How Allis-Chalmers Went from Powerhouse to Failure

[@rexlion4510]

I have good memories of driving our WD-45 which my dad purchased sometime around 1960. When my parents sold the farmland in the 1970s a neighbor bought that tractor. He repainted and repaired it, and AFAIK that family still owns and uses it.

[@spaceghost8995]

At 4:31 they are showing the big plant in Laporte, Indiana. AC bought out The bought out the Advance/ Rumely Company. They were famous for producing the Rumely Oil-Pull tractors. I'm from Laporte and AC was the biggest employer in town. They closed the plant in 1980 I believe. Very sad.

[@robertlong7033]

In the ag end Allis built some good tractors and some bad ones but those AC All Crop combines despite having not been built for 60 years are still in demand for use combining very tiny specialized seed crops..

[@blythkd9017]

I guess I don't understand the comment, the beginning of the end. Sure, there's no longer Allis Chalmers but the remnants of the company ended up in AGCO, a successful ag equipment company.

[@johndoe43]

Good video. Thank you.

[@bryanh1944FBH]

Nice video; however, a lot of simple refinement is needed. When talking about being a key supplier for the US Military, a picture of goose stepping German soldiers should not be used. When talking about the turbines at Hoover Dam, show a picture of the actual turbine instead of water falling over some small dam. Also, Allis Chalmers DID NOT supply the reactors for the Manhattan project (neither the X-10 reactor at Oak Ridge or B at Hanford). That engineering, construction supervision and operation was done by DuPont.

[@TheHonorableHistorian888]

Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it🙂

[@bryanh1944FBH]

@@TheHonorableHistorian888 Thank you for the Thumbs Up reply. I should add that you correctly reported that Allis Chalmers had a very important part in the Manhattan project. Allis Chalmers had considerable experience manufacturing electrical windings for motors, generators and transformers (you mentioned Hoover Dam). AC made some of the windings for the Calutrons (of which there were many). The Calutrons were located at Oak Ridge and were used in the isotopic separation of Uranium (element 92). The highly enriched Uranium 235 was then further processed and used on the fission bomb which exploded over Hiroshima. I can't think of any "significant" participation that AC would have had in the production of Plutonium (element 94) at the Hanford B reactor (and, I have been there). Maybe pump & fan motors and/or electrical transformers. Now that you have my interest, I am going to look for AC equipment next time I am at Hanford.

[@TheHonorableHistorian888]

Thank you! That’s awesome, I’m glad you are inspired to look into that. Sounds like it will be a fun venture😊

[@GermanShepherd1983]

I remember when lots of farms had a WC or a WD Allis tractor. Handy little tractors too.

[@Blazefork]

IHC and Allis Chalmers had similar issues in the early 80's unfortunately they brought out some of the best equipment they'd ever manufactured in the early 80's and couldn't carry the innovation forward under the single brand name. Case was kept relevant because of Tenneco's purchase of IHC.

[@billloomis4975]

I remember hearing about Deutz buying the farm equipment. I was thinking how cool it would be to have the 6000 and 8000 series with Deutz engines and keeping the name alive through Deutz-Allis, didn't take long to be disappointed when Deutz shut down all manufacturing and destroyed everything, including the dealer network. The biggest insult was them selling their tractors as Deutz-Allis.

[@HarryHound]

Fascinating

[@qzorn4440]

The old time management and engineers gave way to the AC newbies. 😮

[@SolarSolar-uh6op]

Best tractor I ever owned was an Allis Chalmers (AC) 4000 series 4x4 diesel tractor. I've had Kubota, Massey, and a few others not worth naming. Hated the Kubota for its layout. The only one to come close is my Massey 4x4 diesel, but the sheer power and quality if the AC couldn't be matched. I still have my Massey, the only reason I let the AC go was the fact I couldn't find a front loader bucket, and needed one to continue working. Wish I never parted with it. The current owner has 20 thousand hrs on it, double what I had when I let it go, and it's still running just fine, and even the lead paint has yet to fade. My red Massey looks orange by comparison.

[@TheHonorableHistorian888]

That’s quite interesting😊

[@JDseller1]

I have never seen a 4000 series AC tractor. I tried looking them up and did not find them. Were are you located and what was the exact model. I would really like to know.

[@SolarSolar-uh6op]

@@JDseller1 Ahh, been way too many decades, but I have the number 4000 burned in, located on the side of the hood. I look and see if I can find it. Yeah, I was wrong, it could have been a 5040 or 45, but then, I can't find much on it even at tractordata, because they don't list a 4x4 model. The last time I found anything on it was long before the Internet while trying to match an alternator for it. But regardless, it was an astounding tractor, even with a Japanese engine?. If you find a link to it, drop it by, but I don't know if youtube filters them out or not.

[@TomButler-g9z]

My Mother had 3 brothers with separate dairy farms in MI thumb (Carsonville/Sandusky. I spent a lot of weekends and summer vacation with them from the time I was born 1952 until my Grandmother passed 1966. John Deere and IH were king. Relatives and neighbors also had Oliver, Ford and Massey Harris. A few Cases were around but I don't remember seeing many ACs or Molines.

[@gregkocher5352]

I had experience with AC steel mill rolling mill controls. They were quite hard to work on because they used inverse logic NAND gates. This is an extra level of complexity I didn't care for as I familiarized myself with it. We ended up hiring GE field service to design a replacement system. It wasn't a terrible system but AC did no longer support it. I frequently found myself studying and repairing orphaned controls for mills.

[@TheHonorableHistorian888]

Indeed, that does sound more complex then it should be🤔

[@generationll]

AC was the first company to put out bulldozer over 500hp with their HD-41

[@allenfischer5878]

Being found guilty if price fixing was a blow that A-C never recovered from. It undermined trust and respect plus demonstrated the desparation of the company's upper management.

[@TheHonorableHistorian888]

Well said!

[@kevinj2412]

I think they spread out into too many areas.

[@truthandfreedom885]

Anybody who drove a 1980 John Deere tractor and a 1980 A.C. tractor,knows A.C. didn't spend too much money on research and development.

[@NathanStickney-xv6dy]

They even made a powerful diesel engine for the overall trucking market called the big A l

[@TheHonorableHistorian888]

Indeed, they did have big innovations as well!