By Ed Erdmann and Rick Campbell
Note: This feature is in the May TF 2020 issue
Note: This feature is in the May TF 2020 issue
 Click image to view this issue. | For this year's National Farm Toy Show, the Toy Farmer is offering collectors two models of a well-loved, orange fallen flag. The 1/16 scale National Farm Toy Show tractor for 2020 will be the first-generation Allis-Chalmers 190XT with a bar grille and slant fenders. Continuing the series of 1/64 scale four-wheel-drives, the other 2020 National Farm Toy Show tractor will be the Allis-Chalmers 4W-220. In 1965, Allis-Chalmers introduced a new logo while dealers were showing off what Norm Swinford calls "the hottest tractor they ever had to sell." The venerable diamond corporate logo, with the A-C letters inside a gear motif, was reshaped as a pyramid incorporating both letters. The hot new tractor was the 93-PTO-horsepower 190XT, introduced in late 1964 and put into full production in 1965. (It is interesting to note that some of the earliest 190XT tractor grilles showed the gear motif logo.) The "XL" designation was significant, because just one year earlier, Allis-Chalmers had introduced the 190 model, initially proposed as the D19 Series II. But because there was "a strong desire for an all-new line designation to support the modern styling and features," the "19" in D19 became 190. At 75.37 gas PTO horsepower and 77.2 diesel PTO horsepower, the 190 tractors had been "met with great disappointment," because other makers could offer more power in the same sized tractor. Eve though the West Allis factory continued to put out the 190 through 1972, the 190XT outsold the lower-horsepower tractor nearly five to one (22,419 190XTs vs. 4,703 190 tractors.) The 190XT tractors were available with a 89.53-PTO-horsepower LP burner. However, most of the 190XT tractors sold with A-C's 301-cubic-inch turbocharged diesel. In the right hands, the diesel 190XT "would easily outperform the D21," When farmers and dealers cranked up the turbocharged engine, "it was not unusual to hear of 120-horsepower XT diesels." At 7,738 pounds shipping weight ("One-Ninety," p. 23), the 190XT diesel could be lightened up to qualify for the 7,000-pound puller class, so the tractor soon became a favorite for competition (Swinford 103). In fact, the 190XT's 301-cubic-inch diesel, gas, and LP engines were all newly engineered, designed from the outset to be readily enlarged for even more power. |
RSS Feed
