Oliver 1755

DaveKamp wrote: WHITE was a truck manufacturer that, after WW2, had to find a way through the decline of production caused by cancellation of military contracts.  Competition was tough, so they went looking for ways to 'hedge', to stabilize their future. They determined that one way, was to make leveraging purchases of similarly-aligned competetors.  They made strategic investments in many different companies, enough so that when those companies were experiencing 'weak' moments, they pounced on the opportunity to obtain directorship control. How to explain this in a 'simple' way... Okay, you and your neighbor live on ranches in  a rather arid prarie.  You both have cattle... you both sell to the same cattle processor.  A creek runs through his farm, then yours.  You both have wells.  His is shallow, yours is a bit deeper than his.  During wet periods, the creek flows, and he gets plenty of water... and you get what runs downhill from his herd.  During drier periods, the creek dries out, so YOU pull water from the well, and the aquifer starts to fall on his, which gives you an advantage. A Hedge, in this case, would be to dam up the creek on your property, wait 'till just before a really dry part of the season, and start pulling really hard on your well, draw down the aquifer, and pump it into a watering pond.  Pull down the aquifer so hard, that he can't get any water from his well.  To 'help' him out, you offer to allow his herd in, to drink from your pond, in exchage for say... 40% of his sales revenue.  Do that enough, and he won't have enough remaining cash-flow to feed his own herd, he'll go bankrupt. Instead, you 'do him a favor' by buying his mortgage and tax debt.  He's still there doing his thing, but now you control him, and his water... and his herd. This is what White did with Oliver and M-M... and many other companies (not just engine companies).  The general philosophy of that era, was that as business declined, the smallest would die, the largest organizations would survive, so by obtaining control of a large number of subsidiaries, they would withstand the economic evolutionary process. Which is like operating a restauraunt that effectively loses two dollars for every plate they serve... so they decide to make up for that loss  by selling a higher volume under the same circumstances...  in SOME instnces, the strategy had merit.  White had gone from an automobile and heavy truck manufacturer with a smaller production volume (in comparison to those who specialized in large volume cars, or large volume trucks), to a MILITARY contractor cranking out scout cars and other war material, as fast as they could... and having them immediately bought without a second thought.  This process came to an abrupt halt, leaving EVERY aspect of the manufacturing sphere to figure out how to resume their pre-war business model. What complicated this scenario, was that DURING the wartime effort, many manufacturing realms that were (sorry, I GOTTA use this term) 'non-essential', got shut down, as resources were directed to war materials.  Fortunately, existing facilities and tooling were simply re-directed to making products similar to their original output (like combat boots rather than stylish shoes), or re-tooled and re-trained to the circumstances of new (to them) parts, like Singer setting aside their domestic sewing machine line, and tooling up for manufacture of 1911 pistol parts. To secure it's ability to manufacture war machines, WHITE did what any sensible company would have done-  secure their resources through horizontal AND vertical integration... which meant buying  (through any possible means) the supply lines for those resources. They kept doing it after the war... they bought basically anyone that was weak enough to be absorbed.

That is a great write up. I find it interesting learning about the rise and fall of all the brands.

I think what doomed Oliver was the 1950T. After it started throwing rods, Oliver had egg in their face. So I think part of their solution was to just change the sheet metal and call it White.
I still think White would have had a better chance of surviving if they would have stayed with either the Oliver or MM branding. Why introduce a new line, when you already have 2 established brands?

I guess you,ve dealt with these guys to be bashing them ??

17/18/1955 are all a better tractor all around, than a 50 series, due to the improved operator station, and closed center hydraulics. The downfall is the Waukesha, but once updated are a great little engine, much like the 301. Capable of way more hp and work than it really should be expected to do lol! The 354 Perkins is a great engine too, and the 2-85 would be the replacement for a 1750/1755 or 1850 at about 85-90hp with the 354, but the 2-105 is turbocharged 354, and is the same operator station as the 17/18/1955. Most of the 105's ran in the field at 120hp. Most of them were running along side 1066/86's and 4430's while being technically a smaller class tractor. Now a 4440 would be different lol!

Certainly hope you bought a good one. Out of the eight Oliver tractors we owned through the years the 1850 was by far the worst. Think we had it four years before deciding enough was enough. It spent more time in the dealers shop than at the farm. They never could keep it running correctly. The local fella that bought it called and asked about the problems he was having with it. Yep...same issues we were experiencing. Not sure   where it ended up. Again...hope you got a good one.

I think you'll like it. Some say the 1850 with Perkins diesel was the best Oliver ever offered.

Yes, a G1355 is an Oliver rear, from the clutch back, with a Moline 585 for the diesel, or 504 for LP. Some were painted green, labeled an Oliver G1355 too. This is the tractor that later became the White 2-150, but only offered as diesel by then, at least I've never heard of an LP version lol! The last of the true big Moline tractors was the G950/G1050/G1350.

The 2-150 had an Oliver rear and a MM motor.

yes, by the time the 1755 came out, the XT should have been about 100-105hp, which is in direct competition with the 1855 at 98, which most produced more. White even had a service bulletin on how to de-tune the 18/1955's to help with engine longevity. A 1750/1755 is closest compared to a straight 190D, which is rated at 77.20, but I'm not sure how they actually performed on the dyno, especially the later models. We had a 190D dad bought new in 1970, still have the invoice paper-clipped to the back page of the brochure. It seemed gutsy for a 77hp tractor.

m16ty wrote: The way I understand it, you have hold back power in both the over and direct speed, but not in the under speed. This would make it comparable to a power director (2 speeds that hold back). I had a IH with a manual TA, I hated that thing. Doing a little research, I found some info that supposedly Oliver had a CVT transmission ready to go into production in 1970, but White (who owned Oliver) was having money troubles and scrapped the project to save money. It this is true, and it would hold up, that would have been a game changer for Oliver.  I never understood why White got rid of Oliver and MM, and went with the White brand. At least the first few years of Whites were just basically an Oliver with that funky box sheet metal and awful gray color. You would have thought that sales would have been better sticking with the Oliver brand. What do I know though, White lasted longer than AC.

I think it was an attempt at not favoring one brand over another.... Oliver vs Minneapolis Moline vs Cockshutt. BTW the 2-150 is all MM. People pay big bucks for a G-1355 but the poor old 2-150 gets neglected even though it's the same tractor wearing a different jacket.

The way I understand it, you have hold back power in both the over and direct speed, but not in the under speed. This would make it comparable to a power director (2 speeds that hold back). I had a IH with a manual TA, I hated that thing.

Gary Burnett wrote: Well one thing for sure with the 1755 you won't have to worry about beating the grille up or having it fall off ,run over it and smashing it.

Edited by Gatz in NE - 25 Sep 2020 at 5:51pm

I assume this was to help with shock loads when downshifting in to under?

Just out of idle curiosity, what was going on inside the Oliver 3 speed, to allow it to free wheel going down hill?