Donald's Antique Rototillers Newsletter Vol.1-No.1

Donald's Antique Rototiller

http://members.xoom.com/rototiller
Rototiller@hotmail.com
Donald A. Jones
734 Cedar Lane
Perkasie, Pa 18944


Welcome to Vol.1 No.2 of My Rototiller Newsletter - 1 October, 1999

Summer is over and now back to having more time for the rototiller collection and the Website.

I went to a show I had never attended before and only 20 miles from my house, the Middletown Grange Fair in Wrightstown, Pa. I was invited to run one of my rototillers in the parade, big mistake. I only had the Simar's with me so I ran the C5-6, the largest one I have. Well it's a little slow and it was differently the loudest machines in the parade.

In the middle of August there was the 3rd Annual Gravely Mow-In in Somerset, Pa that I wasn't able to attend. But I hear they had one of the older Ariens that made the Graham-Paige/Frazer look small. This show is put on by Bob Antram a Gravely dealer but he and his Dad Dave has a fine collection of Rototillers

I wanted to work from A to Z on the different brands but its not working out that way. The material I got from Ariens didn't expand on what is in the website now. But I understand if you contact them, they will assist you with information such as dating your machine, manuals. I don't know about parts availability.

To make things clear, the working end of a rototiller is called different names in different parts of the world. The Swiss and Germans referred to it as a Miller, the English call it the Rotor and us America's just call it the Tine section. I like to call it the Miller.

The most material I received was on Howard's, so.

Arthur Clifford Howard was born on the 4th of April 1893 in Crockwell, New South Wales, Australia. He built his first model in 1912 at the family farm at Gilgandra. He was study engineering by correspondence while an apprentice at Moss Vale. Sorry I don't know what Moss Vale was. Of course the Australians credited Cliff Howard with the invention of the Rotary Hoe. Rotary Tillage dates back to the 1850's.

After working in England during WWI he returned to Australia in 1919 and started to design, test and patent his rotary hoe cultivator. At first his machines were large using 40 to 60 HP engines as prime movers. Then he started making rotary hoe attachments for tractors such as the Fordson.

In 1921 Howard formed Austral Auto Cultivators Pty Ltd. Howard made a variety of different size tractors and crawlers from 1922 to the 1960's including the DH22 series tractor that was made for 30 years and the Platypus crawler.

Howard turned his attention to a walk behind machine and by 1924 he produced the 6hp Howard 'Junior' rotary hoe. A model 8 and 12 was also reported to have been made.

In 1928 Capt. E. N. Griffith visited Australia, like the Howard and arrange to have one exported to England. He then had Howard's of Bedford, England manufacture the machine. Howard's of Bedford was not connected to Cliff Howard. About 100 units were made.

In 1930 Howard formed the Howard Cultivators Ltd. in England to manage export orders outside of Australia. And in 1938 Cliff Howard and Capt. E.N. Griffith formed Rotary Hoes Ltd. in East Horndon, Essex for the production of Howard's machines in England. In the early 1950's the local authority changed the name from East Horndon to West Horndon the factory stayed at the same facility.

Rotehoe Models
 In 1940 the pedestrian controlled Rotehoe GEM was introduced to replace the Australia designed and East Horndon built Rotehoe 5, 6, 10, and 12. During WWII a variety of engines were used to keep the permitted level of production going. Even motorcycle engines from scrap yards were used.

GEM Series II
 Then in 1947 the Series II GEM model was introduced with either a Howard BJ (British Junior) or a J.A.P. 6hp petrol (that's gasoline to us yanks). J.A.P. stands for J. A. Prestwich & Co. Ltd. motor works of Tottenham. Both of these engine used a dry sump oil system with the oil tank being located next to the fuel tank. The GEM now had three forward and one reverse gear. The Series II has a single dry clutch controlled by a handle on the handlebar. A 20" miller was standard but a 18" and 24" was available.

In 1949 Howard began importing his GEM machines to the United States.

Somehow a company called Clifford Cultivators Ltd. line of machines and tooling was purchased by Howard and the Logo Howard-Clifford was used for a few years. Like Howard's of Bedford, Clifford was not related to Cliff Howard. Rotary Hoes Ltd. became Howard Rotavator Co. in 1959.

GEM Series III and IV
In 1950 the Series III and IV was introduced. I have some sales literature and owner manuals dated 1950. They had car type controls as described in the sales literature. The gearshift is a 4-star quadrant with neutral in the middle. It looks like a plus sign. The handlebars could be adjusted for height and laterally.
They had a differential lock that automatically disengage when the miller (tine rotor) was place in neutral to make turns.
The Series III has a 600cc 6hp J.A.P. engine and came with either a 18" or 20" miller. The Series IV has a 9.8hp 810cc twin cylinder J.A.P. engine and came with a choice of 20", 24" or 30" miller. A single-cylinder 9hp Sachs water-cooled diesel was added as an option in 1957. Attachments could be hitched to the miller cover. A furrower, furrower cover, roller, belt pulley, soil shredder, leaf guard shields and extension rims was offered. A PTO pulley was standard and used for the soil shredder attachment.
One piece of literature from 1952 listed the 600cc engine as 11hp and the 810cc engine was listed as 15hp. The same flyer shows steel wheels with the extension rims and has a picture of dual rubber tires installed in another.
Wisconsin single-cylinder and twin-cylinder engines were fitted to some GEM imported to the U.S.

Series V
By the time the Series V was introduced in 1960 some 50,000 GEM had been sold. A Howard 810cc twin-cylinder 12hp engine powered the unit and has a 2.8mph top speed. A twin dry-disc clutch was design. In the early 1970's new engines choices were introduced. Kohler K301T 11hp or a Hatz E780 9hp diesel.

GEM Standard and Super GEM The Series V basically became the GEM Standard with little change. The Super GEM had a choice of a Kohler K341T 15hp or a Hatz E785 11hp diesel. The GEM became the Dowdeswell 650 in 1985 when Howard went into receivership and some models were sold to Dowdeswell Engineering.

The Other Howard Models
In 1950 the Bantam was introduced. It has a 10" wide miller and was powered by a 1.95hp Villiers two-cycle engine. A variety of engines was used but I have never seen any literature mentioning them, in the U.S. a Briggs & Stratton model 5 2hp four-cycle engine also a four-cycle Clinton was installed. I have a Briggs powered unit. It has 4 forward speeds, low-high transmission with twin V-belt grooves on the engine input pulley. Solid rubber tires are used. A 4" flat-belt pulley is mounted to the side drive shaft. The miller is removable and attachments such as a toolbar(cultivators), sprayer, seeder units, hedge trimmer, cutter bar and cylinder mower could be attached.

A sales literature I have from 1955 has a $350 price written next to it. A price list from England in 1956 listed the Bantam at £99.

In 1956 three engines choices were offered in England, Villiers Mark 15 1.9hp or B.S.A. four-cycle or a Villiers Mark 25c 2hp two-cycle.

Joining the line in 1955 was the Bulldog and Yeoman. The Bulldog was renamed Bullfinch after a dispute with Lanz, a German tractor manufacturer who already used the Bulldog name. The Bullfinch was a less expensive version of the Bantam still having a 10" miller but a smaller engine 1.25hp J.A.P. and the handlebars did not swing to the side. On both the Bantam and Bulldog/Bullfinch models the engine was tilted to tighten the V-belts to the gearbox just like on the Roto-Ette models T, 2 and 3 series.

The Yeoman is a mid-size model using a 4.2hp Villiers, 4.5hp B.S.A. or a Wisconsin 8.2hp AEN model. Again a Lo/Hi V-belt arrangement was used between the engine and gearbox but a single plate clutch. And two-speed gearbox provided 4 forward gears, two reverse and two speeds on the 15" wide miller. A U.S. sales flyer with the Wisconsin engine shown has hand written on it a price of $795.

Using the same quick disconnect system on the miller unit as the Bantam, the Yeoman offered several attachments including front and rear tool bars, cutter bars, sprayer and seeder units.

A Terrier model was also made, but I don't have any specs on it.

Cliff Howard died in January 1971.

At the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia in the Stable Square is a 'Historic Engineering Marker'; the plaque text reads:

Howard's Rotary Hoe Arthur Clifford Howard (1893-1971) developed the first commercially viable machines for soil cultivation using powered rotors. His first model was built on the family farm at Gilgandra in 1912. Marketing his 'Rotavator' began in 1922 from factories established in New South Wales and later overseas. The principle of rotary cultivation has been adopted on farms worldwide from the smallest holdings to home gardens and the largest enterprises. Cliff Howard also developed tractors and other farm equipment over a long and productive career. His name endures on a range of machines sold. Dedicated by The Institution Of Engineers, Australia, 1988

Also located at the University is an early model Rotary Hoe, but not the original. It's located at the Machinery Pool Shed on Clydesdale Lane.

After this we get into the "Modern Era" as I call it and I won't go into any great detail. The Bullfinch had a more powerful engine installed and renamed the Demon. The Bantam became the 200 series, the Yeoman the 300/350 series. The 8hp Dragon was introduced.

The West Herndon facility was outgrown and closed in 1974. A new plant was opened in Ipswich and the name changed to Howard Machinery Ltd..

The GEM as mention earlier had been sold to Dowdeswell during the receivership in 1985. The rest of Howard was bought by Farmhand and traded as Howard-Farmhand. The Farmhand name was later dropped, Howard Rotavator Co. is still in business but only make tractor mount models from 40" to 180" wide rated from 12 hp to 250 hp.

Trivia fact, the word Rotavator is a palindrome, it reads the same forward and backward.

Unlike the SIMAR, Rototiller ®, Graham-Paige or Frazer's , Howard used what I call bolt-on engines so the list of engines installed are not limited to what I have found in print or reported by fellow collectors.

Special thanks to the following:

Matt Steffen
Guy Farm Machinery
14213 Washington St.
Woodstock, Ill 60098
Tel: 815-338-0600
E-mail: mjstef@aol.com
Russell McIntyre
New Zealand
E-mail: buckwheat@xtra.co.nz
 Fifty Years of Garden Machinery
By Brian Bell
Farming Press Books

And of course all the collectors who wrote and E-mailed me.




Figure 1: GEM JAP-600cc
Figure 2: GEM Twin 810cc
Figure 3: GEM BJ engine

Figure 4: GEM mid-1970s Diesel
Figure 5: Yeoman
Figure 6: Bantam Villier engine

Figure 7: Bantam with Sprayer
Figure 8: Bulldog/Bullfinch
Figure 9: Bulldog/Bullfinch



J.A.P. Engine Chart

As compiled by Russell McIntyre of New Zealand

Engine Identification, on Russell's GEM

U CZ/ D 97468/ B5
(1) (2) (3)
(4)
 (5)


600cc Sport engine with Dry Sump Lubrication, 1954 model made between 1st Sept,1953 to 31st August, 1954, serial no.97468 with deviation 5B.

1) The first letter before the oblique (/) mark identifies the cubic capacity of the cylinder, or of each cylinder if the engine is a twin.
(2) The remainder of the letters before the oblique mark identifies the engine type.
(3) The first letter after the oblique identifies the year of manufacture
(4) The serial no. of the engine follows immediately after the letter identifying the year of manufacturer.
(5) Additional letters after another oblique stamped immediately after the engine serial no. identify any deviations from standard specification. An (*) after the serial no. indicates the engine incorporates parts, which deviate from the standard specification.


Cylinder Capacity (First Letter)
Letter Volume Valves Bore x Stroke (mm)
A 300cc Side Valves 70x78
B 250cc Side Valves 64.5x79
E 375cc Side Valves 74x85
F 300cc Side Valves 70x76
G 350cc Side Valves 70x88
I 350cc Side Valves 70x90
J 500cc Side Valves 80x99
K 500cc Side Valves 85.7x85
L 550cc Side Valves 85.7x95
M 275cc Side Valves 70x97
N 200cc Side Valves 55x83
P 250cc Side Valves 62.5x80
S 350cc Side Valves 74x80
U 600cc Side Valves 85.7x104
V 175cc Side Valves 60x62
Z 175cc Side Valves 55x73
Note: this chart doesn't have the 810cc Twin engine which has two 405cc cylinders with a 3" Bore x 3-1/2" stroke.

Engine Type: The next group of letters are often used in combinations of twos or threes.
Letter Type
T Twin Cylinder
O Overhead Values (cancels reference to side valves)
W Water Cooled
Z Dry Sump Lubrication
S Short Stroke Sports Engine or Special
C Sports Engine
R Racing Engine
Y Twin Exhaust Port Cylinder Head


Year of Manufacture: Can help you date your Rotavator if original engine.
Letter Year Letter Year
P 1920 P 1940
N 1921 N 1941
E 1922 E 1942
U 1923 U 1943
M 1924 M 1944
A 1925 A 1945
T 1926 T 1946
I 1927 T 1947
C 1928 C 1948
S 1929 S 1949
W 1930 W 1950
H 1931 H 1951
Y 1932 Y 1952
Z 1933 Z 1953
D 1934 D 1954
R 1935 R 1955
V 1936 V 1956
F 1937 F 1957
O 1938 O 1938
G 1939 G 1959


Note: Take into account the War Years during which machines for civilian use were no longer manufactured. It is worth noting that the J.A.P. production year ran from 1st September of the year previous to that identified by the dating letter, and ended on the 31st August of the year indicated.
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