Crosley Farm-O-Road

By 1950 Crosley had been building small cars for eleven years, and in the war it had made the Pup, a tiny four-wheel-drive runabout meant to be flown in.source 1 Its new machine took its cues from the Jeep and from the Pup.source 1source 2 The Farm-O-Road was announced to Crosley dealers on 20 July 1950, to take the company into farm and commercial work, and the announcement went out over Powel Crosley’s name.source 3source 1source 2

It sat on a strengthened Crosley sedan chassis with a wheelbase of only 1,600 mm (63 in), and without its load box it was 2,324 mm (91.5 in) long.source 4source 5source 2 The engine was Crosley’s overhead-cam four of 724 cc in its cast-iron CIBA form (see the Crosley CC), with 26.5 hp. A Warner three-speed gearbox fed a 4:1 range box, which doubled the ratios to six forward and two reverse and drove the power take-off.source 5source 1source 2 The lowest gear gave a crawl ratio of 70:1, and one lever could hold both rear brakes or either one alone, so that a spinning wheel could be checked.source 1 Lane’s museum says it could pull a 25 cm (10 in) plough through tough soil.source 5 It carried 227 kg (500 lb).source 1source 2

The FOR-1 cost $795, and the FOR, with a hydraulic system and a hydraulic drawbar, $939; the detachable load box was $25 more.source 1source 2 Then came the catalogue: front and rear power take-offs, dual rear wheels, Goodyear Sure-Grip farm tyres, a rear seat, a top and side curtains, ploughs, a disc harrow, a cultivator, reel and cutter-bar mowers, a hay rake, a seeder, a post-hole digger, a snow plough, and steel skis for the front tyres.source 3source 1source 2 The car itself was spare: one windscreen wiper, the right-hand one an option, and no heater or radio on offer.source 3source 2

It never had four-wheel drive. Jim Allen of FourWheeler tells the owners’ joke: asked whether it has four-wheel drive, the owner says yes, four traction tyres and all four powered. All four are on the back axle, as duals.source 1 The Makes That Didn’t Make It reckons it would go anywhere a mule and cart could, with less fuss and little more comfort.source 4

Three years, one car

The factory photographs show pre-production prototypes, which differed in detail from the cars that were sold. After that the Farm-O-Road hardly changed: only the serial number, on the driver’s side of the bulkhead, tells one year from another.source 3 When Crosley Motors stopped building cars in July 1952, the Farm-O-Road stopped with it.source 5source 1 Crosley went on making engines for a time to meet a government contract, and the engine was built by others until at least 1972.source 1 Small working vehicles like it are gathered under micro vans; FourWheeler and Wikipedia both see it as a forerunner of today’s side-by-side utility vehicles.source 1source 2

The Crosley engine outlived the company. Its rights passed through several hands, and the engine was made for stationary, marine and military use.source 6 By the Crosley club’s account, Lou Fageol of Twin Coach and Fageol Marine held them, and W. B. Crofton, a GMC truck and Aerojet Marine dealer in San Diego, bought the rights and the military contracts from him; the Lane museum dates the purchase of the rights and stock to 1959.source 7source 4source 6 Crofton also took up the Farm-O-Road, and built it again in San Diego as the Crofton Bug, from about 1958 or 1959.source 1source 2source 6source 7 The name, by MTDM’s account, is because it crawled over rocks like a bug.source 4

The wheelbase stayed at 1,600 mm (63 in), but the Bug was more than 30 cm (a foot) longer, with all its load space behind the seats, and the engine rose to 35 hp; the top speed was a little over the Farm-O-Road’s 64 km/h (40 mph). MTDM puts it at about a metre (3 ft) shorter and 454 kg (1,000 lb) lighter than a Jeep CJ-2.source 4 The first Bugs had the Farm-O-Road’s grille and folding screen, the later ones a cross-hatched grille and a fixed screen. Crofton’s engines have a mirror-image block: the firm used up blocks that Fageol had bought for a planned flat-eight built from the Crosley design.source 7 The Brawny Bug had flotation tyres, and by MTDM’s account a compound gearbox, a skid plate and the engine bored out to 53 cu in (about 870 cc) and 45 hp, though it was still no faster than 80 km/h (50 mph).source 7source 4 The Tug, a forward-control truck with the driver over the front wheels, was advertised, but the club says none has turned up and perhaps only one was made.source 4source 7

When production ended is unclear, because Bugs were assembled to order after it officially stopped: 1963 by FourWheeler and Wikipedia, 1964 by MTDM, the early or middle 1960s by the club.source 1source 2source 4source 7 MTDM counts a little more than 200 Bugs and Tugs; FourWheeler and Wikipedia say about 250.source 4source 1source 2 The club keeps a register of Croftons.source 7 A Crofton appeared with a Crosley Super Sports on Jay Leno’s Garage, episode 4.08 (see microcars on screen).source 8

How many survive is not known. Both kinds can be seen in Nashville, where the Lane Motor Museum has a 1951 Farm-O-Road and a 1961 Crofton Bug.source 5source 6 In 2015 FourWheeler put a Farm-O-Road’s value at $10,000–15,000; no sale at a major auction has come to light.source 1 The Crosley Automobile Club keeps a page on the Farm-O-Road and a Crofton register, and its national meet takes place at Wauseon, Ohio (see museums and meets).source 3source 7source 9 Other Farm-O-Roads appear in this page’s photographs, at a show in Michigan, on display in Washington, in Bismarck, North Dakota, and in a shopping centre in Willmar.