Gibson Manufacturing Corporation was a company that made tractors and railroad speeders. It is estimated they made around 60,000 tractors.

Rail cars

In 1933 Gibson recognized that there was a need for larger railroad speeders than those available on the market at the time. Gibson's larger speeder was an immediate success, and several found their way to logging railroads, where people needed to be moved from logging site to logging site separate of the log trains. Some of these speeders now remain in museums.

Tractors

Their first tractor was the model A, Production started in Seattle, Washington sometime after 1938, but moved to Longmont, Col. in 1946 after the corporation was pressured to unionize, and later models were made here as well. Headquarters and product development stayed in Seattle There are 10 models. A, D, H, I, SD, Super D, Super D2, and experimental models SL and M, few of which are known to exist. A, D, SD, Super D, and Super D2 tractors all used 6 HP Wisconsin AEH engines. Seattle tractors were usually painted blue-gray with red sheetmetal. while Colorado ones were either Fordson Gray or Red or a mix of these colors. An advertisement read "Master of 1000 Chores. The Gibson tractor is outstanding in development design. The tractor is ideally adapted for use on the small general farm, truck farm, orchards or as a auxiliary tractor for large farms, ranches, country estates and municipalities, along with park systems." Several accessories were sold to go on these tractors, including two types of

plow A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

with Sandoval coulter disks, a disk

harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

, dozers, and for the Model D a

sickle mower A mower is a person or machine that cuts (mows) grass or other plants that grow on the ground. Usually mowing is distinguished from reaping, which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for harvesting grain crops, e.g. with reape ...

After the company closed the designs for the Super D and the Super D2 were sold to PowerFlex.

Forklifts

The U.S. military signed a contract with Gibson Manufacturing Corporation to make

forklifts A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various ...

, but this contract may have led to their closing when they were unable to fulfill it.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:gibson tractor Defunct companies based in Seattle Defunct companies based in Colorado American companies established in 1933 American companies disestablished in 1952 Tractor manufacturers of the United States