going down the hill into town, one got out of control and rolled, killing the driver. Soon after, the one remaining tractor was sold locally to my grandpa who unknowingly bought the first prototype! our family has used it on our dairy farm for years and when my dad bought the farm, the tractor went with. by this time (1980) the tractor was getting tired and in use of a freshening. my dad started stripping the red paint and found it was all green with hand painted, yellow lettering. what we pieced together was CO-OP was going to paint the whole line of tractors in green and yellow (their trademark colors) but went with red for the actual production. being they sold this tractor as 'new' they painted it red. after its first restoration, we used it for light duty, raking hay. Then skip to 2 years ago, they announced that Barron county was hosting the states farm progress days for 2013 and one of the deals to go with that is a featured tractor. Well, dads CO-OP got the bid for the feature and along with that, a limited amount of scaled models of it are built! being as big of a deal as it is, we decided to re-restore it and this time, no expense spared. We finished it up a few months ago and it looks stunning! most of the tractor is original. the tires were replaced in the late 50's and the upper part of the seat had to be replaced. bottom is still original leather with horse hair cushioning. the original headlights were lost sometime in its life. So, here are some pictures, I hope you enjoy!









crude dash layout



tag showing Chrysler Industrial made



picture of the 101 vin stamped in the left frame

Im not sure if they are still taking orders, but heres what the order form looks like with a picture of the model on top. they went with both red and green. the red one should have red wheels to be more correct. decals were suppose to be different too..

http://barronfarmtech.com/doclibrary/Commemorative%20Tractor%20Order%20Form.pdf

Neat story.
How fast could it go that it got a speeding ticket and they were able to drive it around the state?

the tractor was able to go 45 mph if you bypassed the governor. i dont recall the speed limit broken, but we do have an actual copy of the ticket issued.

Cool story,neat ride.....that flat 6 got the UMPH to move a tractor,beat all of the 4 bangers back then....what distributor,generator and starter brand? Auto-Lite or Delco Remy? 34 Mopars were still Delco Remy...35s went to Auto-Lite(Exc for 35 Imp,she was still Delco),I have NOS ignition&electrical parts if you need them.

really neat !!

great story. glad it's still in the family.love the old tractors.

That is cool !!!