Another AC history write up
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=178481
Printed Date: 19 Jul 2025 at 1:20am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Another AC history write up
Posted By: GSTROM99
Subject: Another AC history write up
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2021 at 2:41pm
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I found this interesting take on AC's rise and fall: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2007/05/robert-klassen/how-the-uaw-killed-allis-chalmers/" rel="nofollow - https://www.lewrockwell.com/2007/05/robert-klassen/how-the-uaw-killed-allis-chalmers/ |
Replies:
Posted By: Ray54
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2021 at 7:21pm
| A bit different than other tails told of the fall Allis Chalmers. But very believable that the decline started almost 40 years before the end. The advantages of being diversified in many different products besides farm equipment seems to have not helped AC or IH in the end. |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2021 at 9:21pm
| When you don't have any money, you can't come up with new products. The D-17 for example, should have been out in 1953 or 54 instead of October of 1957. Trying to compete against a 450 Farmall with a WD-45...give me a break. Edit: And when that D-17 came out, let's face it, the high pressure one-way hydraulic system that wasn't "live" was almost obsolete. Needed a series 4 from the beginning!! The much needed D-19 was years down the road (again no $$$$$ to develop things) and it really was obsolete compared to the Deere 4010 which had already been out for nearly 2 years. |
Posted By: JohnColo
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2021 at 11:48pm
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Look at how long that green company kept making and selling those two cylinder antiques. When things were good, AC could do no wrong. They were behind in the early 1950's but way ahead in the 1960's and 70'. Other branches pulled the Ag division down but the economy did them in. All the companies were hurting in the mid to late 80's. JD was casting engines for DD and building RV frames for Winnebago to stay solvent. |
Posted By: AC7060IL
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 7:01am
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Anyone familiar with how Robert Klassen’s High School promoted socialism during the 1950s? Was it accomplished by the local UAWs coming into the schools? |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 7:33am
| BTT |
Posted By: DiyDave
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 8:07am
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An interesting short article. If you want the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey usedta say, link to the book, below: https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Industrial_Heritage.html?id=A58GQAAACAAJ" rel="nofollow - https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Industrial_Heritage.html?id=A58GQAAACAAJ ------------- Source: Babylon Bee. Sponsored by BRAWNDO, its got what you need! |
Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 10:03am
| Industrial Heritage just goes to 1976- when times were good it does get in depth tho |
Posted By: Ted in NE-OH
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 2:01pm
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If you recall in the early 80's inflation was running away and interest rates were 20%+ so no one was buying capitol equipment, that certainly contributed to Allis Chalmers downfall. ------------- CA, WD, C, 3 Bs, 2 Gs, WC, I-400, 914 |
Posted By: Leon B MO
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 5:00pm
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John Deere salesmen could sell ice to an Eskimo in the 50's, 60's and early 70's. Minnie and Oliver had a good tractor early. Yes AC needed true live hyd and pto but that didn't come until the 70xx. The 185, XT, 200 still could not be shifted from a forward to reverse gear while pto was running even with hyd pto, without grinding. The CA and WD with traction booster could out plow any tractor "in there class" at that time. But snap-coupler was limited to 4 row, in reality. The D series held on to the snap coupler to long, draft control was available in 3pt. But dealers sold snap-coupler tractors and equipment to farmers that had comparably equipment knowing 3pt was taking over, mistake. I know the early powertrain 7030, 7050 is the same "basic design" as the last 8070 off the line in 85 and the powertrain was a hell of a design. The 301 and 426 was a proven engine as long as you don't ask to much of it. The power director trans is almost bullet proof and the powershift was a hell of a trans for it's day. It's a shame AC couldn't survive the 80's...the 80xx could have saved a sinking ship if it were not being pulled down by the other bad investments of the company...oh well... Leon B MO ------------- Uncle always said "Fill the back of the shovel and the front will take care of itself". |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 5:14pm
| Remember, after the "80's" every farm equipment manufacturer went broke or were bought out, except Deere and Caterpillar. |
Posted By: JohnColo
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 5:20pm
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And Deere and Cat were both hurting then too. |
Posted By: Ted J
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 11:22pm
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I know my Grampa worked for Allis-Chalmers here in La Crosse during that time and he was really sore about the union at that time. He was a company man, he did the books and payroll. He never said much to anyone about it, but I know he HATED unions after that long year. Those were hard years to feed a family and he had a HUGE garden and sold lots of produce to keep the family going. He would never talk about unions to me after that. He got $62 a month for his retirement. He was bitter.... ------------- "Allis-Express" 19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17 |
Posted By: Austin(WI)
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2021 at 7:55am
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An interesting read from the perspective of one employee. However, there were a lot of factors at play that brought A-C down. Phrases like "The indisputable fact is that the company lost its market edge during the UAW strike of 1946 — 1947..." and " Many people have said it was orchestrated by Stalin..." are all hearsay. Not to say that the labor strife wasn't a cause. As someone who studies history...you have to use the facts to build your case and prove your hypothesis. If you want to read a good book that magnifies this specific event, I would suggest "Stalin Over Wisconsin" by Stephen Meyer.
------------- "Better By Design" |
Posted By: Bill Long
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2021 at 8:35pm
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Thinking back, I agree with the statement. Remember, we were coming out of WWII. Farmers had MONEY and wanted newer equipment. In 1946 my father's dealership got SIX TRACTORS - most of them C's. We could have sold ANYTHING. Our customers were loyal to a degree but when we could not deliver tractors they went elsewhere and got what they wanted. Frankly, I could not understand how Pop got them back. However, that strike and the loss of cash left A-C in a hole from which it never recovered. There were other management mistakes but that is the one hold Allis Chalmers could not did out of. Oh, they lasted till 1984 but never recovered from that strike. Good Luck! Bill Long |
Posted By: tbran
Date Posted: 23 Feb 2021 at 11:41am
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The AC man of marketing who wrote "Plow Peddler" Walt Buescher, a must read for any Ac enthusiast, always told me and everyone else he spoke to "the strike against AC put the company so far behind they never caught up and was a major cause the the final failure" I never really bought into it until we realized, as some have pointed out here, once one gets behind it is impossible to catch up in a highly specialized industry....
------------- When told "it's not the money,it's the principle", remember, it's always the money.. |
Posted By: Pat the Plumber CIL
Date Posted: 23 Feb 2021 at 9:14pm
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I forced my self to read Stalin over Wisconsin . Hard read to say the least . Lots of Acronyms , AFL ,CIO , NLRB , etc to sort through . After reading I wonder how they ever built a tractor between 1938 - 1950 with all the labor problems they were having . When both sides cannot see the other sides point of view and are not willing to budge , the result is anything but productive and efficient . Management should have been willing to compensate employees and workers should have seen that if their demands were met the company could never be competitive .This was a time when highly specialized jobs were being replaced with simpler assembly line work and workers understandably were upset with the reality of lower paying jobs . Things were definitely heated to say the least . If the union could have weeded out the communist that were present in the rank and file they could have avoided public backlash . This eventually was the downfall of union management and they eventually knuckled under . Others have said it doesn't matter what they did back then because some idiots in the 70's were going to piss it away with terrible investments , Coal gasification for one . Should have developed a larger round baler instead of giving the patents away to a company that is still in business today ------------- You only need to know 3 things to be a plumber;Crap rolls down hill,Hot is on the left and Don't bite your fingernails 1964 D-17 SIV 3 Pt.WF,1964 D-15 Ser II 3pt.WF ,1960 D-17 SI NF,1956 WD 45 WF. |
Posted By: Austin(WI)
Date Posted: 24 Feb 2021 at 2:33pm
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All true, Pat. I think with both sides coming to the table with the preordained mistrust for the other didn't help matters. Something I found out a few minutes ago by doing a Google search was the J. I. Case also had a nearly year long strike at one of it's plants around the same time. Funny, though, Case is still around today. Again, I think it is completely silly to say that this one event killed this multi-billion dollar company 39 years later. Not to say that it didn't play a role in setting the company back at that time. So many other things had to happen to bring this powerhouse down--bad investments, bad divestments. poor management decisions, union issues, bad economy, etc etc. When things start to pile up...the outcome is not good. Nothing is too big to fail--AC being an example of that.
------------- "Better By Design" |
Posted By: Ray54
Date Posted: 25 Feb 2021 at 12:20pm
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Austin the name thing is just luck of the draw. Maybe if the top management of Agco had not died in a plane crash there would at least still be orange tractors. Because not really much of the USA is left in Case. But the Europeans running Case may have learned from Agco and left the one American name and a color. But the real IH lovers are no more happy that IH has about disappeared the same way AC has. And IH that was bought by the investment company that also just happened to own Case has become nothing much more than a memory just like AC. Sad thing for all of the USA , and all of North America just that most have no clue.
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Posted By: injpumpEd
Date Posted: 25 Feb 2021 at 12:34pm
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Case did not survive, as mentioned above, it was bought in the early 70's by Tenneco. Tenneco bought IH and merged them with CASE. J. I. CASE did not buy IH. CaseIH is now owned by FIAT, also owns New Holland(FORD) but the only thing CASE, IH, or FORD/NH left is the color or names. AGCO couldn't use Allis Chalmers becasue as we all know, that name was still being used by Allis Chalmers Energy until just a few years ago. ------------- 210 "too hot to farm" puller, part of the "insane pumpkin posse". Owner of Guenther Heritage Diesel, specializing in fuel injection systems on heritage era tractors. stock rebuilds to all out pullers! |
Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 25 Feb 2021 at 8:41pm
| Ted J Id really like to hear more of your Dads experinence at Allis,, seems he was in the knowledge of the money movement then , just real curious |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 26 Feb 2021 at 12:23pm
| Pretty sure the Tenneco purchase of J.I. Case happened in 1968 or 69. They had company owned stores all over (Case Power and Equipment) and those eventually went away when CaseIH was formed. |
Posted By: Ted J
Date Posted: 26 Feb 2021 at 2:11pm
The only other thing I remember was we used the time cards and punch cards to color on. ------------- "Allis-Express" 19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17 |
DougG wrote: