Rediscovering the Sears Handiman Line

By Sam Moore
Published on February 9, 2016
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A like-new Sears Handiman R-T at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a few years ago.
A like-new Sears Handiman R-T at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a few years ago.
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The Handiman R-T at work with a 10-inch plow. Image from a 1941 Handiman sales brochure.
The Handiman R-T at work with a 10-inch plow. Image from a 1941 Handiman sales brochure.
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A Handiman R-T and 5-gang reel mower.
A Handiman R-T and 5-gang reel mower.
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The 1 hp Handiman Jr. walk-behind tractor.
The 1 hp Handiman Jr. walk-behind tractor.
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This ad touts the jobs a Handiman R-T was claimed to be capable of.
This ad touts the jobs a Handiman R-T was claimed to be capable of.
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A 4 hp Handiman All-Purpose walk-behind tractor with cultivators.
A 4 hp Handiman All-Purpose walk-behind tractor with cultivators.

Some time ago, in an antique shop, I was rooting through a pile of books, magazines and other “paper ephemera,” as it is called by collectors. Occasionally, I find a real treasure at these places, and this was one of those times. Among the old Motor flat rate manuals and Hot Rod magazines was a 20-page sales brochure put out by Sears, Roebuck & Co. for their line of Handiman tractors.

Dated 1941, the booklet thoroughly describes the Handiman Jr. and the All Purpose Handiman walk-behind machines, as well as the 4-wheeled Handiman R-T riding tractor. There was a price list from 1941 for Handiman tractors and attachments, and even a blank order form.

A size for every need

Sears introduces the machines thus: “From the alert little Handiman Jr. to the amazing new 4-wheel Handiman R-T Riding Tractor, there is a power unit built to meet the requirements of every truck gardener, orchardist and small-acreage farmer. Besides plowing, preparing seed beds, planting, cultivating, spraying, mowing, etc., a Handiman provides power for dozens of belt jobs … operating feed grinders, corn shellers, cream separators, light plants, pumps, saws, concrete mixers, lathes and other machine shop and belt-driven equipment.”

The Handiman Jr. was advertised as a Triple-Purpose Unit, meant for garden work, mowing lawns, and cutting hay and weeds, and was said to be “so easy to handle (that) any boy can do a good job of cultivating.” It was powered by a Briggs & Stratton, 4-cycle engine, and “air-cooled by blower fan … No worry about boiling or freezing. Rated at 1 hp, but actually develops considerably more.”

The Jr. walk-behind tractor came equipped with a 6-shovel cultivator and was priced at $82.50 with 24-inch steel lug wheels. For $12 more, one could get neat spoked wheels shod with new 4 x 18 Goodyear tractor lug tires. For $86.40, you’d get the machine with 6 x 16 disc wheels and two used auto tires (for $82.50, you’d get the tractor with just the bare 6 x 16 wheels and put on your own old car tires). A front-mounted, 3-1/2-foot cutter bar mower cost $19.50, a 20-inch pull-behind reel lawn mower sold for $17.50 and a 1-row Columbia seeder with fertilizer attachment and row marker went for $26.65.

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