Allis Chalmers had some design "firsts" in the 1950s but they seemed to back off their R&D budgets after that. I have operated and owned AC equipment over my life time. One of the three "new" tractors I have bought was an AC 8010. The AC line up was out dated by the mid 1960s. The rest of the market had some very standard features that AC tractors did not. Here are the ones that stood out to me as a multi brand farm equipment owner.
1) A true independent PTO or at least a foot operated two stage PTO clutch. This was the industry standard by the middle 1960s. AC stuck to their "Power Director" lever to control ground speed and PTO operations until the 7000 series came out in 1973. I bought an AC 185 that was an 1980 model tractor. It still had the darn "power director" controlled PTO. In the "D" series you at least had a long lever that made controlling the PD pretty easy. The "newer" tractors like the 180/185 and 200 had short levers. The 180/185 with the short lever mounted ahead of you on the side of the dash, with "STRONG" detents, was almost impossible to smoothly control the PD.
2) The lack of a quadrant style control of the three point hitch. This makes using some implements like a rear mounted blade harder. For seasoned operators you can do it but you end up using TWO levers rather than a single quadrant to control the three point. I will amend this with the fact that on other operations like plowing the AC system works well. You set your down level and then go up and down to that point with the single lever. It works well when set right.
The trouble with AC tractors from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s was they where more complicated to operate. The PTO operation required the use of TWO different controls. The foot clutch to engage it and the Power director to control ground speed/direction while using the PTO. For operators, used to most other brands, this feature is not easy or common. Try getting a woman to operate the PTO on a AC 185 while pulling a small baler pulling a wagon. My first wife was a veteran tractor operator. She accidently jerked me off the hay wagon several times with the AC 185 on the baler. She finally refused to run the baler with that tractor on it. That AC 185 only stayed here less than four months. Find me any other tractor build in 1980 that had hand controlled ground speed while doing PTO work??????
Then looking at the AC and IH from a business stand point. IH and AC lagged behind most corporations in the US on profit margins. JD averaged 6-7% profit margins on gross sales. IH and AC struggled to do 2-3% margins. Then you add in the fact that AC and IH both where conglomerates that soon where out managed by companies with a narrower business focus. At one time the pull type combine plant/sales where making the majority of the entire companies' profit. So that made a whole bunch of other iron being sold and manufactured for nothing.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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