Hi, Evan and Rebekah! This has been a delightful week for me. I have watched both your “Developing Our Homestead” and your “Hybrid Log Home Build” playlists. I have been subscribed to your channel about three years and I HAD to know more of your backstory. You two have worked so hard! Your “Hybrid Log Home Build”playlist was phenomenal. You guys are so creative. I look forward to watching the remainder of your early videos.
Nice to go back and watch some old footage. You sure have come a long way Evan, good explanation of the Allis-Chalmers D17. Thanks, have a good evening!
For what it's worth, if you're curious, that bracket around the front of the tractor is for a mid-mounted cultivator. The big hole in each corner is for a hoisting assembly that used a turnbuckle arrangement to lift up each side of the cultivator and then let you swing it around to where it would bolt on to the frame. The smaller hole is for a brace that went from there out to frame of the cultivator to counteract the drag on the outer end of the cultivator (there was also a set of braces to help support the cultivator vertically). Each summer we'd take off the loader and put on that mounted cultivator - then later take the cultivator off and put the loader back on - it was quite the project, but maximized the usefulness and value of the tractor. In later years, we got bigger tractors and went to 3 point rear mounted cultivators. That transition took some getting used to since you can't constantly watch a rear mounted cultivator like you can a mid-mounted cultivator - especially tricky to get used to on side hills and contour (curving) rows. The tractor was also a 1959 model like yours and I still have it for playing around the place here - I love it.
With the hand clutch you have live power. That means you can stop the tractor and still have PTO function without touching your foot clutch. Bailing hay mowing hay or any PTO function this is a great thing. The hand clutch disc are turning in oil where as the foot clutch is a dry disc.
My grandpa had a D14 with snap-coupler set up. My uncle had a D15 series II with 3 point setup instead of the snap-coupler setup. I love AC just for that hand clutch or as AC called it, the power director.
My father had a D!7 and I mowed hay year in year out. Love the hand clutch, hay a little lite push it into high range, hay gets thicker pull it back into low range. Just like using a T/A on a IH.
Great video! Regarding your shifting woes: when you shift into neutral with the power director instead of foot clutch you won't have that problem. I run a 5' brush hog on my WD and learned this lesson the hard way.
The set up of the D 17 and the WD 45 are the same. I use the WD-40 five a lot and I I love the live power feature where you just use the hand, clutch to stop and start and you leave everything engaged
Nice tractor - for how "new" it is, it has some in common with the model WC we restored back in 1981. The WC had hand brakes, belt drive and pto. Great video !
My D17 is a 1957. I have a Kelley loader mounted to it. I mounted a hydraulic pump on the front of the tractor that drives directly off the crank so the the loader always has hydraulics. I've fought with trying to line up 3-point attachments on other tractors and I very much prefer the Snap Coupler system. The "hand clutch" was called the Power Director. Why, I'm not sure. Allis -Chalmers often referred to it in advertisements as "The Big Stick". The Traction Booster system was used as a draft control. The idea was that when a ground-engaging attachment was used, the Traction Booster would automatically raise and lower the attachment to maintain whatever amount of draft the control was set for. The gauge on the dash was an indicator to show how the system was working.
John Acuff I have a d-17 series 3 and series 4 the series 4 was there improved model it came standard with three point hitch and live hydraulics the cool thing about the three point hitch is it has releasing levers so you can slide out the bottom arms to attach them it makes hooking up attachments easy once you get them hooked up you just back up into them and they lock back in place. the series 3 came with one lever of hydraulics the series for came with three levers I love both of my tractors but the series 4 is my all-time favorite
You must not change the width of the wheels as AC was noted for its fast change for wheel spacing for row crops. I spent many hours on WD-45 and D-17 tractors growing up. Very good tractors. I like your loader as the one we had was a mechanical bucket release. Would like to have had the hydraulic controlled bucket.
You can buy a Cross MFG 3 point for that tractor that uses the snap coupler hookups, less than an hour to put on the tractor and new maybe 500 bucks, I've seen several on craigslist for 300 or so,I have one on my Allis Chalmers CA and love it
When buying old tractors especially if they had loaders on them is check all wear points and bushings on the front end cause loader work is very hard on most tractor front ends. Cause usally when a person buys a tractor with a loader they usually don't remove the loader unless they have to.
If you don't have an Allis Chalmers bush hog, you need to buy an over riding clutch for your PTO shaft and you can shift the transmission any way you want
Hey great vid and I have a few AC tractors including a series 4 D17 with 3 pt factory hitch. I’m looking to add a factory loader and wondering if you know what model that is? Is is a L200 or 500 or another AC model. Thanks
Quick questing what was you filming on and how did you get the shake if out of your vids I want to start but all my vids I make are to shaky to be worth posting
Good day. I live in Ont. Canada many years ago we had a WD with oversized pistons they told 40+ HP? but it did start good in winter. I have IH 574 diesel hard bugger to start. the D17 has not got live hydr. when using foot clutch. WD you could change gears/hand clutch. there was a auction 3 D17, all went around 1600.00 would have made good blower tractor Thanks.
Thank you. This was a great video for me because i came across what i felt was a good deal on a D17. I realize now why its price is lower then others. Looks like you can't really use "regular " 3 point attachments. The hand and foot clutch seems like it could get hairy in areas you need to shift, change direction or stop fast at the same time. I need a good easy to maneuver front loader and I'm thinking now... this D17 is not the one for me. Thanks!
I think you're confused about how it all works. The foot clutch works like every foot clutch does. The power director let's you shift from hi to lo range on the go, it's a powershift, with a neutral. You don't need to use both at the same time. 3 pt hitches are easily available. D17 was the greatest 56 hp tractor ever made, if you passed on one you passed on a great tractor that's a blast to drive
You use the foot clutch to shift gears. The hand clutch is best used to go from neutral to low to get moving. The hand clutch is way smoother to get the tractor moving. The hand clutch has better control over tractor movement than the foot clutch. At least on this tractor it does. Yes the foot clutch works like other foot clutches, but I suggest the hand clutch to get the tractor moving.
@@CountryViewAcres Then there's something wrong with your foot clutch, it's out of adjustment or it's just plain wore out. The foot clutch is dry clutch The power director clutch runs in oil, and yes you can slip it with no damage, and it will provide a smooth take off, but so will the foot clutch
So the foot clutch engages in about a 2 inch range, but the hand engages over about an 8" range. it just has more precise control. This is the way I was taught to run the tractor by the orginal owner. I don't think there is anything wrong with the tractor.
Thank you that was very informative My Tractor's identical to yours except it has maybe one or two more levers than yours has very cool I bought mine at auction for $300 took me two weeks to get it to turn over the motor was a little lock and it fired and ran now something's broken in the housing I got to split the tractor and take the whole transmission housing out and figure out what's broken there so sad story
great video. I'm looking at 1 tomorrow that I'm thinking of buying didn't really like what you had to say about the PTO since mowing is one of the things I want to do but the one I'm looking at has a loader which is the main reason I wanted it. is it hard to find attachments with the snap hitch will they work with regular three-point hitches?
Joseph Hillenmeyer, I bought a 3 point conversion and use 3 point attachments. I was lucky that the tractor came with several attachments already. Also the lift arms don't have down pressure, so that may effect attachments like post hole diggers.
Joseph Hillenmeyer Allis Chalmers d-17 was made for several years and they have different series the one in the video is probably a series 3 they also made a series 4 it automatically comes with three point hitch and live Hydraulics which means the Hydraulics work whether the clutch is pushed in or not you can get a simple attachment to go to the PTO that's called a run over clutch and it will not drive the gears on the transmission when you shove the clutch in for mowers. they make the snap coupling for other tractors besides Allis Chalmers it's also known as the two-point coupling but the conversion to three point hitch is pretty easy
The hydraulics is tapped into the snap coupler lift arm hydraulic line. Then there have 3 levers. 1 for lift arms and 2 levers for the loader. The tractor hydraulics is low flow, so the loader doesn't move very fast.
@@CountryViewAcres Hello! Really appreciate you answering back. Didn't expect that so quick. Any way you could send me some pictures? I got the same tractor and trying to put a loader on it. I am not "tractor" savvy unfortunately!
@@CountryViewAcres You can get a PTO driven hydraulic pump,a valve bank,separate hyd reservoir,and be having higher flow/pressure. the best way is a frt mtd pump attached to dampener. totally independent loader hydraulics.
Garyn Colson I got rid of the bowl on mine and replaced it with a right angle elbow that goes to a brass valve to shut off the fuel. On the end of that I put a hose barb and ran that to a generic fuel filter and then to the carb. The filter catches quite a bit more then the old sediment bowl and doesn’t leak. Much better setup
did any one ever tell you what the hand clutch was originally for back in the day? I was always Told Growing up on a Farm & ben Driving Tractor befor i could Even Walk That The Hand Clutch Was For The man on Wagon When picking up tobacco From The Field & Hay N Stuff So That You Didn't Jerk The man on The Wagon Off ! Just What I Was Tought Growing Up !
We have a d 17 and because the itachments ar so expensive and a milliion miles away if we find any good ones .we bought a 3pt hook up works with any thing you use it works great and cost 800us it bolds on and unbolts but u can use any moder 3pt hitch it would of ben nice if evey ipliment was built around allis charmler. But its not how it happend .
1959 AC? That's a good little tractor you've got there, sir. I just purchased a 1958 AC D14 and it's been loads of fun teaching my 5year old daughter to change the oil, clean the filters and ect. However, that traction boost has been a thorn in my side since day one...anybody know how to set that properly or maybe even disable it? I've rebuilt a 1920 Hoover potato-digger and use it to pull up stones in my 5acers, but that darn traction booster turns on and pulls the entire digger right completely out of the ground about every 5ft to 10ft. Any thoughts or word of wisdom???
Tractors without live power are not worth using especially for bush hogging. To many decent older diesel tractors out there with live power to mess with something with so many constraints. imho.
Hi, Evan and Rebekah! This has been a delightful week for me. I have watched both your “Developing Our Homestead” and your “Hybrid Log Home Build” playlists. I have been subscribed to your channel about three years and I HAD to know more of your backstory. You two have worked so hard! Your “Hybrid Log Home Build”playlist was phenomenal. You guys are so creative. I look forward to watching the remainder of your early videos.
Nice to go back and watch some old footage. You sure have come a long way Evan, good explanation of the Allis-Chalmers D17. Thanks, have a good evening!
I love your Allis Chalmers. Great video my friend. There is just something about old tractors.
For what it's worth, if you're curious, that bracket around the front of the tractor is for a mid-mounted cultivator. The big hole in each corner is for a hoisting assembly that used a turnbuckle arrangement to lift up each side of the cultivator and then let you swing it around to where it would bolt on to the frame. The smaller hole is for a brace that went from there out to frame of the cultivator to counteract the drag on the outer end of the cultivator (there was also a set of braces to help support the cultivator vertically). Each summer we'd take off the loader and put on that mounted cultivator - then later take the cultivator off and put the loader back on - it was quite the project, but maximized the usefulness and value of the tractor. In later years, we got bigger tractors and went to 3 point rear mounted cultivators. That transition took some getting used to since you can't constantly watch a rear mounted cultivator like you can a mid-mounted cultivator - especially tricky to get used to on side hills and contour (curving) rows. The tractor was also a 1959 model like yours and I still have it for playing around the place here - I love it.
FIRST explanation of how a tractor works, that I have ever seen! Thanks!
With the hand clutch you have live power. That means you can stop the tractor and still have PTO function without touching your foot clutch. Bailing hay mowing hay or any PTO function this is a great thing. The hand clutch disc are turning in oil where as the foot clutch is a dry disc.
My grandpa had a D14 with snap-coupler set up. My uncle had a D15 series II with 3 point setup instead of the snap-coupler setup. I love AC just for that hand clutch or as AC called it, the power director.
Great explanation of the difference between this AC and other tractors. Good job!
My father had a D!7 and I mowed hay year in year out. Love the hand clutch, hay a little lite push it into high range, hay gets thicker pull it back into low range. Just like using a T/A on a IH.
Great video! Regarding your shifting woes: when you shift into neutral with the power director instead of foot clutch you won't have that problem. I run a 5' brush hog on my WD and learned this lesson the hard way.
The set up of the D 17 and the WD 45 are the same. I use the WD-40 five a lot and I I love the live power feature where you just use the hand, clutch to stop and start and you leave everything engaged
Nice tractor - for how "new" it is, it has some in common with the model WC we restored back in 1981. The WC had hand brakes, belt drive and pto. Great video !
My D17 is a 1957. I have a Kelley loader mounted to it. I mounted a hydraulic pump on the front of the tractor that drives directly off the crank so the the loader always has hydraulics. I've fought with trying to line up 3-point attachments on other tractors and I very much prefer the Snap Coupler system. The "hand clutch" was called the Power Director. Why, I'm not sure. Allis -Chalmers often referred to it in advertisements as "The Big Stick". The Traction Booster system was used as a draft control. The idea was that when a ground-engaging attachment was used, the Traction Booster would automatically raise and lower the attachment to maintain whatever amount of draft the control was set for. The gauge on the dash was an indicator to show how the system was working.
John Acuff I have a d-17 series 3 and series 4 the series 4 was there improved model it came standard with three point hitch and live hydraulics the cool thing about the three point hitch is it has releasing levers so you can slide out the bottom arms to attach them it makes hooking up attachments easy once you get them hooked up you just back up into them and they lock back in place. the series 3 came with one lever of hydraulics the series for came with three levers I love both of my tractors but the series 4 is my all-time favorite
z26ta came standard with live hydraulics. The 3 point hitch could be ordered with a series 4 or the snap coupler if you prefered
that is true! it also transfered weight from implement to rear wheels to limit slippage. thus the name "traction booster! Old A.C mechanic
You must not change the width of the wheels as AC was noted for its fast change for wheel spacing for row crops. I spent many hours on WD-45 and D-17 tractors growing up. Very good tractors. I like your loader as the one we had was a mechanical bucket release. Would like to have had the hydraulic controlled bucket.
A.C. invented the P.A.V.T. If I remember correctly
You can buy a Cross MFG 3 point for that tractor that uses the snap coupler hookups, less than an hour to put on the tractor and new maybe 500 bucks, I've seen several on craigslist for 300 or so,I have one on my Allis Chalmers CA and love it
Just bought one of these today. Thanks a lot for the overview, that was really helpful. Thanks!
When buying old tractors especially if they had loaders on them is check all wear points and bushings on the front end cause loader work is very hard on most tractor front ends.
Cause usally when a person buys a tractor with a loader they usually don't remove the loader unless they have to.
Grew up on one just like it very good little tractor 🚜
If you don't have an Allis Chalmers bush hog, you need to buy an over riding clutch for your PTO shaft and you can shift the transmission any way you want
and safer. neighbor had a ford,no over-running clutch. tragedy. it pushed him over irrigation ditch, threw him off,ran over and killed him.
@@georgepruitt637 Not good my friend
Hey great vid and I have a few AC tractors including a series 4 D17 with 3 pt factory hitch. I’m looking to add a factory loader and wondering if you know what model that is? Is is a L200 or 500 or another AC model. Thanks
Man allis Chalmers is the best.
Hi..... Thank you 🎥👍👍👍
Quick questing what was you filming on and how did you get the shake if out of your vids I want to start but all my vids I make are to shaky to be worth posting
Anything hand held you need video stabilization in the camera. Gopro's do the best job at it.
@@CountryViewAcres ty what GoPro is best
Ok, but what makes the lift arms go up and down?
Nice.....you are awesome. Good info.THANKS!
Good day. I live in Ont. Canada many years ago we had a WD with oversized pistons they told 40+ HP? but it did start good in winter. I have IH 574 diesel hard bugger to start. the D17 has not got live hydr. when using foot clutch. WD you could change gears/hand clutch. there was a auction 3 D17, all went around 1600.00 would have made good blower tractor Thanks.
man i love the attachment set up
Thank you. This was a great video for me because i came across what i felt was a good deal on a D17. I realize now why its price is lower then others. Looks like you can't really use "regular " 3 point attachments. The hand and foot clutch seems like it could get hairy in areas you need to shift, change direction or stop fast at the same time. I need a good easy to maneuver front loader and I'm thinking now... this D17 is not the one for me. Thanks!
FYI. I have a 3 point conversion, and use a lot of newer attachments. But I think my next tractor will be hydrostatic 4 wheel drive.
I think you're confused about how it all works. The foot clutch works like every foot clutch does. The power director let's you shift from hi to lo range on the go, it's a powershift, with a neutral. You don't need to use both at the same time. 3 pt hitches are easily available. D17 was the greatest 56 hp tractor ever made, if you passed on one you passed on a great tractor that's a blast to drive
You use the foot clutch to shift gears. The hand clutch is best used to go from neutral to low to get moving. The hand clutch is way smoother to get the tractor moving. The hand clutch has better control over tractor movement than the foot clutch. At least on this tractor it does. Yes the foot clutch works like other foot clutches, but I suggest the hand clutch to get the tractor moving.
@@CountryViewAcres Then there's something wrong with your foot clutch, it's out of adjustment or it's just plain wore out.
The foot clutch is dry clutch
The power director clutch runs in oil, and yes you can slip it with no damage, and it will provide a smooth take off, but so will the foot clutch
So the foot clutch engages in about a 2 inch range, but the hand engages over about an 8" range. it just has more precise control. This is the way I was taught to run the tractor by the orginal owner. I don't think there is anything wrong with the tractor.
Thank you that was very informative My Tractor's identical to yours except it has maybe one or two more levers than yours has very cool I bought mine at auction for $300 took me two weeks to get it to turn over the motor was a little lock and it fired and ran now something's broken in the housing I got to split the tractor and take the whole transmission housing out and figure out what's broken there so sad story
great video. I'm looking at 1 tomorrow that I'm thinking of buying didn't really like what you had to say about the PTO since mowing is one of the things I want to do but the one I'm looking at has a loader which is the main reason I wanted it. is it hard to find attachments with the snap hitch will they work with regular three-point hitches?
Joseph Hillenmeyer, I bought a 3 point conversion and use 3 point attachments. I was lucky that the tractor came with several attachments already. Also the lift arms don't have down pressure, so that may effect attachments like post hole diggers.
Joseph Hillenmeyer Allis Chalmers d-17 was made for several years and they have different series the one in the video is probably a series 3 they also made a series 4 it automatically comes with three point hitch and live Hydraulics which means the Hydraulics work whether the clutch is pushed in or not you can get a simple attachment to go to the PTO that's called a run over clutch and it will not drive the gears on the transmission when you shove the clutch in for mowers. they make the snap coupling for other tractors besides Allis Chalmers it's also known as the two-point coupling but the conversion to three point hitch is pretty easy
@@z26ta This tractor is a series 2 that somebody changed the decals on, and muffler
How is your hydraulics hooked up for your loader? I can't tell...
The hydraulics is tapped into the snap coupler lift arm hydraulic line. Then there have 3 levers. 1 for lift arms and 2 levers for the loader. The tractor hydraulics is low flow, so the loader doesn't move very fast.
@@CountryViewAcres Hello! Really appreciate you answering back. Didn't expect that so quick. Any way you could send me some pictures? I got the same tractor and trying to put a loader on it. I am not "tractor" savvy unfortunately!
@@CountryViewAcres You can get a PTO driven hydraulic pump,a valve bank,separate hyd reservoir,and be having higher flow/pressure. the best way is a frt mtd pump attached to dampener. totally independent loader hydraulics.
Should I do away with the sedamite bowl on my D17 Allis chamber and go electric fuel pump
Garyn Colson I got rid of the bowl on mine and replaced it with a right angle elbow that goes to a brass valve to shut off the fuel. On the end of that I put a hose barb and ran that to a generic fuel filter and then to the carb. The filter catches quite a bit more then the old sediment bowl and doesn’t leak. Much better setup
Good luck finding a positive ground electric fuel pump, maybe they are out there....
What lever raises the 3 point
did any one ever tell you what the hand clutch was originally for back in the day? I was always Told Growing up on a Farm & ben Driving Tractor befor i could Even Walk That The Hand Clutch Was For The man on Wagon When picking up tobacco From The Field & Hay N Stuff So That You Didn't Jerk The man on The Wagon Off ! Just What I Was Tought Growing Up !
We have a d 17 and because the itachments ar so expensive and a milliion miles away if we find any good ones .we bought a 3pt hook up works with any thing you use it works great and cost 800us it bolds on and unbolts but u can use any moder 3pt hitch it would of ben nice if evey ipliment was built around allis charmler. But its not how it happend .
Great info
You can buy a over run clutch to slide on the PTO
Shaft to help the PTO engagement.
Tractor supply or tisco. about 75 dollars .cheaper than funeral.
Can you send me some pictures of your hydraulics for the loader? I’m looking at modifying my loader and I’m looking for what I need
My loader hydraulics is just tee'd off the hydraulics for the snap coupler lift arms. It is Very slow hydraulics.
what year tractor? have one just like it
1959 series 1
1959 AC? That's a good little tractor you've got there, sir. I just purchased a 1958 AC D14 and it's been loads of fun teaching my 5year old daughter to change the oil, clean the filters and ect. However, that traction boost has been a thorn in my side since day one...anybody know how to set that properly or maybe even disable it? I've rebuilt a 1920 Hoover potato-digger and use it to pull up stones in my 5acers, but that darn traction booster turns on and pulls the entire digger right completely out of the ground about every 5ft to 10ft. Any thoughts or word of wisdom???
Tractors without live power are not worth using especially for bush hogging. To many decent older diesel tractors out there
with live power to mess with something with so many constraints. imho.
Joseph M
Joseph M if you ever bush hogged with a D17 you would know your statement is wrong
His D17 has live power. Just use the hand clutch.