Who put the S in BGS?

[Roger Amato]

This has probably been talked about before here, but I'm new. I heard that the S in the Model BGS stood for "Studebaker", since they made the engines? for some BGs.  This true?

[John D]

This has probably been talked about before here, but I'm new. I heard that the S in the Model BGS stood for "Studebaker", since they made the engines? for some BGs.  This true?

The 'S' suffix does mean Studebaker, as some of the Hercules JXD engines were contracted out and built by Studebaker.

There is also an 'H' suffix for some of the Cletracs (BG included) which stands for Hillside or wide gauge for stability.

Thus, a BGHS would be a Model B Gas engine Hillside model with a Studabaker built Hercules engine.

[John Schwiebert]

That is not 100% true. It definately is not true for a late BGS.

[RLH]

What is wider on the hillside models? The tracks?
Randy

[Blake Malkamaki]

What is wider on the hillside models? The tracks?
Randy

The gauge of the tracks - center to center.

[Ray]

I have never seen or heard any concrete evidence that Studabaker had anything to do with Hercules or Cletrac.

Does anyone know where that came from or was it just hear-say?
Maybe someone has some documents that they could share with us.

I was always told that the "S" in BGS stood for Special as the later BG had updates to the engine and electrical part of it.
We even have a thin manual from Oliver that shows all the changes made to the BG to call it a BGS.

[John D]

I have never seen or heard any concrete evidence that Studabaker had anything to do with Hercules or Cletrac.

Does anyone know where that came from or was it just hear-say?
Maybe someone has some documents that they could share with us.

I was always told that the "S" in BGS stood for Special as the later BG had updates to the engine and electrical part of it.
We even have a thin manual from Oliver that shows all the changes made to the BG to call it a BGS.

Thanks Ray - I only repeated what I had seen published earlier on this subject by people I believed knew the facts.  This is good dialog - can anyone provide the facts?

I think your information that 'S' means Special makes much more sense than creating a separate model designation to reference a licensed sub-contracting manufacturer of an otherwise identical engine.

[Blake Malkamaki]

I have never seen or heard any concrete evidence that Studabaker had anything to do with Hercules or Cletrac.

Does anyone know where that came from or was it just hear-say?
Maybe someone has some documents that they could share with us.

I was always told that the "S" in BGS stood for Special as the later BG had updates to the engine and electrical part of it.
We even have a thin manual from Oliver that shows all the changes made to the BG to call it a BGS.

Yes it is true Ray. They had Studebaker make engines to the Hercules specifications when Hercules could either not keep up to production, or they had other commitments for their engine. There were slight variations between the Hercules JXC and the Studebaker-built engine.

The information is from Howard van Driest, Experimental Engineer at Cletrac and Oliver Corporation. I don't know if I have anything in writing about this. I don't know if the customer was even supposed to be aware there was a difference in the engines.

Blake

[John Schwiebert]

Ray: how much for a photocopy of that thin book?