Heider ads touted the tractor's friction-drive, but whether it was any better than a traditional transmission is debatable. This 1920 ad's claim for "12 Years Actual Field Work" is a bit of pitchman's hype; although John and Henry Heider started work on a prototype in 1908, they didn't introduce their first tractor until 1910.

Friction-Drive

Light Weight Coupled with Friction-Drive Drove Heider's Success

By Richard Backus

When Iowans John and Henry Heider launched the Heider Mfg. Co., Carrol, Iowa, in 1910, they aimed their sights on the light end of the growing market for small tractors. Weighing in at a relatively svelte 4,500 pounds, their first product, the Heider Model A, was powered by a Waukesha four-cylinder engine. Built using mostly outsourced components (a practice the company supposedly maintained throughout its history), the Model A saw limited production. It's estimated that fewer than 40 were built, but the Model A introduced elements that would stick with the Heider name for the next 17 years, particularly its friction-drive transmission.

Friction-Drive

Heider's friction-drive was a uniquely simple device that replaced the traditional transmission. Instead of a transmission coupled to the back of the engine, the Heider had an exposed flywheel with a broad outer surface faced with wood. This was the friction material, which in turn made contact with a cast plate approximately 125 percent larger than the flywheel and set 90 degrees to the flywheel on the same plane. Engine power was transmitted through the friction plate to a simple differential drive, and then out to the rear drivers.

Gayle McDonald's 1918 Heider Model C

There were two plates, one on either side of the flywheel, and these provided reverse and forward "gears." Selection was accomplished by simply drawing a lever that pulled the friction plates to the left or the right. With the left plate engaged the Heider moved forward, and with the right plate engaged it moved backward.

Gearing was provided through the positioning of the flywheel on the friction plates. When the Heider's flywheel contacted the outer edges of a plate the drive to the differential was slower, effectively giving low gear. Conversely, when the flywheel contacted the inner areas of the friction plate the drive to the differential was faster, giving a higher gear. The "gear" le..ce the engine warmed up. The gas tank was further sectioned into two tanks, with water in one half of it for running on kerosene.

Gayle used a non-stock magneto when he first got the Heider running, but he eventually overhauled the original Splitdorf Dixie, and that's the unit fitted to the Heider now. Gayle figures his might be the only Heider left running on its original magneto, a fact of which he's justifiably proud.

Close inspection shows the engine in Gayle's Heider is set on plates channeled to the tractor's frame. Moving the engine forward or backward changes the gearing to the friction-drive.

Gayle's Heider isn't perfect, but he never really intended it to be because he likes to run his equipment. It's really more of a sympathetic restoration; cleaned, painted and running, but retaining hints of age and years of sitting. The sheet metal, for instance, is original, but when Gayle refinished it he didn't make any effort to smooth out the pock marks of time. As for its relatively good mechanical condition when found, Gayle has a theory about that: "You see an old tractor and the gears are worn, everything is worn out, that was probably a good tractor. But the bad ones, they aren't worn out because they wouldn't work enough." That's an interesting observation, and whether it applies fairly to the Heider is open to debate. Even so, there's no debating that the Heider was a unique offering in the early days of the tractor industry, as Gayle's preserved 12-20 so perfectly illustrates.

Contact engine enthusiast Gayle McDonald at: 15587 222nd Road, Holton, KS 66436.