fowler leeds 3-30

[fowler 3-30]

Hi im looking at buying a fowler 3-30 crawler and im after some info like age how many were built hp thanks

[deltasierra]

This is a rarity, Fowler made more than a few attempts at a petrol or diesel version of traction engines most were large cumbersome machines both wheeled and crawlers and were exported to large scale projects worldwide. They did build a 4-40 and a 6-80 crawler in the mid 1930s so it ia a fair bet that 3-30 is a smaller sister. All Fowler records are at The Museum of English Country Life at Reading UK that is your best bet for information.
Fowler never could make the transition from steam and was merged with Marshall in the 1940s, post war there were so many war surplus Caterpillars on the market that it killed any attempt to resurrect the company, probably the only successfull non steam product was the Gyrotiller and those were working in the UK right up to the 1970s

[FOWLER MAN]

Hi Fowler 3-30
The 3-30 is indeed a rarity. Have you actualy located one?
If my info. is correct it was developed from the problematic 25 which had been introduced in 1933 and production started in 1935.
It was the first model to use the improved, more reliable Fowler Sanders engine, but very few were built. I have no numbers.
I understand that they were discontinued in favour of the four cylinder 4-30 and 4-40 after a very short time.
All crawler production ceased in 1939 until after the war when the FD range was introduced, these also had Fowler Sanders engines.
I can't agree with the previous post. The Fowler Challenger 33 for example certainly made the transition from steam to I/C power.
It was well ahead of its time when it was first produced in the 1950's and large numbers were in use. They were produced virtualy unchanged as the TM 140 into the late 1980's, and there in lies the problem. They were never developed and improved to keep pace with the competition.
I have run five over the last 40 years and still have one in good order.
Heres a pic. of one of them at work. It's being driven by my 15 year old son, it was taken some 27 years ago on the River Usk, South Wales, before the H.S.E. had been dreamed up.
Fred

img023.jpg

[deltasierra]

I wasn't counting Challengers, they were built long after the Marshall takeover and of course developed into reliable, hard working machines and they must have kept the Leeds factory busy in the 1950s and 60s