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Wilhelm Mayer Stahlpferd – single-cylinder tractor with evaporative cooling, built 1928 to 1931: 8 hp, 1,100 kg weight, top speed of just 6 km/h, an early motorised replacement for the draught horse
The Stahlpferd by Wilhelm Mayer was built between 1928 and 1931 and belongs to the early small tractors of the interwar years, whose name already hints at its purpose: a motorised replacement for the draught horse on smaller farms. Nothing certain can be said about the company's own history from the recorded values, so the description below stays with the machine class.
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The single-cylinder engine is tempered by evaporative cooling and produces 8 hp. At 1,100 kg with a design top speed of just 6 km/h, the Stahlpferd was a very slow but, for its power class, comparatively heavy machine, built for draught work rather than road travel.
Such early single-cylinder tractors worked almost exclusively at walking pace, replacing draught animals for ploughing, harrowing and haulage on small and medium farms. Evaporative cooling without a water pump was typical of the period and made the engines simple to maintain, though prone to coolant loss under sustained load over long working hours.
When buying a used tractor this old, the condition of the crankshaft and cylinder, the tightness of the evaporative cooling and the state of the belt and chain drives, which have often already been replaced, matter most. As original spare parts for machinery of this era are barely available new any more, the value is usually decided by the condition of the parts, sometimes remanufactured, that remain on the machine.
Sources: SpecCodex-Register: Kennwerte des Modells Wilhelm Mayer Stahlpferd
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