Templeton loader

Don't know anthing about Templeton loaders but i do like Templeton Rye Whiskey....

Templeton was just up the road in Lexington Ohio. We had one of the loaders and used to go to the factory for the occasional parts need. They have been gone a long time. Probably 50 years. As you might guess there were a lot of them around here.

The name was actually TEMPLE-TON. The loaders came unassembled, and included a two page illustrated instruction to assemble to fit a WD tractor.  The package included support stands for the loader when not attached to the tractor. The only repair parts ever needed were leather cups for the cylinder pistons, same as those used in the old well water pumps.  Temple-tons were rated for 2000 lb, hence the hyphon between the Temple and ton.  Early units did not have as high a lift as later units, accomplished by making the front mount brackets longer, and braced back to the tractor channel frame.  The same highly adjustable loader frame was used on about every make of tractor, with different mount backets.  They also made them with the frames cut and rewelded to clear the axle on WD with wide front. There was no owners manual, other than the assembly instructions, and there were color brochurs put out showing them mounted on both narrow front and wide front WD's, and wide and narrow front CA's.

Yes, we had one on a WD. The hoses you remember on the bottom of the cylinders were there to collect the leakage past the leather seals and route it back to the sump.  The early loaders did not have this feature.   After a hundred hrs or so lifting manure, you would leave a fine trail of oil from the open ended cylinders.  Replacing the seals was easy; unscrew the eye from the end of the cylinder shaft, unscrew the rod gland, and pull the gland and shaft out. one nut and washer held the leather cup on the rod.  The brochures are relatively easy to come by: I can bring one to look at to the Findlay GOTO if you want.

My dad bought one of these loaders at auction when I was a kid. His uncle had had one. We had a wide front WD, and the loader was for a narrow front, which he didn't realize until we were mounting it. It was handy for lifting, but wouldn't go to the ground for digging. He later bought one for the wide front, then sold it with the WD45. He made a snap coupler rear bucket with a cultivator hitch and the remains of the original loader, which I still have. Two years ago, I bought a narrow front WD with a Temple-ton loader on it.

Edited by Dave (Mid-MI) - 23 Mar 2021 at 4:36pm

My Dad had a templeton mounted on a CA and it loaded a lots of manure, the WD & WC pulled the spreaders.