Don't mean to start a fight, but...

Looking at my much loved WD45 I got to wondering where it fit in the price and quality ranking among the major tractor manufacturers of its time. I figure that JD and MF were probably high end tractors and that Allis was nearer the low end. Anybody given this much thought? Don"t get me wrong-my Allis is a great tractor--over 50 years of use with minimal maintenance and I feel its still good for another 50, but it seems to be more cheaply made than other tractors of the era.

Thanks & happy holidays!

The WD45 was cutting edge in the mid 50's with it's traction booster. Around here even the JD and IH guys went out and bought one. Remember that the WD45 is the grandson of the WC that originated in 1934 and was merely an improvement over 20 years of development.

The IH M and the JD tractors were the same way, merely improved versions of their precessors.

Were they cheaply made? At the time they were state of the art. The W engine hade it up until the 175 in the late 60's so I'd have to say they were pretty good and still are.

We had a lot of Deere, Case, and IH customers that loved the WD45. Back in the 60s and 70s, I heard nothing but good about it, and much came from Deere tractor owners.

Back in its day the WD45 was the best tractor. It was above JD or Farmall's. It had more Horsepower than any other tractor. It wasnt considered to be made cheap in its day.

I never considered them "low end" The big boys down at the pool hall used to say with that traction boost system you could put a 3 x 14 (The Allis snap couple) plow behind them and plow more ground then a comparable equipped Farmall or Deere in their day AND I BELIEVED THEM. Also when I was younger the dudes running balers sure loved that hand clutch live power versus using an IHC or Deere to bale AND I DEFINITELY AGREE....Also when tuned correct that AC would start so easy even at cold temps

John T

One Uncle farmed for years with a J.D. 50 and an A.C. WD 45 -- the Allis was the work horse, plowing, planting, baling hay, picking corn. The 50 was on the belt, raking hay and cultivating. He took excellent care of everything he owned and only bought quality equipment.

My Grandad farmed with a WC, a Massy Harris 30 and a Farmall. My brother and I worked on the farm every day. The WC did the heave work, plowing,picking corn, and discing and dragging plowed ground. I think they were as good as any and better than some. The Massie was good too. I'd hate to pick between the two. The farmall wasn't quite as user friendly. rw

They were very functional but not fancy and were the best tractor value for their time.The used ones are still a great value.

We had a WD and later a WD-45 diesel in the mid-late '50s; used both.....at one time or another.....to pull a one-row A-C silage cutter (model 50 maybe?); in good corn (20 ton was good corn then around 'here'), 1st gear was too fast and I've seen my Dad 'ride' that hand clutch for hours at a time.

I liked all of them as long as I didn't have to follow those horses or mules. Hal

I am a Farmall guy just like the size of and M over my WD-45 and its what I grew up with. The WD is more useful with higher pressure hydraulics and more power and still its small and nimble but I have power steering added to the WD.

One tractor of the day I don't think gets enough credit is Oliver with its 6 cylinder engines. Smooth quiet power and many "modern" features. Sorry guys but I think Deere was the one that was way behind in those years with 2 cylinder engines and hand clutches.

No fight from me but you are right , they could have used a couple more gears, the hand clutch is as close to live power as anyone but Cockshutt and Oliver had, but they are extremely awkward to get on and off and riding around all day with the strange foot rests made for an aching back. Very strong runners and very dependable though, my WD 45 starts easy down to zero degrees and it is still a 6 volt! Give me a Cockshutt 40 or an Oliver 77 with a wide front and I would trade in an instant. But the Allis is still agreat tractor!

Grandpa always had a WD around in my memory. I have his last one in town here, used it to plow snow last week! Dad tells of a WD45 they had that needed an engine. When it came in the crate was labeled D17, so, somewhere around Fairbury Nebraska is a WD45 with a D17 engine![/img]

We have a 46 WC, .125 over. I like it, great power! Would I trade any of my two cylinders for it...NO! The problems with those a/c"s is that you needed 2 foot legs and 10 foot arms to run them, and they were light for the power they had. I know a guy who had a new wd45 brought out with a 3x14 plow and all it did was spin and scratch, and could not go too deep. He kept it, but stuck to plowing with his 48 john deere B. The allis was not cheap, it was simple.

John T, that hand clutch was great until you turned down hill and the clutch popped out of gear. If you had a large load behind you, talk about quick acceleration and then reaction to the problem. )

In this neck of the woods old WD's and 45's are about the third most common old tractor still surviving so they must have had something going for them. I don't think it was because of the dealer. We had more red and green dealers in this area back then. I've driven a WD45 only a couple of times and my first impression was how snappy it is. Having grown up on slow revving two bangers had an influence on that impression. Jim

Looking on sales lists.. wd45 go for about 800-1500$ in areas where they are plentiful..

soundguy

We had Ford, AC, International and MF dealers in my immediate area in the 1950s. The Farmalls and ACs were by far the most common. Most thought that the WDs and later 45s were a better value (and used less fuel) than the comparable Farmalls.

Dean

We had a strong AC dealer years ago and there are still quite a few around. I'm not as big on AC but I think they made very good use of their power with the traction booster and the engine was very lively for other work.
As much as I like JD and IH I think the Oliver 88 was the king with independent PTO and hydraulics when it was introduced. As others have said the six cylinder smoothness and performance puts it on top.
Still, the WD and WD45 tractors were tough competitors.

You are right Oliver was and still is a great Tractor. White and Agro treated them like a Bas---- child. They were so far ahead of JD. I had a 1850 that would work circles around a 4020 in the same field. gitrib

WD-45 built from 53-57. 38 pto/belt HP.3780lb.

The neighbor always said if The A/C had adequate metal/strength than the other manufacturers were wasting money. The WD45 always seemed to be a pretty good tractor to me. Sure had plenty power for it's size, just tough to use all of it with the drawbar. Don't know the reason, but all the really marginal farmers in the home area bought A/C. Everyone else had either IH or JD for the big tractors and Ford for utility uses. The very few that had Olivers were also good farmers but had personalities that weren't main stream. Very few also had Case tractors and were only a small step above the A/C owners in the social pecking order.

a wd45 would not run with a super m each pulling 3 bottom plows, too light, tires too small, transmission gears too light, neighbor had back surgery in the 50's at Rochester, Mn, doctor told him most of his back patients farmed with ac's, he got rid of his wd45 and his back problems. Alot of work was done with them but you get what you pay for, ac and jd were poormans tractors, thats why alot of 2 bangers were sold not, it certainly wasn't because of technical superiority, they were obsolete in the 20's

Here are the relative List prices.
WD-45 $2410 30-HP
Case-D $1290 (no diesel in class)
CO-OP E-4 $3450
Farmall MD $3332
JD (no diesels in class)
Massey-50 $3185.
Walt

My dad was a tight old son of a gun with his money but he also wanted value when he bought something. I could never figure out why when we had a Ford 8N,AC UC and then a WD 45 all at the same time his next tractor was a MM U.His reasoning was the MMU had a sort of live PTO and it's main job was to power the Fox Chopper we had,the WD 45 did not have enough power to run the Chopper and the UC was too hard to operate and had no live PTO.Funny when you figure that the UC never did power the Chopper. That job was done by an old Oliver Hart Parr which was traded for the MM.Years later in his old and infirm age he admitted that being able to stand up while running the U was a prime reason for buying it and besides all the other stand up and drive Tractors were to expensive.

Certainly don't mean to start a fight but, seems to me like when it starts pulling hard traction booster just lifts the plow. Thats what I didn't like about the Fords. Now I have never used one. If I am wrong somebody splain it to me. Thanks Bernie Steffen

The "D" in WD-45 does not stand for diesel.

no, thats about right.

In our area West and NW of Minneapolis, there were a lot of WD 45s sold. But the dealers were not dedicated tractor dealers. The hardware store with a garage at the back of the property was the Allis dealer (Fortin Hardware, Hamel MN). I am sure some sales were generated from the farmers who came in to buy some hardware items, or maybe a household appliance. The Allis was not considered a top line tractor, but a cheaper machine that could get a job done. Probably their best mechanical feature was a super good governor. The engine was quick to respond, and maybe better than any compeditor's governor. It was physically big compared to other brands, so a bit of wear in the governor made little difference to the response. The MM tractors of the time had a way too small governor and a bit of wear and they were way down on power. I think the other manufacturers were somewhere in between in the governor size, life, and response.

I have N Fords, big Fords, Farmalls, MM tractors and have had to maintain the WD 45 for the local saddle club, and use the WD in maintaining their arena. I would happily drive any other tractor than the WD. How they ever sold the second one, I just do not know. It is the worst most bone jaring ride of any tractor I have ever driven. From a maintenance point of view, I can not understand how they could take some off the shelf truck transmission and a truck rear end and chain drive it to the wheels. There is so little oil in the tranny and rear end that it doesn't get the heat out from many continuous hours of tillage. There are many stripped out Allis hulks still residing in the tree lines. With the drawbar hitch and the drop box final drives, the WD had a tendancy to rear up and flip over if not pulling on level ground. Once it began to rise up the tires still pawing forward and the weight shift of the tractor to behind the rear of the tire footprint made the thing just plain dangerous. Given the awkward seating position and very quick governor it was about impossible to get off of before being smushed under the darn thing. And then there is that open PTO shaft running under the rear end. If you weren't careful in tall hay, it would wrap up on the shaft.

And then to do the brakes, what a pain if the lower anchor pin was rusted, so many were run without functioning brakes.

NOOO..siree. I do not become nostalgic over never having to drive or work on another WD or WD 45.

In all fairness, I will admit they were at the forefront of some of the technology, especially the high pressure hydraulic system. But if you think of high production, it was a cost cutting move, as they could make much smaller cheaper hydraulic cylinders than the competitors. They were pushing the limits on what hydraulic hoses could withstand and many failed. Hydraulic hoses of the early 50's were nowhere near the quality produced today.

How about the oil pressure gauge that was mounted on the right side of the engine block? Or was this a PO modification? The temp gauge at the radiator neck? And no tachometer.

Just my experience and opinion, and to each their own!

Paul in MN

Sounds like a CRS attack- truck transmission, truck rear end, chain drive? Impossible to shift the weight behind the tire print. Drop box final drive gave more crop clearance while using smaller tires- that was the purpose. And you won"t flip it when hooked to the drawbar. Granted, they could use more weight. Gauges scattered around the tractor? Not uncommon with other mfgrs. Certainly not a PO mod- same location since the 30s!. Almost no one had tachometers in the early 50s. Snap-Coupler was a hyd hitch that could transfer weight without SIGNIFICANT change in plow depth- Ford"s system could not say that. First with Power Shift rear wheels.

That hand Clutch on the neighbors WD 45would pop back and Slam me right in The Knee, if i didn't get it fully over center .. But that OL' Gal would Pull.. I recall hearing it start up on a cold Mornin' , buckin, Snortin ,belchin,LOL .. What a Cackler on the strait pipe ., 45 had Them bigger valves than the Ol'WD, hence the warmup time was needed before dropping the plow and pulling the throttle over to full. Mechanic Always warned ,,.. If You Don't Allow proper Warmup , You could bend a rod or break the Crank!!! . On a spring evening , You can see a smokey haze in the bottom fields, where that 45 was plowing and a singing its song loud anddProud .. Can't agree on Class of Tractors , To Me There are None . The ALLIS made fine tractors, in their day and even today.. No uglier than a DC Case, or any MM or Deere , And Wouldnt Cook You on a hot day like the Fergusons from Canada, Although they will keep You warm in Wibter ,Safer than a IHC of that era , and easier on gas than any IHC .........

Dad traded in a CC Case for a WD. Was used every day for 6 years until us boys were big enough to go to the field and then added a F-20 Farmall for the heavy pulling. At least 4 neighbors had JD"s and traded for a WD or a WD45 in the early 50"s. Dad used that WD for 20 years and I have use it for 38 years. A great tractor for there weight.

According to Nebraska test # 499, the WD-45 (gas) had 43.21 HP belt and 37.84 HP drawbar. Test #563 showed the WD-45D (Diesel) to have 43.29 HP Belt and 39.5 HP drawbar.
Quite a powerful tractor for its time. The extra hand clutch made it "almost" live PTO altho the P.O. "drop box" was a little weak when subjected to heavy loads.

Don't understand what you're saying about the hand clutch.....a John Deere, maybe, but an A-C?

A/C had hand clutch too!

I have read over and over all you people saying john deere was a poor mans tractor, they was outdated...but mm and ford and oliver and ac and mh were always behind them in sales and there is more of those 2 bangers still working on farms today than any of them. Farmall had been first till the 560 was introduced, then that outdated 2 banger took over the first spot. deere also had better hydraulics, power steering, driver comfort and was way more fuel efficient .

Well, it's been 50 or 51 years since I sat on a WD or WD-45, but my recollection is that the clutch lever was pulled towards the operator (as opposed to the JD) to engage the clutch. No way for it to hit your knee unless you did it yourself.