Coming up on 40 years old

sorry there is no crying emoji

Just does not to this day seem real.

I find it almost comical now after reading those letters. High horsepower tractors of modern design, new technologies, many new features???? What we finally got was the 9100 series. A White tractor with a duetz engine and green paint. Now,those tractors were actually pretty good, for what they were, but they were certainly a step backwards from the 8000 series Allis. I don't remember if the monetary exchange figured into why the tractors never got built in Germany?? And if the 8000 series were going to be changed,I can't believe that wouldn't have been an improvement. A third range or even a full power shift was probably just around the corner. It's as if there wasn't much thought into this takeover and not understanding your customer base. Kubota would have been a much better choice in my opinion. Look where they are now.

Wonder how many of those sheets got ripped up when Allis dedicated dealers got those?

In Deutz-Fahr's defense, they bought the A-C Farm equipment division. They didn't buy a brick and mortar factory to continue to build tractors of any kind in. They didn't acquire the Gleaner combine factory either. A-C NEVER owned the Gleaner combine plant !! and most people don't know that. The Moorman Church owned it and A-C leased it from them for decades. 

Can someone refresh my memory, weren't the 9100 series assembled in Coldwater? Or was it in Independence, at the combine factory?

After reading the information that was sent to dealers from Deutz I understand the conversation I had about year and half ago with the man that had an Allis Chalmers dealership in my hometown. He said after the buyout he was afraid he wouldn’t have tractors to sell, so he picked up a Massey Ferguson franchise so he have some tractors to sell. He said he did pretty good with MF tractors for a few years till he closed his dealership. The eighties was hard.

Coldwater (to me) was just an assembly plant. All components were shipped in the back doors and the finished product went out the front door. No castings or machining of anything.  I remember now 9600's at Gleaner plant.

As far as I know the White components were Charles City, Iowa built and sent to Independence, Missouri for the 9100 and 9600 tractors. The Funk transmission for the 9600's came in from Kansas. When they went to the 9700's in the Coldwater, Ohio plant,  I thought the rear end was Massey/European built and the transmission I'm not sure if it was a newer version of a Funk or not. The 9100-9600 cabs were just a modified White cab, so I assume they came from Crenlo or whomever the cab builder of that era was.

I remember when the 9100 series were introduced, we had a customer tell us it looked like dam old Oliver with different sheet metal. 

My Dad was on a Deutz Allis trip to Germany shortly after the purchase and on a tour of  a tractor plant he saw an 8000 tractor painted green with an air cooled engine parked outside.

When KHD bought AC farm equipment division, Bill Templeton was the President here. Deutz had no intention of using anything other than their tractors. They had no concept of N. American agriculture and the increasing HP needs. They were simply looking for a dealer organization and a thru put for the products they produced to augment the Deutz dealers already over here. Talked to Bill regularly. We were vocal. We were not happy. We were not profitable. We were losing dealers. When in Germany he arraigned a dinner meeting with us and the decision makers of KHD. We made zero inroads. The first decision the Germans made was to scrap all tooling in W. Allis. It was not until the wholesale refusal to sell the over 100 hp Deutz units that in 1988 late or 1989 that the White- Coldwater units were introduced - green.  At a dealer meeting in Ohio, they called them interface meetings, a dealer Bill Homier stood up and told Ratliff and company "If you don't paint the sob's ORANGE we are all going broke". Standing ovation. As soon as they could they did. Ed Swingle was a DA VP from AC and backed the color switch. Soon after that Bob Ratliff at a Atl dealer, meeting promised a high HP tractor in 2 years - and they did it - The 9600's.    That is another kind of funny story.