The Tractor

I was driving past the nearby museum at Miva, Qld, in mid June last year, when I spotted a funny little three-wheeled tractor. I had to stop and, to my surprise, I found that it belonged to me! My son had bought it for me as a birthday present and had only just unloaded it outside the museum. I gave it a quick inspection, and wondered if it was something that someone had made up. But, no, it was too well built to be homemade, and had obviously been built in an engineering workshop. It was well weathered, but I could still see “C.H. SEMPF” stencilled in the faded paint.

Nothing would move, as the drive chain from the engine was rusted up and would not turn around the cogs. The exhaust was broken off at the manifold, one back tyre was busted, the front wheel rim was rusted out, the right hand turning brake and second gearbox were seized up, as well as the throttle and clutch cables, and there were no tynes on the scuffler.

This tractor was built with an 8hp Briggs & Stratton engine chain-driven to a four speed Triumph motorbike gearbox, utilising its clutch, then chain-driven through a three forward and one reverse car gearbox, which was then chain-driven to a Vanguard differential and wheel, giving it 12 forward and 4 reverse gears.

My search for information started and, to my delight, I found a full-page article on them in Graham R. Quick’s book Australian Tractors. It states that they were made by Cec Sempf in Gatton, Qld who made nearly 100 of them between 1962-82. They could be fitted with tynes for clearing of small crops, two or four planter boxes, peg tooth harrows, or spray equipment.

Restoration Begins

The first thing was to see what would move. I had to cut most of the bolts to get the chain guards off, and I cut the chain from the engine. This revealed the engine had no compression and was not seized. The last tractor rally for the year was being held in five weeks time in Caboolture. Could I get it restored in time? I decided I’d give it a go.

With time so short, I took the engine off and went to see an old friend who is in his nineties, but still likes to tinker with old engines. He found the exhaust valve open, and, on thumping it with his fist, the top broke off. Luckily a new one was readily available. He got a new needle and seat for the carburettor and had it going by the time I was ready for it. The motorbike gearbox was OK, but the car gearbox was full of water and rust; I eventually got it free. The right hand brake was a problem, but I managed to get it working.

I had to strip it down, and get new tyres on the back and a new rim for the front wheel. The scuffler had no tynes, but a bucket of rusted and broken tynes revealed four usable ones, so I made up another five, and arranged them in order.

One Week Before the Rally

On Monday, I collected the engine and cleaned it up for painting. Tuesday was wet, but I had to get the painting done, so I took the compressor and paint gear and all the parts over to the big farm shed to carry out the job. I hung the main tractor frame by the tractor forks for ease of painting and, just as I finished it, the farmhand came by to pump a tyre, so I commandeered him to lower the frame onto the jacks, while I guided it. He failed to level the forks as he lowered it (not self levelling forks) and it was nearly down when the chain slipped off the forks and it landed with one brake drum and the front wheel yoke in the dirt. The brake rod on the other side landed on a jack, which bent it badly.

Wednesday was fine and sunny so I carted everything outside for the sun to harden the paint. On Thursday, I assembled most of it and, on Friday, I finished it by painting all the bolts that had been replaced.

It was Friday afternoon before I was able to give it a test run to see how it all worked, and it was OK. All I had left to do before the deadline was to weld up a frame to attach the tailboard of the ute to support the front of the chassis, which overhangs the body. I lifted it onboard a little before dark, and headed off for Caboolture early on Saturday morning.

The Caboolture Rally

It certainly got some looks and comments at the rally, and plenty of photos were taken during the grand parade. The commentator, who works at rallies from Rockhampton to Dubbo, had never seen a Sempf, and had only read about them in Australian Tractors a couple of months before.

At the rally I spoke to Laurie Topp, an old friend and tractor exhibitor from Gatton, who has worked on a couple of Sempf’s in his tractor workshop, and thinks a couple are still in use. He advised me to ring and have a yarn with Cec Sempf, who is in his eighties, but still going well. This I did, and it made his day. He sent me a lot of advertising brochures and photos of other things he has made, from walk-behind tractors to five and seven row vegetable transplanters.

My Sempf is one of the early models, as Cec later had transfers made instead of stencils, and shortened the name to SEMP, with the motto:

Simplicity

Economy

Manoeuvrability

Power

In later models, he used Borg-Warner gearboxes and a Richter clutch system. The restoration was quite a challenge, as I don’t have much spare time, but I’m glad I did it and I’m pleased to have one of these rare and interesting tractors that I hope to take to other tractor rallies. *Don Nahrung, Gunalda, Qld

At the 2009 Jondaryan Heritage Rally,  second little Semp tractor came to light. This tractor belongs to Laurie Topp of Helidon, Qld, who is a keen collector of interesting tractors. Laurie was offered the tractor mid last year; it came from a farm in the Tenthill area, south of Gatton, Qld, and had stayed on that farm since the late 1960’s when it was purchased from the maker, C.H. Sempf & Co., Gatton, Qld. This tractor was still being used on a farm up until 2005, where onions were grown. 

Laurie’s Semp tractor was built around 1968;  ROW-VISION ‘80’ row crop model. t appears that the builder did not include serial numbers on these tractors, but approximately 100 were built, and some of them were set up with spraying equipment.

This tractor has been well looked after, as you can see. It still has the original motor, paint and even the decals are in very good condition. The only work carried out so far had been to replace the seals in the gearbox, and replace the chains.