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Garden Tractors Back to: Tractor Pulling
Most all major tractor companies produce a garden tractor for the homeowner, as they have become a staple in
suburban communities where larger properties require a quicker solution. Garden tractors simply fit the bill...
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Garden Tractors
Cub Cadet Tractors
Learn about the famous
yellow garden tractors
from IH!
Gravely Tractors
Find out about the garden
tractors manufacturer who
loves ride-behinds!
Mahindra Tractors
Have you ever heard of
this brand of garden
tractor and where it's from?
Power King Tractors
These garden tractors
ruled with unique design
and plenty of horses...
Craftsman Tractors
Buy Craftsman parts and
garden tractors from this
page of auction info...
John Deere Tractors
The green and yellow
garden tractors that
became legend...
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The first garden tractors were actually
walk-behind single or double-wheeled
machines, but soon developed into
four-wheeled riding models. Some garden
tractors even began with three-wheels
(especially in Europe), but most garden
tractor owners preferred four wheels, as
companies in both Europe and the US
rushed and yet struggled to develop them.
Development of garden tractors began right
after World War II, and just before the dawn
of the 1950s they were being produced
from both sides of the Atlantic. In the United
States, Wheel Horse and Bolens were to
battle for years, while Bristol, Ransomes
and Byron were the rage in England.
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Ferguson tractor above and a Ford
tractor below.
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Bigger tractor manufacturers saw the public
demand for garden tractors and quickly
jumped into the race. With monies and
technology in their favor, garden tractors by
big tractor companies, such as Massey
Ferguson, created powerful, well-
engineered garden tractors consumers
loved. This severely cut into sales of the
smaller tractor companies, but they didn’t
give up, for they had their advancements,
too. Wheel Horse founder Elmer Pond
commercialized small, four-wheeled garden
tractors and then made them even smaller!
The Ride Away was at first a little bit too
large for home owners and so in 1955,
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Elmer introduced the RJ-35 Junior. It is considered to be the world's first
miniaturegarden tractor, and truly helped to launch Wheel Horse into a
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national company almost overnight. The Wheel Horse garden tractors were also able to do multiple tasks. Of course his great
ideas and success woke up other garden tractor competitors. Ferguson, Ford, and Fordson models with more horsepower
seemed to slow sales of the smaller garden tractors with less horsepower. This decline was seen in the late 1950s in Europe,
while sales raged in the United States for the smaller horsepower garden tractors. Eventually, Wheel Horse was distributed in
Europe and sales of the smaller garden tractors soared in Europe as well, besting all other garden tractors.
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Garden tractors sold very well in the 1960s and thus attachments and extras
became the latest wave of engineering. Buyers loved garden tractors with
more features and Simplicity was a leader in that category. Huge farm tractor
manufacturers, such as Allis-Chalmers, also became players in the smaller
garden tractor market during the sixties, as they saw potential to increase their
bottom lines. Even Sears jumped into the market with their own Craftsman
brand of smaller garden tractors. But in the 1970s, Japanese tractor
manufacturers saw that smaller garden tractor development had still been
neglected as the current trend was towards bigger and more power from many
US tractor manufacturing companies. Kubota capitalized on this and began to
market into Europe and the United States. Foreign entries were soon to
become known as feature rich, yet powerful, reliable and most importantly,
affordable garden tractors. Yet, US manufacturers began importing tractors
into Asia and elsewhere, as the garden tractor and big tractor markets went
global in scale. Today, many tractors are produced by massive tractor
companies, such as John Deere, Case and AGCO.
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Above: Kubota garden tractor.
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Today, there are many models of
garden tractors available for sale
that are new and of different makes
and various features. But if you want
to see some old garden tractors,
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visit any Midwestern county fair or tractor pull event in the United States and enjoy the sounds, sights and fun.
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