My 1950's Oliver OC-46 crawler page

This is an Oliver OC-46 crawler that my father had purchased used in 1967. I believe he paid $1,000.00 for it at that time. We did most of our own yard improvements ourselves, so we always had equipment at hand. As the first born male in our family, I learned at quite a young age how to run the equipment. As my father put it, "You seemed to know what you were doing on the equipment, so we just let you do what you were doing." Not that I'm complaining. Not too many boys I knew were operating machinery, plus I had a blast!

Starting was fairly easy, we had 2 large 6V batteries, but unless the engine was warm, you always had to give it a shot of ether to get it to fire. You also had to bleed the fuel lines once in awhile if the tractor sat unused.

We wound up selling the tractor in 1998. I knew of no dealers that carried any parts, and had no idea what we were going to do with it. This was one of my favorite pieces of equipment, and I hated to see it go. I sure wish I knew then about all the places on the internet that cater to older equipment like this.

I'm looking to acquire another OC-46 in the future. I'd like to get one just like this, with the diesel engine.

This is me, circa 1968. I was grading the backyard. Not too bad for a 7 year old.

This is the Oliver in 1998 when we sold it. I hated to see it go. This was before I knew that I could restore these
fine pieces of equipment myself. I couldn't imagine anyone having parts. The dealer we had bought this from had closed 15 years prior to this.

1952 Allis Chalmers CA