ARTICLES

The Allis Chalmers D19 The industry's First Turbocharged Ag Tractor
By Larry Swenson

I remember very well the first time I operated a D19. This was after I had spent a multitude of hours behind the steering wheel of a D17. My first impression was that it was like driving a monster D17.

Those were exciting times when word of a large D series tractor was becoming available. The D19 arrived at Allis Chalmers dealers in late 1961 to fill the needs of farmers to farm more acres and to give them the ability to pull wider implements. This was accomplished by mating up a six cylinder gas or diesel engine to the largest D series available at that time. Three engine variables were available'the gasoline with 71.54 horsepower, propane with 66.19 horsepower and diesel with 66.92 horsepower. All came in 262 cubic inch displacement.

The D19 represented some firsts for the company and the industry. Most notable was the factory equipped turbocharger on the diesel model. Its dual purpose was to attain more horsepower from existing cubic inches and to gain better fuel economy. All of this is common knowledge together but it was revolutionary in 1961 and had to be explained to the farmers.

Most major competing tractor companies were slow to respond by turbocharging their large diesels. Interestingly enough was the fact that Allis Chalmers didn't turbocharge its own larger D21 until 1965, some four years after the first D19 and three years after the D21's entry. When they finally turbocharged the D21, it was designed D21 Series II. I would speculate that the slow turbo response time by Allis Chalmers and other manufacturers was spent on the proving and testing grounds determining the effect of endurance and consequence the turbo had. Today, 42 years later, turbochargers are standard equipment on most diesel tractors, pickup trucks and cars. I find it interesting to note that today the D19 diesel is banned from some tractor pulling events because of its factory turbocharger.

Allis Chalmers receives the honor for being the first to commercially produce the turbo charger for an ag tractor. Another first within the company was a bowl geared straight axle rear end for the D19. Prior to that, the company installed dropped or reduced drive final drives. The new straight axle design was not as trouble free as the reduced drive rear end and, for that reason, the D19 does not receive the "tough as nails" rating.

To add to the company's firsts was the optional three-point hitch to conform to the industry's standard. The D19 had the weight to counter an eight row cultivator. There were by far more snap coupler hitches sold than three-point hitches within the three years of production. Allis chalmers, like many other tractor companies, attempted to insure the sales of their own mounted and semi-mounted implements whenever a new tractor was sold. Their hitch design was called snap coupler, a system that had its own unique mechanical advantage compared to today's three-point hitch. In the June issue of Tractor Shop, I explained the snap coupler merits ("Allis Chalmers D17: Tough as Nails"). Unfortunately, very few D19s were ordered with factory three-point. The existing 19s with three-point today are considered hard to find and collector tractors.

The D19 was a solid 4-16 plow tractor in heavy soils and five-bottoms in lighter soils. Here in our part of the country in southern Minnesota, the 4-16 plow was the wiser choice. One fall in the late 1960s, our 190XT went down. The biggest tractor the local AC dealership had was a D19 gas with snap coupler. To keep the field work rolling, we told them to bring it out when they came to get the XT for repairs. We still had the snap coupler 4-14 plow for our D17. The plow had been out of use for many years but the moldboards had been greased so it didn't take long to have them scouring good after being hooked up to the D19. The D17 usually pulled that plow in second high. The D19 pulled that same 4-14 plow in third high, which really made the dirt fly off the moldboards!

The D19, like previous D Series tractors, used the oil lubricated high-low range hand clutch with great success. Durability and usefulness remained good, however,t his was the largest tractor for which Allis Chalmers would use this type of shift-on-the-go oil clutch. Larger models such as the D21, 210 and 220 weren't engineered for shift-on-the-go transmissions, and wisely so, I think.

The gas engine had a smooth and quiet well balanced engine and that was a sales point at the time when the D19 was being promoted at local dealerships. To demonstrate, a clear water glass filled with water was set on the hood of an idling D19 gas. Little or no visible ripple of water could be seen in the glass! To prove the quiet and smooth claims of the D19 gas engine is the account that a neighboring farmer, Howard Haase of Delavan, Minnesota told me many years ago. Howard had finished working some rented ground next to Highway 109 and parked his D19 gas by the road. He went home for the night and came back in the morning to find, to his surprise, that the tractor was still idling! Howard got on his D19, opened the throttle and the engine gave a black pull of smoke and back to work he went. Howard said it was so quiet that he hadn't heard it when he left the night before and it had idled all night.

A rare and highly collectible tractor is the D19 Beach Master model with the sanitizer implement, manufactured from 1963-1964. This combination tractor and sanitizer was developed specifically for the removal of debris and garbage from the shorelines of oceans and lakes for the increased use and enjoyment of the beaches. The D19 Beach Master tractor was designed with a lower profile than the agricultural model. The same 262 engine was used and was available in gas, diesel and LP. The implement pulled by the modified D19 can be compared to a mechanical rock picker. It lifts the larger objects and allows the soil or sand to fall back down to the ground. The undesirable debris was elevated and allowed to fall into a holding container to be unloaded when full. A scarifier implement could be mounted under the tractor to first loosen soils and lift larger objects to the surface to be collected by the sanitizer implement. Approximately 664 of the Beach Master and sanitizer implements were produced and sales of these were primarily on the east and west coasts. I suspect a few were sold in the Great Lakes region as I know of one that has been in the Chicago area for some time. One is also known to exist in England.

CHART
The D19 was definitely the big horse of the D Series in 1961 with a ton of additional shipping weight over the D17 and a 20 horsepower advantage over the one size down D17. The D19 could pull bigger loads better than any Allis Chalmers ag tractor prior to 1961 whether it be implement or PTO work. The D19 fits very nicely into the category of older, usable, working tractors for today that Tractor Shop Editor Richard Hain wants his writers to review and draw attention to. The D19 has the power to walk through the tough spots and is comfortable to operate sitting or standing. It is a classic beauty to view whether from the front, side or back.

Top /\