caterpillar guy said: (quoted from post at 18:36:27 12/20/08) The plymouth tractor in the picture in these posts are nothing to do with the old Plymouth cars or Chrysler. I had somebody tell me there was a law suit over the name and that was the reason for the Siver King name as a result of that. Can't say if it is true or not.
Silver King tractors were produced by the Fate-Root-Heath Company of Plymouth, Ohio. The company was founded by John Fate in 1884 and was originally called the "J.D. Fate Company". After several mergers over the years, the final company name of Fate-Root-Heath came about in 1919. The first tractor produced was actually called the "Plymouth" tractor and was powered by a 20 HP 4-cylinder engine with a 3x4" bore and stroke. The four speed transmission had a top speed of 25 mph! After more than 200 of these were built, the Chrysler Corporation who had begun making a "Plymouth" car sued the Fate-Root-Heath company for the right to use the "Plymouth" name. It was decided that since the Chrysler Corporation manufactured their car MANY years after Fate-Root-Heath made their tractor, that Chrysler Corp was not entitled to the exclusive use of the "Plymouth" name. To make a long story short, Fate-Root-Heath did not want to tangle with such a large corporation and hence sold the "Plymouth" name to Chrysler Corp for a single dollar bill!
I find this all very fascinating. The Plymouth Tractor obviously had to be renamed. The name "Silver King" was decided upon during a board meeting and according to one story, they felt it was the "King" of all tractors and there also happened to be a bouquet of silver plant leaves in the room which is how the final name came about.
Only 8600 or so Silver Kings were produced between the years of 1934 and 1954. Most were silver in color, although a few produced for the Ohio highway department were yellow or orange. Most of these tractors were used by farmers for general farm use. Supposedly they were the first tractors to use rubber tires.
Many different models were produced and we cannot find a complete list of them. Some of the models we have been able to dig up are: The 380, 400, 340, 600, 660 and the 720. Each model was just a little different from the other. Reportedly, one year 10 different models were made! The two main configuration differences were the 3-Wheel Row Crop (with a single front wheel) and the 4-Wheel Standard (with a wide front end).
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