My two favorite tractors

Beginning in the early 1960’s, all of the farm tractor makers wanted to expand into the garden tractor business.  John Deere and International Harvester designed and built their own machines.  All the others elected to buy from a firm with an existing product line to re-label as their own.  Allis-Chalmers chose Simplicity Manufacturing for the job.  In 1961 the first Allis-Chalmers garden tractor, the 7.25 horsepower B-1, was introduced to the marketplace.  Except for paint, decals and minor sheet metal changes, it was identical to the Simplicity 725.  In 1963, the B-1 was replaced by the 9 horsepower B-10.  In 1965 the B-10 became the Big-10 with a new 10 horsepower engine. In 1966, the Big Ten reverted to the B-10 when the new B-12 was introduced. Up until 1971 all Allis garden tractors were painted yellow and were powered by Briggs engines.

 During 1965, Allis-Chalmers purchased Simplicity. The purchase  was challenged by the federal government. Due to the fair trade laws in effect at that time, the government claimed that Allis-Chalmers controlled to great a share of the market and thus limited competition.  As a result, in 1967, Allis-Chalmers opened a new plant in Lexington, South Carolina to build garden tractors.  The first models built there were the B-207, the B-110, and the B-112. The B-208, B-210, B-212, and HB-212 were introduced in 1970.