Allis-Chalmers One-Ninety diesel

I owned a Ford 6000 Commander for about 5 years mostly baled hay with it couldn't have asked for a better tractor,got an offer for it that was really good so i sold it.A lot of tractors got a bad name because they were abused by the operators and over weighted,

fuel turned up etc.

I haven't seen the vid either, but lot of these internet gents are just geldings that neigh...  and did not even live through that era of the modern horses.

 The JD 4010 threw lot of rods thru the block on JD's first run of them, look in the Sunday ads and see "hole in block"... But as time went by, didn't see that as often... 4020 was nill.

 Them Fords were a different story, specially the select-O-speeds... They were put on the assembly line before the bugs were worked out of them... Got a little 900 with it and that was the worst of them as I understood... and that bugger had been used so far that the pto splines are almost nonexsistance... along with--tranny problems.  A local fellow had two Ford 6000 Commanders, both had their pumps turned up... he did custom work and was all over the country plowing, discing, planting or chopping... and I don't recall him having troubles with the select-o-speed in those beasts, used them until he retired. The DNR tower had radioed in that there was smoke and the rangers went looking and old Bill Beckmark was told to turn that injection pump down some. LOL The 6000 had an accumulator on it and he could raise and lower the header on his chopper twice before the charge was gone, or raise the disc up once.

 McCormick Deerings had their problems when they went to diesels, cracking heads was one of them... and you had to cool them down for several minutes before shutting them off... I thought I found the reason why they cracked, an origional book said to switch them to gas and let them run for couple minutes that way before shutting down and nobody did... Talked to old timer and he said the engines ran cooler on diesel and less breakage happened and no warped valves when shutting them off on diesel, just cool them down first... all the way up to the 450/650's... and then McD came out with the direct injected engines and fellows were turning them up and rear ends and ta's were causing troubles... of course, usually in the ones that got turned up. Two neighbors had 560's and one had the gas, and the other a diesel... Fellow with the diesel would pull the jd 4-14 plow all day long and be rolling smoke but was moving right along too. The other fellow decided to burrow the 4-14 plow and hooked on with his 560 gas. He pulled into a sod field and opened up the throttle and dropped the plow and promptly killed it. shifted down a gear and tried it again and again and finally could pull the plow down hill in first gear... but could not pull the plow up the hill. Plowed that whole field going down hill. We use to rent the place and farmed it with WD45 and a D17 3-14 mounted plows and ran in second gear in the heavy clay.

  Allis had a few issues/problems, they were designing tractors to use less oil, and be lighter with higher hp... but when the fluids in the tires and weights were hung on, the oil wore out faster and should have been changed far more often than they were... Some of them old tractors only got added to. The D series seemed to have a greater amount of tranny/rearend troubles than what others had, but if you kept the oils changed and did not reef on the shift stick and drop clutches and pull the holy snot out of them, they would last. and along came the first series of the 190XT with the small axels and they would break or snap... and the differential would shell out too and tranny troubles... Bought one of those rebuilt light axels where they could not put in the bigger axel but onl the harden axel... Bought it back in 1976 and 40+ years later and shifted millions of times and two injection pump rebuilds and one turbo, the tractor still being used for round baling... though the high range now slips when in fourth going up a hill, and just starting to jump out of fourth gear last year.  It has been a good tractor.

  Lot of tractors will show what kind of care had been given to them over the years... I know of a 1066 that looks like new from always being sheded, yet it has had the engine rebuilt 2 times from electrolysis cavitation on the sleeves. It was the main tractor on the 760 acre farm since about 1972 until the fellow retired and rented his land out. It is always ready to start for the owner now 90 years old. Before that, he had a GIV Moline as his main tractor for about 11 years prior, bought in 1961, and was sold in 2011, still looking in great shape with origional paint. 

  Makes a big difference on how they are cared for by the owner.