Minneolopis 17-30

I saw a 17-30 today and was amazed, it has a four cylinder engine cross ways not front to back. Is this a pre- MM tractor? Are they worth saving and restoring? This one has fairly nice fenders, steel wheel are ok, engine looked complete and the glass thingy on top of the engine is still there and not busted.
 
17-30 Minneapolis cross motor tractors are an awesome beast to drive. My dad has one. Ours is a type A. It seems they are a little more scarce than the type B. The A is shorter than the B, and runs a little slower RPM I believe. Early ones were not designated A or B. They were built in the 1920's. Ours is a '28 I think. They are always worth saving. Even for parts. We are looking for the flat belt fan pulleys for ours. Someone changed it to a V belt. Things to look at are correct carb, mag, and exhaust manifold. Having the oiler on it is a definite plus. Look for the starting crank too. As to value, Dad paid 8 or 9,000 for his at an auction. It was running at the sale. A beautifully restored one sold for I think around $24,000 on auction. Both of these were 3 or 4 years ago. Biewers tractor salvage has two listed on their website for sale. I believe they want $6000 each and both are rough and stuck. I think they are priced high. Personally, if it is all there, even if its stuck, I think $2500-$3500 would be in the ballpark. As to rarity, I know of several in our area, I'm not looking very hard. So its definitely not the only one out there.
 

Chris is right, I have been looking for one for about 6 months now, and I have stumbled upon more than a couple handfuls of them, the sad part is that most of the owners of said tractors tend to want to hang on to them.

There were several photo's circulating around some time ago, I think it was Facebook, but when the tornado hit the Hopkins area in 1925, a picture of the assembly area you can see several 17-30 Tractors in the background.

The Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company office building was damaged by that Tornado. I did not save the pictures but I was told they were photos from the Hopkins Historical Society, but I did find this one still on Facebook.

The same building became the headquarters of the Minneapolis Moline Power Implement Company in 1929

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Attached are some photos of a non-designated 17-30 of a local friend of mine here in central IL. As it has been said, its a fun piece to run, operate, and a nice historical machine altogether. These photos are while it was sitting in its winter storage shed. Hope you enjoy.
 

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