The Tacoma of Tractors?
By Ryan Roossinck, Successful Farming
Does anybody else feel like there must’ve been an Allis-Chalmers 185 in nearly every barn in the Midwest?
Nope? Just me, huh?
Well, regardless of whether I’m right or wrong, the model 185 was one of the cornerstones of Allis’s 100-series tractors. Allis-Chalmers sold almost 15,000 of this model over 11 years of production (1970-1981). Sure, John Deere sold a 4430 every 36 minutes for five years. But that was a 139-hp. tractor in the age of modern power farming. The Allis 185 had a small-cube naturally-aspirated motor that only made 83 horses!
So why was it so popular? From where I’m sitting, the 185 was just about perfect for chores. I looked in our Iron Comps database (it's basically the blue book of farm equipment) and nearly 20% of the 185s in there were sold with a loader or a bale spear attached to them!