While visiting the Tr-State Gas Engine and Tractor show in Portland, IN earlier this year, I saw something I had never seen in person before – a Shop Mule tractor.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – if that’s true, then IH ought to have been very flattered by the W. F. Herbard company’s production of the shop mule tractor. While it isn’t exactly imitation, Herbard certainly took Farmall’s tractors and ran with them.
The Shop Mules are compact, powerful versions of IH’s popular tractors. W. F. Herbard, located in Chicago, built them using IH power units and other parts.
Don’t be fooled by the Shop Mule’s cute looks – these tractors pack a punch! Unlike a homemade half-scale version of a letter series tractor, these machines have the full power of their corresponding tractor. They were popular in situations where compact power was needed – inside shops (as the name would suggest!), in airports, and similar places.
Shop Mules take a bit of ingenuity to restore. While many of the parts are interchangeable with letter-series tractors, it takes some work to figure out how everything fits together.
Hubbard made at least four models of the Shop Mule tractor – the A3 Victory, A14, A14 Victory, and A21. Models with the “Victory” designator were wartime production and didn’t use tractor sheet metal.
While I can’t find any mention of the Shop Mule tractor in the IH archives I have access to, I imagine that the Shop Mule’s popularity eventually lead to the production of the Cub Lo-Boy tractor – the closest tractor in the official IH lineup.
How about you – have you ever worked on a Shop Mule tractor? How do they compare to the full-sized versions? Share your thoughts below.