Between 1920 and 1952, American Farm Machinery company built five designs of single wheel walking cultivating garden tractors. All of these had single cylinder air cooled engines, however the designs ranged from quite primitive initially to very sophisticated, over 30years later. On all tractors, the engine was mounted inside a hollow steel wheel. The patent for this was granted in 1921, and was one of the main reasons that the Kinkade tractors were leaders in the one wheeled market for so long. At that time, their main one wheel competitor was the Gravely model D.
- 1st Generation………………………..1920 – 1922
- 2nd Generation………………………1923 – 1927
- Model K ………………………………..1928 – 1935
- Model L ………………………………….1936 – 1952
- Suberbanie……………………………….1950 – 1952
Youtube Clip…2nd Generation model running
This 2nd Generation model was built from 1923 – 1927. Note the front mounted fan powered from a leather friction wheel running on the flywheel. It was fitted with a Zenith Carb.
Youtube Clip…Model K Running…..
The Model K was made from 1928 – 1935 and was a significant improvement on the earlier models.
The brochure below depicts a Model L , which was manufactured between 1936 -1952. This was the first model to move from the wooden handles of previous models to metal handles. It was also the first model not to have the handlebar twist controls for throttle and clutch control.
