The Allis Chalmers WD : The Rodney Dangerfield tractor

All the talk lately of the N series Fords and their prominence has me reflecting on the sights of my youth. My recollection has it that a lot of little farms around and the non-farming home owners had one of these tractors (WD) sitting in the yard or a WD45 or C if not a WD. And it was just not the neighborhood but went I started college in the 1980's there seemed to be a lot of those on the way to Alfred, NY from the Finger Lakes area. Production data shows over 146,000 units made for the WD. Granted they were an less than ergonomically friendly tractor but I would be willing to bet there were as many that were the "bedrock" tractor back in the day as there were Ford N series on a given farm. I am not an AC tractor person but at the same time do not harbor an immense dislike of them, either. Discuss.

Very true, See that around here. One of AC's selling point was price. They were cheaper by about 100 dollars or so over Farmalls of about the same HP class.Back it that day 100 bucks was a lot of money. By the time the 70's and 80's rolled around the problems were well known and used they went down in value. One problem was the tranny. If you had a hot rod kid running one and slamming gears they developed a tendency to pop out of gear going down hill (the B'c, C's and CA's did it too). Try that with a loaded hay wagon! The PTO also gave farmers problems if they tried pushing the HP limits. Because of the reduced value homeowners looking for a snow pusher found them a little cheaper. When collecting came along all the old tractors went up in value. The 2 most popular for collecting by brand is JD and IH/Farmall. So the AC's are still a little cheaper. Don't see any in the fields earning a living here. But you do see some old popping Johnies in the 60/70's and 100 series and a few SMTA 300 and 400's on the Farmall side still farming. I do know a guy who got 40 acres and decided he wanted to hay it. He found a WD. Found out that the PTO has a stripped gear. SO he got a 930 case. They sit side by side in his shed and have been there for the last 10 years......he has yet to make a bale. Been trying to talk him into selling that 930 but he still thinks he's going to farm. He's a 76 year old retired mechanical engineer.

Rick

ive always liked them myself,though they werent real popular here because there wasnt a dealer close.one of the things ive heard from guys here who ran them was that they were lighter than some others of the same hp,so they could be transported easier between farms.

I would say most were made secondary tractors on a given farm by the 1970's. They did still have significant duties such as smaller planters, smaller wagons, and smaller silo blowers. Some were the everyday manure spreader tractor. Even during the 1980's when I got to see a fair amount of the country side there were those older AC's that were still the main tractor and would see them hooked to a small trailing combine or corn picker. I went down Rte 21 to Hornell and then onto 17/86 West recently. Kind of sad to see a lot of the small farms gone along the way that I knew from the 1980's.

Never operated a WD or WD45, but the word I get is that they were rugged, reliable tractors that always cranked.

KEH

Depended as lot on the dealership.
Down in the area you are referring to (Alfred, etc.) there was an Allis Chalmers dealer for many years in Woodhull, NY and the area was covered w/ Allis tractors.

I agree that these were "staples" on many farms in that area, just as were the Fords and others.

I did not know about Woodhull. I knew of the one at North Cohocton (where the New Holland dealer is now), one at Wellsville, Fillmore, Perry, and at Waterloo. Many years gone by but at Canandaigua and Newark.

Growing up in central MN all you saw around there was AC, IH, JD and Case. Probably in that order.
The dealer in Aitkin sold both AC and Ford though you hardly ever saw a Ford around till the Blue ones started coming out. Rarely saw a MM or Ollie either.
The reason the little Fords are still so popular is because of the 3 point hitch. It's a modern feature on an antique tractor.
A lot of folks think because a 9N has 3 point it must be modern in other ways and so are disapointed to find it doesn't have all the bells and whistles.
Compare it to an Allis C or Farmall H or JD B and it will do things that they wont.
Better tractors?
No.
Worse tractors?
No.
But any N with a cheap attachment will do the simple task in the picture straight off the factory floor.
Another advantage they have is you can still buy NEW implements for them.
Plows, scoops, discs, boom poles, cultivators, mowers, brush hogs, fertilizer spreaders, PHDs, etc.
Hook one up and go.
Perfect for the weekend warrior, hobby farmer or...
Not many companies building pull behind plows and discs for a WD, H, B, 66 or DC and the used stuff still out there has already been snatched up by collectors, scrapped or is plumb worn out.
In defense of the WDs though, if a guy just wanted an old tractor to skid a few logs, haul firewood on a trailer or cobble some kind of a snow plow onto or even pull a trail behind brush mower with, pound for pound and dollar for dollar a WD would do a lot work for him for bottom dollar price.

A lot of WD's here had factory made loaders and a lot were New Idea's.

Salerno's in Seneca Falls,(preceded by Nothnagle & Pratt I think). Evans & Lind in Auburn, replaced by Main & Pinckney. Atwater's in Locke. R.C. Church in Baldwinsville, and on it goes. There were AC's all over here in Cayuga County.

The WD was a much improved version of the WC with live hydraulics & pto via a second hand clutch, spin out wheels to easily widen for cultivating those old wide rows and then conveniently narrow up again for such chores as pulling a mower or binder. Front mounted cultivator was a job that only took a few minutes compared to hours for some other makes. Easily overhauled wet sleeve engine. Excellent cold weather starting. A snappy governor/engine combination that has no peer. Plenty of power to pull two 14" plows, and a price that couldn't be beat. As for you who complain about it being uncomfortable to sit on all day, it was a big improvement over the old Fordsons which were noisy, hot (try sitting on top of a differential with a worm gear drive for a few hours sometime), and dusty as most had steel wheels, many without fenders.. The WCs and WDs had an offset seat to make cultivating easier which was a seemingly unending job. The WD seat had a nice hydraulic shock absorber that made them just as comfortable as many of today's tractors. $1775 for the first ones made to about $2400 for the last WD45 which would outwork many larger, more powerful and more expensive tractors.

Bob, did you make it over to Empire Farm Days yet? I see Teitsworth is auctioning off some older AC's Thrursday.

No. Getting busy here again with small grains off and it being so dry I can access lots of places I can't other times of the year.
Been doing backhoe and bulldozer jobs. Will have to mow the wheat stubble soon. It's early enough I might even spot spray some oat stubble before working it for wheat.
Possibly could get over there Thur. Don't know. I haven't much patience for auctions.

used to be several around home seemed to be good tractors, of coarse all tractors in one way or another can have some flaw in design,neighbor would haul silage for daddy and my uncle with his wd45 during harvest, one day it came a hard shower of rain on them while cutting,neighbor had hooked to a load at the lower end of the field and couldn't get up the hill without spinning out,daddy was cutting with an m that had a strong motor and enough ballast to hold it,when he came around he hooked a chain between the wagon he was filling and the wd45 circled around started back to cutting as he came up the hill sight to see being a young boy,m a pulling a gehl one row cutter cutting silage with a half filled wagon and a wd45 with a full wagon chained to it,he didn't say anything was just grinning when he unhooked them coarse uncle was an ac man also

My neighbor I worked for had one of each. Both were a POS for the jobs they were used for.

The WD had a loader. LOTS of clutching and shifting when no one had the leg stretch for that pedal. Absolutely miserable.

The 8N was used with a bush hog rotary mower.
Get into trouble in a ditch, hit an obstruction, get caught in a fence corner or just simply try to stop and not run over someone and your screwed. No brakes, no live hitch, no live pto, no patience by the end of the day.

In fairness, I'm sure both were good tillage tractors where you let the clutch out in the morning and didn't touch it again till noon but they were NOT any kind of utility tractor.

(quoted from post at 21:21:50 08/08/12) My neighbor I worked for had one of each. Both were a POS for the jobs they were used for.

The WD had a loader. LOTS of clutching and shifting when no one had the leg stretch for that pedal. Absolutely miserable.

The 8N was used with a bush hog rotary mower.
Get into trouble in a ditch, hit an obstruction, get caught in a fence corner or just simply try to stop and not run over someone and your screwed. No brakes, no live hitch, no live pto, no patience by the end of the day.

In fairness, I'm sure both were good tillage tractors where you let the clutch out in the morning and didn't touch it again till noon but they were NOT any kind of utility tractor.

Click to expand...

Compared to a #2 shovel and a mule, they are both great utility tractors.

Grew up driving a WD-45 it was one tough tractor and tough on the operator if it'd had a high/low range,power steering and a seat in the middle of the tractor it would have a great machine but it was durable and rarely gave any problems and would work circles around the N Fords.

[i:654c4848f0]"would work circles around the N Fords."[/i:654c4848f0]

And that's why they're worth about 1/2 of what an N is worth right?

Nobody can argue that including me but compared to other tractors available at the time, there were better choices for loader or mowing work.
I often wondered if the loader shouldn't have been on the 8N and the mower on the WD?