| Author | Message | ||
     SexyFarmerRob |
I recently discovered a old Oliver 4240 3 bottom plow sitting in the weeds at a friends farm. I am thinking of buying it and restoring it. I was hoping for a little information on this model. The tag says "Model 4240" and "Serial # 9273". It has rubber tires with a rubber trailer wheel. Dad used it when he was my age and says its set up for a cylinder but still works with the hand levers. Its a bit rusty but its in nice shape. The mold boards look very nice. Any information like year, the colors it should be and if it had decals will be helpful. Thank you. | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
I don't have any info to tell the year on plows, but it should be somewhere in the mid 1950's. These plows were all green to the best of my knowledge. There was a decal on each mold baord that said Oliver and what size of bottom it was. You can barely make these decals out on the cover of the literature for the 4240.  The literature doesn't show it, but Dad's 4240 had a decal on the long frame piece right above the bottoms. If you take a tire off the rim, you should be able to find out what color the wheels were originally, if they haven't been switched. If it is set up for a cylinder, then the hand lever is for adjusting the plow. You should be able to get decals for this plow from Dumont's Decals. There is a link to them on our links page. Give Lyle or Helen a call and they will be able to let you know what they have. | ||
| Robert Hanshaw (Sexyfarmerrob) |
the decal goes on back of the moldboard? what did ur dads decal on the frames say? | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
The decal goes on the back side of the moldboard. The decal on the frame said OLIVER and had the oliver shield next to it. I'll try to remeber to take my camera out and take a picture of it and a moldboard. One of these days I'm going to get dad's 4240 restored. It's the one he used to win the national level land plowing contest 2 years in a row. | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
Here's a picture of the location of the frame decal.  And here's a close up. Not much left, but the shield would be on the left and the word OLIVER to the right of it.  Here's a picture of a decal on the back of a bottom. They did vary over the years and with different sizes, but you can get an idea from the picture.  Looks like Dad's 4240 had white wheels, but I'd be willing to bet the majority had green wheels. | ||
| Robert Hanshaw (Sexyfarmerrob) |
whats super oliver roudex?? i thought it should say oliver 14"? | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
The bottom picture is from a 2 bottom 4240 plow with 16 inch bottoms. It says Super Oliver Raydex. The Raydex plow bottom was what made the Oliver plow superior to all others. With it's design, shares would self sharpen, allowing better suction and less draft. In my area it isn't uncommon to see other makes of plows for sale that have been retrofitted with Oliver/White plow bottoms. | ||
| Robert Hanshaw (Sexyfarmerrob) |
how do i know if mine has raydex bottoms on it? i dont know what size the bottoms are. | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
I think by the time the 4240 was made, pretty much all Oliver bottoms were Raydex bottoms. But there were a lot of variations. Look in the area where the decal would be on the back of the moldboard. There should be some numbers stamped into the metal in that area. Also, you can take a share off and there should be some numbers stamped into the backside of that too. | ||
| Mark |
I think in the later years, Oliver leased the raydex design to other makers as well. My mid 60's Ford 2 btm has Raydex/Oliver bottoms on it stock. Even got a Ford part number on it too. | ||
| Canada Grant |
I looked at 4240 set up book and it shows green wheels 4340 shows white wheels 4440 shows green wheels and 4441 shows white wheels. | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
Mark, your entire plow was probably built by White/Oliver in South Bend. White/Oliver also built complete plows for Case for some time. Here's some examples: First, the White 449 plow.  Next, the Ford 155 plow.  And last, the Case 700 plow.  As you can see, they are all shades of the same plow. Thanks to Bob Schaeffer for loaning me some of his old company slides that these pictures came from Canada G, (I like the sound of that...) thanks for the info on the wheel color. Dad may have switched his wheels, he did quite a few modifications to make that plow work right for the contest in Austria. | ||
| Robert Hanshaw (Sexyfarmerrob) |
those are sum big #$@ plows!! how many inch bottoms are they? certianly not 16 for that many bottoms..... | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
From what I can see from zooming in on the original pictures, they are set for 18 inch spacing. White did have a 20 inch bottom, but they aren't very common around here. 16 inch and 18 inch were the popular size. Here's the big one that White made, the 2549. It was basically 2 plows hooked together so the back bone would flex. I think they could be as big as 12 bottoms, although this one is 11.  | ||
| Ian C. Campbell (Ianc) |
if you look at the brochure cover Chris posted you'll see the tailwheel lift lever is a cast piece, and the one on his dad's plow is a fabricated weldment. That's when I think the wheel color change happened. My 4240 set up and operators book shows the fabricated lever and the publication number is S2-4-A4240-3 if anyone out there can decode it. |
