1938 Minneapolis-Moline UDLX: The Edsel Of Tractors - A Glorious Failure

The 1938 Minneapolis-Moline UDLX was a tractor developed on the suggestions of farmers. It was built off of market research and at the time, was the most advanced tractor ever built. Launched to huge fanfare in 1938, the first ever enclosed cab machine was capable of being a car and a tractor, with a 40mph top speed on the road. It was promoted in a wild blitz by MM and every indication was that it would change the world of farming for the better.
Except that it was a horrible failure.
150 were made, 100 were sold in two years and the rest of them were brought back to the factory and completely stripped of their extra equipment to be sold for half the price as "regular" tractors.
Why did it fail? How did it fail? What the heck happened?
In this video, the history of the machine, its development, its unique features, and yes, its failure are all explored. Enjoy!

[@rompinroger9614]

Back around 2010 I picked up a barn find UDLX that no one knew existed until they were going through buildings to prepare for an auction after the farmer passed away in Grenora ND. Someone did a resto on it many years earlier, but was in really nice shape yet. I delivered it to a buyer/restorer in Lake Mills Wi. I have never talked as much on the CB as I did with that tractor on the trailer. Everyone wanted to know what it was or had a story about some old tractor they had or their dad/ grandpa had. It was a very memerible trip. I often wonder where that tractor wound up.

[@Fantazzim]

I think I just saw that same tractor up for sale within the last few months. I am in Southeast Wisconsin, so not too far from Lake Mills.

[@brucejohnson4462]

My friend Sheldon Knutson had two of those in his collection. Sold at auction before he passed away. It was amazing for me to even sit in one.

[@thegreenerthemeaner]

They had good intentions but in the end, not well executed. A friend of the family told me of his father's time with MM from 1930 to 1970. He was a block man covering Kansas, and southern Nebraska. He was given one of these to drive from dealer to dealer. He didn't have enough room for his luggage, props, breifcase, etc. It rode harshly and was hot and especially in Dust Bowl Kansas, was a bust. Who could afford anything like this in the 30s? He grew tired of it and made someone a good deal. Too good it seems as he was told not to sell one that cheap again, even though sales were horrible. He had tons of memorabilia, sales literature, toys, banners, apparel, manuals, Dealer clocks. There was some Twin City manuals and brochures as MM along with any other manufacturer would not waste anything or major money to rebadge existing inventory as several companies were become consolidated at that time. I would have loved to have heard stories from the man himself but his son was along in the summers for lots of first hand accounts. Sadly, he is gone as well.

[@jimmieroan9881]

if thats a misprint, block, and you mean black, that story doesn't sound logical for the time period, especially in that area.

[@42lookc]

@@jimmieroan9881 A block man was a salesman who had a BLOCK of territory to cover.

[@jeffbrinkerhoff5121]

These tractors always intrigued me seeing them as a kid in the 50's. I lived in IN then and in winter tractors were often used to pull cars out of the snow. Seemed like a no-brainer to enclose one. Seeing them later the idea still resonates. My pick for most "beautiful" tractor (lol)..

[@notsonerdgaming3406]

​@@jimmieroan9881hey, your racism is showing

[@ronfullerton3162]

​@@jeffbrinkerhoff5121They were terribly hot in the summer. But that cab would of been wonderful in the winter! The heat housers were a good thing to have on your tractor in the winter. But a high wind from behind the tractor quickly froze you to death, with that wind funneling the cold into the operators area. Today's tractors with a cab equipped with both a/c and a heater have got to be wonderful.

[@jnzkngs]

A local guy got hired to redo the restoration on UDLX #2 after someone else had tried and failed to get it done. It sold for $120k a few years before the $200k one.

[@carlmachinist8055]

My smile grew to hear you can shift it on the go.

[@randymarsh-Tegridy420]

A breath after the depression. The concept was to far ahead of the time. In an alternate history, this tractor was successful and a second generation worked the kinks and shortcomings out. It took decades for enclosed cab tractors to be common place. Now most farm equipment is loaded with creature comforts and technology.

[@andyhalpin6237]

I have admired one for over 30 years still siting in this mans driveway in Rochester ma.. Looks as good today as the first time I saw it 30 years ago.

[@mikehagen3785]

Great story, I worked on a Minnie MO about 20 years ago, was a fun project for a local man who still used it daily. Was common to see him driving it into town.. I don't remember which model it was.

[@jacudaboy]

my neighbors dad had one and i remember him using it on the field back in the 60's. At the estate auction sale in the early 2000's it sold for $60,000, in need of a full restoration.

[@bigpicture3]

They missed key operator requirements. (1) good visibility forward and backwards close to the wheels. (2) easy ingress and egress to the operating position. These are also key to operator comfort. In most tractors today, this is from in front of the operators seat and not from behind it. The tractor did not need to look like a car, it just needed to have an operator enclosure that protected the operator from the weather. In fact most tractor (and mining equipment) cabs did not start sophisticated development until ROPS became legally mandated, and then cabs were made integral to that.

[@sculptor6167]

Thanks for this,video, Brian! I pulled with a MM U for a while (665 cubes on propane...it was a beast)...but, I can't imagine trying to stop at 40 mph! The brakes on my would occasionally kick back at half that speed!

[@ArmpitStudios]

Coolest tractor ever. I would’ve bought one. I’ve seen the one at the MM museum in Hopkins where the factory used to be. So much smaller than you think they’d be.

[@MrBirdnose]

Worth noting that in 1938 four-wheel brakes were still a pretty new development. GM cars didn't have them until 1923 and hydraulic brakes (instead of manual) weren't common until 1935. So rear-only drums would have been old-fashioned but not as ludicrous a concept as they seem now.

[@paradiselost9946]

i will never forget the label inside a bentley engine bay. WARNING! this vehicle is equipped with girling hydraulic brakes! im sure its so you dont put the wrong fluid in the reservoir, but still, the wording makes me laugh...

[@nobodynoone2500]

Old fashioned for a car maybe but not really even then. Many tractors still have rear-only drum brakes today. Rolls royce and bugatti used mechanical brakes long after hydraulics were popular.

[@waynep343]

Squatch253 tells a story of that prototype in his X231 rebuild feb 2023 playlist in the video he describes how he ended up with 2 prototypes

[@tmscheum]

He speculated that there may have been a prototype UDLX in that field that ended up being sold for scrap.

[@jessicawells5145]

Can't believe this tractor is this rare,I grew up farming back I the early 80s,an we were big international people, but off to the side as a back up was one of these tractors,it was that very color, don't know what happened to it,84 I was 12 years old

[@proarcher6438]

They even made around a dozen UDLX tractors without the cab. It’s thought that only 3 of those remain today.

[@user-tr9io2uu3l]

i want one, that looks fun to drive, id drive that as a town car

[@dave-uf8ir]

Verry cool video they were way ahead of their time 😊

[@TahoeRealm]

Wonderful video. Thank you 🇺🇸

[@Hogger280]

Of all of the reasons you gave, 99% of the failure in sales was the COST!

[@cartmanrlsusall]

I remember a modern attempt at a do all family tractor made in Germany back in the 1980s,it was bigger and had front and rear seats plus suspension but it was heavy and had huge blind spots,plus it was expensive now you can get fully enclosed cabs on most tractors Kubota has one on their zero turn mowers

[@Sam-qg2fl]

The first one built is at my local tractor show every year

[@SunnySunny-jz8kg]

wonder how many of the deconverted tractors are out there with the hi speed transmission?

[@popeyeman69]

Really too bad it didn't catch on. Thanks for the history Brian!

[@nobodynoone2500]

Compared to all tractors, and even most cars of the 30's, the brakes were plenty. The suspension was an issue, but people rode tractors into town for decades, and most unloaded trucks were basically devoid of suspension without the weight to bend the springs. If the tractor was easier to get into, I think the other issues could be overlooked. But if you have ever used a tractor for actual work, you know youre getting in and out a LOT.

[@pete1342]

I grew up on a 1941 UTS. Road gear in that thing was about as fast as I'd ever care to drive one, and the thought of operating any tractor, and all tractors are pretty much 100% unsprung weight, at anything above 30mph, is just crazy.

[@dixichannel4422]

What a treat this channel is. Please continue this good work

[@henningklaveness7082]

It's funny how the Unimog had fantastic success with the same general design brief only a decade later.

[@kirksway1]

I operated one as a teen back in the 90's, I can tell you this much, the visibility was terrible for farm work. The biggest problem was those front fenders. evey one that saw it thought it was the coolest looking thing ever ... until they got to drive it.

[@stephensaasen8589]

I'm trying for the life of me where I saw one of these way back in the 1980's. It was either in the back of a tractor sales lot, in a farmer's junk yard or at a city maintenance equipment lot. I had no idea at the time those things were worth something. Of course, I think back then few people did know it's worth.

[@42lookc]

MM made quite a few other tractors in that era with cabs, like the RTU, RTE, and RTI. They didn't have the fenders and front bumper of the UDLX, or the luxury appointments in the cab, but they were much more common. The tractors in the movie, CARS, seem to be modeled after MM RTU's.

[@jonbender9110]

Ahead of its time and it would be unbearably hot in a cab tractor without air-conditioning which was available at the time I'm not too sure I can't remember but I think the 1937 or 38 Packard had ac and the cab sat too low making front visibility bad. And as far as taking heat from people, I have taken heat from friends for going from a John deere 630 to a 4440 with sound guard body with ac a few years ago. Friends and family will always have something to say when you improve your standard of life. That's just human nature. So it was really the first tractor to have an integrated cab

[@jimmieroan9881]

wow, a/c on a tractor in 1938, someone is dreaming. the 1940 packard was the first production automobile to offer a/c, and those units were huge, those type a/c's with the unit taking up quite a bit of the trunk area were what was available all the way into late 50s, possibly later. not sure how you think that could have been incorporated into a tractor. they also used quite a bit of horsepower to run the compressor.

[@kirksway1]

yes, the lack of visibility is truly what stopped many sales of this model.

[@lolatmyage]

They really should have just stopped at adding a simple cab and heater to the existing model, they went way too fancy with the fenders and styling

[@geoffreypiltz271]

All that M-M needed to do was offer a detachable cab as an option, instead they went overboard.

[@SMGJohn]

Ironically, at the time square cabs made from wood were more practical then the MM cab design

[@GoingBracketRacing]

Great history!

[@paulvolk5446]

And a cab without A/C in the summer time is far hotter than being in the open. The air from the fan is hotter than the outside air and usually on par with the air the engine fan pulls through the radiator. In the early seventies I ran the neighbors 806 International with a cab but no A/C and then Dad bought an Allis Chalmers 200 with a cab but no A/C. Nice in the winter time with a heater but terrible in 100 degree heat with no A/C. Even the Heat Housers were a great improvement over an open tractor and brought back some heat to the operator. Sometimes we even tied a feed sack over the front of the radiator to increase the heat coming off the engine.

[@jamesgeorge4874]

The local DPW has one, they just grade a few blocks of alley that garbage trucks use in the spring. It's pretty cool.

[@bonusnudges]

It looks like the trouble was that it was decades ahead of its time

[@DonBishopDonSongs]

Tractors like this one, were very common in Europe. I've seen videos of them, here on KZbin. I didn't know we also had them... Don

[@lebaillidessavoies3889]

They had the same idea in Germany with lanz, but it was more successful , maybe not the same context.... The farmer wants his own car and don't want to be identified by its tractor..... would really love to own one though....in Europe with that..

[@HillbillySailor]

Nice video. I've been watching MM content here as of late, but this is the first I've heard of this tractor. If I could get my 6ft 2in frame in the cab, I'd love to take one for a spin!

[@formerfarmer1718]

Nice story, Brian.

[@dragonbutt]

This is the most dieselpunk thing ever

[@Obamaistoast2012]

I would love to have one, absolutely beautiful design.

[@dirtyharry5320]

It tried to be the Rolls Royce of tractors, instead it became the Edsel of tractors.

[@JTA1961]

Light looked pretty Bright... I wouldn't want to be caught in the...TRACTOR BEAM.

[@paullucas3]

Dah dah dum… lol .. nice dad joke :)

[@rogerringer7066]

They were not all recalled to the factory and stripped. There were 2 in Kingman alone. There has been many originals sold on auctions and exist in museums and collections.

[@duanepierson4375]

I understand that they where used to deliver mail in the winter over Rural Routes.

[@TheYeti308]

Reminds me of a Lanz bulldog with the goods .

[@gunnarpoe929]

Straight cut and helical gears have nothing to do with shifting. They are for noise. Synchromesh affects shifting.

[@curtislowe4577]

Not terribly different from the Chrysler Airstream. As the old cliché goes: timing is everything. Being too far ahead of your market wastes R&D dollars and often leaves a company in the indecisive clutches of the once burned, twice shy cliché.

[@phillipcleaver7063]

Quite advanced for it's time , an early american trantor , sadly it suffered the same fate , this make of machinery was used around here in the u.k. , it was well respected , popular , particularly for it's speed in general on the road between jobs . the brakes were the achilles heel , the old boys around here say you had to send them a postcard to get them to stop ! Good gear .

[@stringlarson1247]

Yasureyabetcha the Scandhoovians in the MW were not about to look posh, much embrace something radically different. I just took a quick look and (as of 2022) they were going for $110k USD. Pageing Mr. Leno.

[@mojoxide]

Looks like a creative rendering, how wild

[@dylancasey3787]

I want this tractor. Surely insanely expensive

[@Mopar46]

Oliver Wendell Douglas shoulda been driving one of these in Green Acres!

[@georgegonzalez2476]

Probably comfortable in the winter and spring, but too hot for the summer.

[@RaceCarWings]

Its like a JCB Fastrac built 50 years earlier.

[@chucklohnes7652]

Nice commentary and last name.

[@browngreen933]

Cost killed it. Plus it bordered on being freakish at that time. Would be harder to work on too.

[@hellblazer275]

Seems like the very very early grandpa of the JCB fastrac

[@shealdedmon7027]

How do you get in the damn thing and where is the three point hitch?

[@pizzaki582]

7:35 This is so true even today,

[@NuffMan_]

"This was the first tractor that could be shifted while moving" Was the gearboxes of 1930's like you couldn't shift? i have only driven -54 nonsyncro straight cut geared tractor and you can switch the gears with easy while moving with revmatching

[@dukwdriver2909]

I feel for the designer being too far ahead of the time to find a market. Wonder what the 1970 model would have been like and the sales? They did however make very useful specialised equipment in WW2.

[@TheNovadude]

great body would make a great altered drag car 👍

[@flouisbailey]

Your image of giant drag slicks smoking like a Mother is an image out of Rat Fink, don’t forget the 8 ball on the giant shifter.

[@thenormalberries6767]

How is the prettiest tractor in the world, the "Edsel" of tractors.

[@m39fan]

I have always wanted one but could never afford one.

[@crabber9368]

I can remember these were used a lot as warehouses to transport loads mostly on military bases and large distribution centers for moving pallets of supplies and parts from one storage warehouse and factories

[@0Sirk0]

This is the tractor the ones in the Cars movies were based on, right?

[@oldtruthteller2512]

There was a farmer in my county who had one. I saw it in 1998.

[@DrJoel-is3uy]

Ahead of it’s time

[@outdoorlifemaine6691]

It would work today we see you at work today

[@kalvinlabuik3366]

Like the Tucker made too early before its time

[@SeattlePioneer]

No cup holder?

[@garyhull5617]

What is one of these worth today, restored?

[@YippeeKiYayMrFalcon]

There was one for sale a few months ago and it got bid up to 54k but did not meet the sellers reserve. I think a few VERY nicely restored examples have sold for in between 100k-200k

[@christophermorin9036]

Tale as old as time: (Company to the People) "What do you guys want!?" (People to the Company) "We want this stuff!!!" (Company to the People) "Here you go! The stuff you wanted!!" (People to the Company) "WE DON'T WANT THAT!!!"

[@Veezyjung]

Imagine turning one of these into a wheelie machine...

[@a64738]

The tractor was simply to expensive just as you would expect from a luxury tractor.... Farmers is not rich people unless it is a industrial farmer that just sit and dictate what his workers should do, but farmers like that do not drive tractors.

[@scottriney3152]

This guy has never driven a tractor with an old cab, without air conditioning. Anyone who has actually used a tractor can look at the UDLX and tell you why it failed: it’s hot, it’s noisy, and visibility of the implement is poor. Cabs became popular after the John Deere SoundGard showed that cabs could be cool and quiet, and give good visibility. You have to be able to see what you’re doing.

[@bftdr]

you could use this thing like an suv even if you did not have a farm.

[@captsirl]

Cost. All they needed to do was add a heater option and a surry top.

[@georgepruitt637]

Uff da ???

[@pancudowny]

"As much as car enthusiasts want an inexpensive, lightweight car with minimal accoutrement, they never buy them." Oh-yeah? Then explain why the Chevette Scooter did so well...?

[@mikeemerson4284]

It wasn't a failure just not very many people could buy it

[@ralfballis498]

They put this on the wrong market. It is more for hauling the road, or airfield etc.

[@MitzvosGolem1]

Soviet Russia had similar idea with a tractor /car combo .

[@russthomson6168]

fonny Belarus built family tractors later

[@jimdavis8391]

You'd have wanted a tanker's helmet to protect your head!

[@km6832]

Everythint that failed with this is common place now. Furthermore, if a tractor doesnt have any of these comforts lol

[@choreboy3906]

Of course, if only JD had done this, it would have been the innovative genius of all time. Now we have Deere. Absolutely sickening!!

[@Muffin_Masher]

YEP! they should have painted it green, people would have lined up to throw their money into the fire :D That green paint can apparently sell ANYTHING :P

[@job38four10]

The problem with this tractor is, tractor manufactures always go to hayfield farmers and design tractors around hayfield work, which is probably 2/3s of tractor use back then, but today I think it's 50/50, meaning todays tractors are used a lot for none farm work like logging and landscaping, and snowplowing only........ Hayfield work is mostly done in warm weather, a cab without AC would be unbearable, next, there is to much front fender in the way of seeing the ground that is being worked with this tractor. This design is only good for road work in cooler weather, so they should've advertised this tractor with a snowplow, but then, as in todays tractors, the rear fenders dont allow room for tire chains, that is a huge problem in cold climates...... Tractor manufactures should talk to people like me, I know what a all around tractor should be like and be able to do.............

[@kct9967]

Didn't it have a camio in the movie "Cars"? 😂😂😂😂

[@ZacLowing]

I wonder if they had painted it lets say a darker green, would it have been less ostentatious? Not many people today would buy a car that color

[@Root_T]

sure sounds like it boils down to it cost more than double of the same tractor it's built on. I bet people seen the fancy body work and over the top street car features and decided that wasn't work the price of another whole tractor.

[@kalvinlabuik3366]

Also during WWII was poor timing

[@terryelder9573]

This person knows NOTHING about transmissions. Straight cut gears have nothing to do with shifting they just make more noise and transfer power more efficiently than helical. He’s referring to synchronizers which would also imply that is is a constant mesh rather than a sliding mesh gearbox. You don’t need to be stopped to shift it just makes it easier. 18 wheelers use sliding mesh boxes. Do some research

[@garydeschane7989]

it was a little too far ahead of its time, in my opinion...

[@ronchappel4812]

I thought this chanel was run by enthusiasts. You got a few things very wrong. Straight cut gears can be shifted on the move. You need to match revs but it's a normal thing to do.Having helical gears doesnt change that .I guess you confused these with synchro gears? And braking would have been fine at road speeds.I've driven tractors with high speeds- those big rear wheels can take a lot of brake force! And i'm guessing vision would be fine.Being higher up makes it better than cars of the period,while the hood makes it worse ,and that's not a big deal.It's a wash

[@mankihonda983]

Good idea - horrible execution.