Wd- 45 (s)

[SandburRanch]

Is there any market demand remaining at all for narrow front Allis WD- 45 s?

 

[ovrszd]

As vintage or antique tractors.

Otherwise I wouldn't think their market has changed much.

 

[LouNY]

Depends on where you are at, the condition of it, and if some one is looking for one.
I've seen runners from $500 to $5000, my brother picked one up this summer in decent shape that ran good for $1500.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Yup, WD and 45's are pretty good tractors that sell dirt cheep.

It always amazes me that more folks don't see that and buy them up, instead of spending 30 or 40K on a tractor to mow a field!

SR

 

[ovrszd]

Yup, WD and 45's are pretty good tractors that sell dirt cheep.

It always amazes me that more folks don't see that and buy them up, instead of spending 30 or 40K on a tractor to mow a field!

SR

Tractor buyers on TBN tend to buy what they want, not what they need.

 

[LouNY]

Yes for there time the WD and WD-45's were very nice tractors.
With the hand clutch they behaved almost as if it was an independent pto.
Also when you used the hand clutch you still had your hydraulics even though it wasn't a lot of volume.
With an upgrade in tire size and with the power rail adjustable wheels they were easy to set up for a 2 or in very mellow ground
a 3 bottom plow , also a nice cultivating tractor.
I cultivated a lot of corn, mowed a lot of hay fields with a semi-mounted sickle bar mower and then we added the hitch and pto extension for the conditioner to be pulled behind it. Then pulling stone boats in the spring, hay wagons in the summer and silage wagons in the fall.
Running a belt drive blower for silo filling, and a belt drive buzz saw for cutting up fire wood.
We also skidded a lot of firewood out with ours chained up for traction (all winter).
As well as pulling the manure spreader.

 

[KennyG]

The WD and WD-45 were best in their class at the time, in my opinion. However, as a utility tractor they come up a little short with respect to limited hydraulic power and not having a true three point hitch. I'd love to have one but can't imagine what I would use it for today.

 

[finn1]

My cousin still uses one for pushing snow around his place. It’s pretty tired though, and the brakes haven’t worked for decades.

Last I heard, he was going to upgrade to a new tractor: a Deere from the mid sixties.......

 

[wolc123]

Yes for there time the WD and WD-45's were very nice tractors.
With the hand clutch they behaved almost as if it was an independent pto.
Also when you used the hand clutch you still had your hydraulics even though it wasn't a lot of volume.
With an upgrade in tire size and with the power rail adjustable wheels they were easy to set up for a 2 or in very mellow ground
a 3 bottom plow , also a nice cultivating tractor.
I cultivated a lot of corn, mowed a lot of hay fields with a semi-mounted sickle bar mower and then we added the hitch and pto extension for the conditioner to be pulled behind it. Then pulling stone boats in the spring, hay wagons in the summer and silage wagons in the fall.
Running a belt drive blower for silo filling, and a belt drive buzz saw for cutting up fire wood.
We also skidded a lot of firewood out with ours chained up for traction (all winter).
As well as pulling the manure spreader.

I have an old pre-war Allis Chalmers model C trike that I mostly just use in the summer for skidding logs out of my woodlot. You really can't beat a trike for that work. It is so much easier to see stumps and rocks with the narrow front. Best of all is how little damage it does to the ground, by taking the steering tires out of the same track as the drive tires. I don't ever make ruts when dragging logs with that tractor, even when the ground is a bit soft and I drag a lot of logs out on the same track. Manuverability and "zero-turn" ability is also a big plus for that duty, just like it would be for cultivating.

I would like to find a two-row cultivator for my C. I plant a few acres of RR corn every year for deer food plots. I am using a three-point Dearborn cultivator on the back of my wide-front Ford 8n, which lacks that "zero-turn" ability, so I have to count off a few rows to make the turn at the ends of the field. After cultivating with the 8n, to get rid of weeds between rows, I use the C with a two-nozzle boom and sprayer, to apply Roundup, just on the corn rows. With the narrow-front C, it is much nicer to just work across the plots, using the "zero-turn" at the end of each pair of rows. I rotate those plots 3-4 years white-clover, 1 year corn. Skipping the Roundup between the rows allows the clover come back on its own the following year, without reseeding. I always look to minimize input costs to keep my venison cost as low as possible. There is a big savings in fertilizer, seed, and lime cost by using this "semi-organic" method of corn/clover growing. I could get those input costs down a little more, in fuel savings, by cultivating and spraying all in one pass with the C. I used to do that, one row at a time, with a Farmall cub. "Cultivation" might be nice on little gardens, but makes for a stiff neck on bigger plots. On those, I much prefer in-line steering.


Since the old model C gets used so infrequently, I don't even keep a battery on it. It always starts easy with a hand crank. I paid $ 500 for that tractor (15) years ago. It had good tires but ran poorly. A $ 20 carb kit got it running like a Swiss watch and it has not given me any trouble thru those years. It was not showing any oil pressure at first (maybe that was why the old guy sold it to me so cheap). After I figured out that it needed a little piece of 1/4 in tube stuck into the oil filter, in order to show pressure on the gauge, it has been fine. I knew it was pumping oil, because the line to the governer was squirting when I loosened the fitting to check it, with the motor running. A neighbor offered me $ 200 ea for just the "rare" spoked front rims, so I don't think I will have much trouble getting my $520 back if I ever decide to part with that tractor. There is so little wear on that tractor, that I doubt it has more than 500 hours on it, since it rolled off the assembly line in 1942.

 

[Paystar]

Here's a couple CA's (mine in the middle) with a WD45. Awesome, strong tractors.