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thurlow
04-27-2008 15:07:33
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Re: Allis Chalmers D17 Advice in reply to JoshuaGA, 04-27-2008 10:54:06
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It's been better than 40 years since I used one, but I do remember..... .I was a teenager and the new, diesel, early series D-17 was our first "big" tractor and our first diesel. As Bill said, it was incredibly smooth running (it was also our first 6-cylinder farm tractor). I hated the parking brake; it was an over-center latch of the brake pedals and never worked satisfactorly. I've been driving various tractors since '52; the most frightened (on/near one) I've ever been, involved that tractor. We had a 14 ft. solid deck A-C rotary mower. I was 'bush-hoggin' some steep hills in a pasture and stopped to move some barbed wire, which was loose in the pasture. Left it setting sideways (mower running) on the hill, so I wouldn't have to use the brake lock and it still wouldn't move. The tractor began to roll and the front wheels turned slightly downhill and it picked up speed. I ran to climb aboard and just as I reached for the handhold on the fender, my feet slid out from under me and under the tractor. If it happened today, the left rear tire and the mower would roll across my body, but at the time, I was strong enough to pull myself from under the tractor and get aboard. Sorry for rambling..... haven't thought of that for years. What else..... .loved the 2-speed clutch; we cut silage with the tractor for years and it should work equally good for baling hay. The thing was hard to shift....especially at high engine RPM. There have been some recent posts about what type oil to use in an engine. My Dad went to the local CO-OP, who supplied our fuel and oil; told the fuel guy he needed a "diesel" oil for our new tractor. He said.....in effect, "Man, that stuff's made for bulldozers; you don't want to put that into a farm tractor". So..... ..we used the oil he recommended and the tractor used one quart of oil for every half-day for all the years we had it. I was a teenager and had learned MANY YEARS EARLIER not to question any of my Dad's decisions. He was an excellent farmer and well respected in the community; to this day, I don't know what his thought processes were about the oil in that tractor.
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