Sperry Rand/ New Holland?!

[jpswift1]

I was looking at random stuff as I always do on ebay and when looking at this New Holland Combine I saw on the VIN tag that it said Sperry/New Holland and at the very bottom it said Sperry Rand. Now my question is, did the same company build 6 wheelers (SPD Special Product Division) that owns New Holland? I was at an antique store once and I saw old Rockwell calculators, the same logo that was printed on JLO Rockwell 2 cycle engines that came in many 6 wheelers in the 70's. Its crazy to think that one company would build such a variety of different products.

[jpswift1]

Heres a pic of the VIN tag.

sperry rand.jpg

[liflod]

Same company. Sperry Rand also made aviation electronics. Remington shavers used to be sperry rand

[liflod]

I'm not sure why my last post didn't post.This is from TMECARS Tricart. The same decal is on the Wedge. Sperry had their hand in everything from computers to gyroscopes and aviation test equipment to tractors to ATVs to electric shavers. [ATTACH]190

[hydromike]

SPD is just a division under Sperry Rand (sort of like Argo and ODG). Sperry Rand also houses the Remington Brand, which makes electric shavers, calculators, typewriters....

[wildman]

SPD history

Sorry for reviving this very old thread, but I can add some points to this topic. I work for New Holland (now Case New Holland) and this is what sparked my initial interest in the SPD products. New Holland was a division of Sperry (Rand) from the 1940s until 1985 or so when NH division was sold to Ford. Sperry Rand was a huge conglomerate holding Sperry Univac, Vickers, Remington, New Holland, Gyroscope, Flight Systems, Marine and others. SPD (and all evidence) was long gone before I started here, but there are 2 engineering retirees still local in the area that worked on the SPD products. I have gotten a lot of info from these 2 guys. They both worked with John Plessinger, who initially concepted the Tricart as a college design project and has been mentioned several times on this board. I’ve never spoken with John, but I hope to someday. SPD was actually the brainchild of New Holland. I don’t know why the NH brand was not emphasized on the products, but there was likely some kind of upper level decision to disassociate these products from the farm machinery business.

This is the SPD roots story as told to me by one of the retirees…

Now back to SPD history. Bill Dohl was the Zedelgem [NH plant in Belgium] operation manager (he originally was a service dept head or other). Quickly ----- he was replaced and returned to New Holland after about 3 years there. Management had to find something for him to do and there was a push from New York [Sperry headquarters] for NH to diversify. Bill was put in charge of this quest. Many things were looked at - decision was recreational vehicles and products. He initiated a search for opportunities. Since Fiberglass of Ohio was looking for growth and had this 3-wheeler, which was one of many things looked at, including snowmobiles, 4-wheelers, water-type devices other than boats, bicycles, skis (minibike type, Larry Halls had one he built) early sea doos, paragliders, 6-wheelers and the list goes on. To make a shorter story,6-wheelers and the Tricart were pursued. There were several 6-wheelers available but early on it was decided to design our own. At the same time negotiations were started to get the 3-wheeler. This was done by NH purchasing and employing all of Franklin Moore's (FofO) employees (including John Plessinger). Then SPD was created to pursue this market. I started working on the 6-wheeler, Larry Halls worked the 3-wheeler. We both worked with John P to finalize design details. At the same time Sperry was working on a metal detector (weapons) for the airline industry. New York decided that the weapon detector should be vertically integrated and FofO was the choice to produce the fiberglass side panels which were the heart of it. New York also decided a top of the line fiberglass manufacturing facility was required. Such a facility was fast tracked with one of Sperry Corp construction outfits. Construction started immediately and was to be open by mid spring. Ralph Mentzer from NH facilities was in charge under Bob Ressler and Clarence Binkley. This was a state of the art hand/spray facility. Included a completely new building huge!!! Joe Shriver, Dick Hebbe, Larry Ruble, Earl Moats, Phil Buzzard, Jay Brubaker, Vince Hemmings, Larry Estes joined the pack. We pretty much all moved shortly to Ohio commuting every three weekends back to NH until spring. Larry Halls continued at New Holland but elected not to go to Ohio. We suffered a major setback in early spring with the fire in the old cannery FofO worked out of as they built the new building. Joe and Larry Estes worked on snowmobiles and machines plus a bunch of lawn and garden stuff. I also worked on a two track industrial snow machine which was to compete with Bombardier. We all had a good time at SPD and were sad to see it end.

This kind of leads into the story of my 2nd Tricart. There are a few oddities on this unit and I’ve always been curious about it. One of the oddities is the plain aluminum serial number plate, manually stamped “X5”. The retiree cited above informed me that this was one of 6 (X1, X2… X6) preproduction units sent to NH from the plant in OH for the fat cats to review. These 6 were supposed to be destroyed, but some apparently got away. I have met the owner of X6. I rescued X5 from a guy who was going to hack out the rear axle and wheels to make a garden cart. I ended up trading him even for a set of wheels and tires to make suitable garden cart. The surprising thing is that this unit is complete… original JLO engine and all.

[Mike]

Thanks for the additional info.

[nate52]

i have a sperry rand new holland s-16 garden tractor that my grandfather purchased about 5 or 6 years back, and at the time we went to look at it we just thought it was your typical garden tractor made by another farm implement company. this was until i started researching on it and found out that sperry rand only made these lawn and garden tractors from 1971 to 1973 in which they then sold out this line of products to ariens. i later found out that the tractor i had was produced in 1973 and then started looking for another s-16, and have been unsuccessful. i have seen the s-8's, s-12's, and s-14's for sale on various sites such as craigslist and ebay but never an s-16 and haven't found any of these model's around my area. they made a variety of attachments for these tractors including a cab, 3 point tiller, 54" snow blade, 48" snow blower, and a 48" mower decker. i have the snow blade and mower deck which came with the mower when we first purchased it but nothing else. the best part of this tractor is that all of these attachments are convenient with the hydrostatic transmission the tractor is made up of and the hydrolic lift both the front and the back along with a mid, front, and rear pto shaft which powers all of the attachments. this thing is a tank weighting in at around 800 pounds and composed of solid steel unlike the tractors you find today. this thing doesn't starve for power neither with the heart of this machine consisting of the 16 horse kohler k-341. anyways sorry to ramble, but just thought i would add a little something that sperry rand produced back in the 70's and hopefully i'll be able to get some pictures of it up soon so you guys can see one of my toys lol. this also has a medal serial number plate that looks similiar to the one posted earlier by jp, they are located on both the tractor and the snow blade and mower deck.

Nate

[wildman]

Hey Nate. I have 1½ S-14s (1 operating and 1 parts donor). I used it for everyday mowing until a couple of years ago. Now I will probably restore it someday. The S-16s are fairly rare since they weren't produced until late in this product run. I've only ever seen a handful. I think that Ariens produced the S-16 also. S-12s and S-14s are identical to the S-16 except for the engine. The hyd. lift was optional on the S-12 and standard on the S-14s and S-16s. Anyway these tractors are pretty much bullet-proof. Not too many 40-year old garden tractors left that can still do the job. Some of the same engineers that worked on the SPD products also worked on this lawn and garden line. The fiberglass hoods and rear fenders for the tractors were made in the SPD plant.

PM me if you want more info.

[nate52]

wow, thanks for info update. kind of cool that the hoods and fenders where made with the spd's, and yea these things were built tough. i just purchased an ariens s-16h last spring from a guy that had let it sit out in the tree's for at least 7 years that i know of. i mainly bought it to get the rear pto and rocker arms for my new holland, but once i got it in the garage and realized that it was complete i completely restored it and got it running. i then bought a snow blower for it last fall and just got it all mounted up to the front of it in the last couple of weeks. just have to get a pto shaft for it and it'll be all ready for next winter. i'll take some pictures of it after i get all my papers written this week, and get pictures of both of them posted by the end of next week or sometime next weekend. the ariens is painted almost original except i changed the color scheme up a little with the engine sheilds and running boards.

Nate

[wildman]

Since I retired my S-14 from active duty, I took the rotary mower off and am in the process of retrofitting a vintage Haban 48" sickle bar mower. I still have a few parts left to fab.

DSC04238.jpg

[jpswift1]

Cool garden tractor! It looks retro (especially the color), yet still modern. Can't say that I ever saw one of those before.