Farm Equipment - Allis Chalmers 175 purpose

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Allis Chalmers 175 purpose

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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=186569
Printed Date: 03 May 2025 at 11:00am
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Topic: Allis Chalmers 175 purpose

Posted By: AC fan
Subject: Allis Chalmers 175 purpose
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 2:53am

Anybody know what the purpose of the 175 was? It seems like a chore tractor but everywhere I see it listed as row crop, would it pull a smaller planter or tillage equipment? Maybe pull grain wagons?

Replies:

Posted By: Lonn
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 6:22am

Dad used to occasionally rent a 175 from a guy to plant with because of the modern hydraulics to lift the planter when full of fertilizer. A 175 is an upgraded D17 really and the D17 was the main work horse on Dad's farm for several years. Think about it, even the little B was the only tractor on farms way back in the late 1930's and 1940's and beyond. A B did everything for those farmers back then.

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I am a Russian Bot

Posted By: PaulB
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 6:33am

Hard to believe what people consider a small tractor these days. We never used anything bigger that a 30 HP tractor to a 4 row planter or a 20 HP one on a hayrake. The 30 HP tractor also did all of the baling while also pulling a wagon. The B with 2way plows was used to plow all the small fields while the SuH and 2 bottom trailer plow did the larger fields. This was in the early 70s and we had over 400 acres of corn then and plowed for all of it. It wasn't until we put a V8 into a M did we have a big tractor and that was only used for tillage.

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If it was fun to pull in LOW gear, I could have a John Deere.
Real pullers don't have speed limits.
If you can't make it GO... make it SHINY

Posted By: Mikez
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 7:21am

welcome to the forum.

Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 7:23am

Bloodline backwards: 175-62 HP...….170-54 HP...…..D17- 53 HP.....WD45- 43 HP......all of these were based off of a 28 inch diameter rear tire with outboard final drives. This allowed for full row-crop clearance and kept a relatively low stance/profile, although certainly not a utility tractor. A 175 would do the same work as any larger 60 HP tractor if they both weighed the same. I grew up on a 170 and D-17 S4, both with 16.9 x 28 rear tires. A neighbor/cousin had a 2510 John Deere with 13.6 x 38 rear tires. The Deere had zero advantage over the A-C tractors as the 16.9 tires had a little more footprint of tire on the ground for traction. Then, there was the matter of a small displacement Deere engine running at 2,700 RPM versus the orange engine that only ran 2,000 RPM.

Posted By: injpumpEd
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 7:47am

I do believe the original "intention" was for the 175/185 to replace their predecessors the 170/180. I feel the 170/180 were so well liked and sales were still strong that they decided to keep both for a while. The 180 did end in 73, and 170 in 76, with the 175 running till 81, and the 185 in 80. It really didn't cost them any more to offer all 4 models vs just the 2, since they are technically the same tractors as one another, 170/175 and 180/185. Might have even helped sell a few more tractors, they were perfectly spaced hp gaps.

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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: Tom59
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 8:07am

When the AC 175 tractor was built throughout the seventies a lot of farmers were still using 3 bottom plows and pull 10 foot wheel disks which was a good match behind a 62 horsepower tractor. Plus a lot of that brought an AC 175 tractor when that tractor was new was probably upgrading in horsepower to begin with. Back then in the seventies square baling hay was still the most popular way to put up hay and a 175 was more than capable of pulling a square baler. Plus when Vermeer came out with it first round baler the 175 had plenty of horsepower to handle it. I bet on a lot of 35 to 45 cows dairy farms back in the seventies the AC 175 was the big tractor and it pulled a one row silage chopper to put up silage with.
I always thought a tractor like an AC 175 tractor back in the seventies when I was in high school a tractor that size would be huge upgrade in horsepower on our family farm since our biggest tractor was a MF 35 diesel tractor. It was not until 1985 I got a 67 horsepower tractor for our farm and was big enough till another horsepower jump to 85 horsepower with a cab/AC in 1999.

Posted By: IBWD MIke
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 8:20am

Dad bought a 175 new in the early 70's, don't remember what year exactly. I was young and it was really cool seeing it delivered!

It was the big horse, did all the heavy work. It replaced the most anemic 300 Farmall I've ever been around. Took him awhile to get implements up to size for it.

The 175 went away in 1984 when he traded for the 6080. No idea where it went, wouldn't mind having one around but a gasser would be better for me than the hard cold-starting Perkins.

Posted By: AC fan
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 9:26am

Thanks guys!

Posted By: soggybottomboy
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 10:28pm

In 1988 I bought a john deere 7200 8 row planter, and i planted all of my corn and soybeans with that planter behind the AC 175 for several years. I could plant all day long on one tank of fuel. Planting back then was simple and fun. Today we have a central fill planter with a New Holland Genesis tractor in front. The Genesis is supposed to be a fuel efficient tractor, but it will use three quarters of the 105 gallon tank in a normal day, where the 175 would use most of the 18 gallon tank in a day. Yes, we do get a lot more done than we used to with the 8 row planter, but i believe that the 175 with the 8 row could plant a field on less than half the fuel we use to get it done with the bigger rig.

Posted By: 200Tom1
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 11:35pm

I remember going to the JD dealer with Dad to look at a new 4 row planter (490 with dry fertlizer) and 4 section harrow on a Clark cart. The salesman kept telling dad his WD 45 would not pull the planter filled with starter fertilizer and would have a hard time with the harrow. Dad bought the planter and harrow. He had no trouble pulling the planter. What he did have trouble with, he never washed out the fertilizer boxes. They worked the first year but the second year they were froze solid. Dad had taken delivery of the dry fertilizer so he ran it thru the end gate seeder. He did wash out the seeder but we still had to hammer on it a little bit to get it to work the next spring. He had the 45 overhauled and the mechanic put a "heavy duty" governor spring in it. It would then easily out run the series 1 d17 on the road. The 45 was dads favorite tractor. So you see there were some "improvements" you could do to those small gas tractors to make them better.