My Dad and I have two old Allis Chalmers tractors, which we have always called 20-35's, and have anecdotally dated them to 1929 or 1930. The Serial Nos. are 16240 and 18529. When I saw the serial number page on this great web site, I thought I'd check to see if we had the years right. Looking up the 20-35, I see it was made for 2 years, 1929 and 1930, so that seemed to fit with what we thought. However, the serial numbers themselves didn't make much sense. 1930 begins with S/N 1075, which would mean that at least 17,454 machines would have to be made that year to include our newer tractor, a production total that did not seem realistic. So to check annual production runs, I looked at the earlier 18-30 model. The last year, 1929, begins with S/N 14501, so that our two machines would fit in the 1929 year if they were actually 18-30s. So how do you tell an 18-30 from a 20-35? Any 18-30 I've seen has looked similar mechanically but quite different in terms of the sheet metal and wheels, compared to our tractors. Was the appearance updated at some point with no change in power? Any experts in the older stuff have any ideas? Thanks
Glenn Lennox
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