Allis-Chalmers 6-12 tractor in Adams 1920

The Allis-Chalmers Model 6-12 was a farm

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

produced by

Allis-Chalmers Allis-Chalmers was a United States, U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various Industry (economics), industries. Its business lines included list of agricultural machinery, agricultural equipment, heavy equipment, construction equipment, electric ...

between 1918 and 1923.
pp. 32–33
Like many other tractors of the era, its model name came from its

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...

ratings, with 6-12 (or 6/12) meaning 6 hp at the drawbar and 12 hp at the belt pulley. The Allis 6-12 was an early attempt at a lightweight, versatile, low-cost, general-purpose tractor that would be suitable for all of the work on a farm, including not only traction work (such as

plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...

ing and

harrowing In agriculture, a harrow is a farm implement used for surface tillage. It is used after ploughing for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. The purpose of harrowing is to break up clods and to provide a soil structure, calle ...

) and belt work (such as

threshing Threshing or thrashing is the process of loosening the edible part of grain (or other crop) from the straw to which it is attached. It is the step in grain preparation after reaping. Threshing does not remove the bran from the grain. History of ...

and

saw A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, Wire saw, wire, or Chainsaw, chain with a hard toothed edge used to cut through material. Various terms are used to describe toothed and abrasive saws. Saws began as serrated materials, and when man ...

ing) but also

cultivating Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoeing ...

. Like other

two-wheel tractor Two-wheel tractor or walking tractor (, , ) are generic terms understood in the US and in parts of Europe to represent a single-axle tractor, which is a tractor with one axle, self-powered and self-propelled, which can pull and power various f ...

s, it used its implement to provide the rear axle to make up a four-wheel articulated unit, with the operator riding the implement. The Allis 6-12 entered the market at a time when the mechanization of agriculture was underway but was far from complete. Tractors had not yet managed to completely replace the horse team for all farm tasks. The product category of row-crop tractors as we know them today had not yet been developed, and the Allis 6-12 had a very attractive

value proposition In marketing, a company’s value proposition is the full mix of benefits or value (economics), economic value which it promises to deliver to the current and future customers (i.e., a market segment) who will buy their Product (business), product ...

. Unfortunately that proposition was also suspiciously similar to that of the Moline Universal tractor, which had been on the market for about 2 years before the Allis 6-12 appeared. Moline Plow considered the Allis 6-12 a patent-infringing copy. The late 1910s were a period when various two-wheeled and three-wheeled tractors were on the U.S. market. Moline Plow had by no means invented such configurations. However, the Allis 6-12 was ''especially'' similar to the Moline Universal, lending credibility to Moline Plow's assertion that it was a copy. Both the Allis 6-12 and the Moline Universal ended production in 1923. By then, not only had an economic recession and resulting tractor price war damaged such companies' finances, but also, the tractor market was evolving. Going forward, newer four-wheel designs (such as the

Farmall Farmall was a model name and later a brand name for tractors manufactured by International Harvester (IH), an American truck, tractor, and construction equipment company. The Farmall name was usually presented as McCormick-Deering Farmall and l ...

), which would become what we now call the row-crop tractor category, would be the focus of the light farm tractor market. Two-wheel tractors would continue to have a place in agriculture both in the U.S. and around the world, but they would no longer compete in the same market segment as the larger four-wheel row-crop designs. However, the Allis-Chalmers Model G, introduced two decades later, was an interesting design that in some respects echoed the concept of the 6-12, albeit now "facing the other way", with the implement leading and the motorized drive unit now pushing rather than pulling.

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External links

Video of Allis-Chalmers 6-12 in operation.
{{Allis-Chalmers Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company Tractors

See also

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External links