The First Turbo Tractor ALLIS-CHALMERS D-19

The turbo diesel is so commonplace today that naturally aspirated diesels stand out. Go back nearly 60 years and the opposite was true.

In 1961, turbocharging wasn’t yet common in the world of diesels but it was nonexistent in the realm of production farm tractors. There were many reasons for that, starting with cost. Being fairly new technology, it was expensive to implement and farmers weren’t always willing or able to absorb that extra cost. The beginning of the ’60s was when a downsized, moderate-cost turbo diesel began to be practical. It was only a matter of time before some tractor company fielded a turbocharged diesel and Allis-chalmers (AC) was that company. Funny thing is… they introduced a turbocharger onto an old-school Buda-lanova diesel

that really wasn’t all that well suited to it.

The turbocharged D-19 was introduced into Allis-chalmers’s very successful D-series tractor line for 1961. Launched in 1957, the D-series started with the D-14, a 34-horsepower, four-

cylinder gasser. It would be supplemented with the D-17, which had the option of a 262ci six-cylinder diesel. The D-10 and D-12 would soon join the group and the D-15 would replace the D-14. The D-19 would come next and then the D-21.

The D-17 was a popular “just right” tractor when it was introduced in the fall of 1957 as AC’S “big” tractor. The diesel was rated at 51 Nebraska-tested PTO horsepower. With the latest version of AC’S Power Director (a power-shift device), Traction Booster draft control, power steering, a power-adjustable front axle, rear wheel track adjustment and a solid powertrain, it was a very capable and well-equipped tractor. By the turn of the 1950s, though, a self-respecting tractor company needed more than 51 horsepower in its star tractor for bragging rights.

A new model was designed as a stopgap to fill in as AC developed an all-new big tractor. The D-19 was it, and you could call it a D-17 diesel after a bodybuilding course. The big difference between the two brothers was the addition of a Thompson turbocharger. Boost was modest, only 4-5 psi, but it took the D262 diesel from 51 PTO horsepower to 67 (about 90 hp on the flywheel). On the drawbar, the D-17 delivered 36 horsepower in the Nebraska test while the D-19 cranked out 62.

The D262 was an updated B-series legacy engine from Buda (pronounced “Beuda” not “Booda”). In late 1953 Allis-chalmers acquired the Buda Engine Company, making it the Buda Engine Division of Allis-chalmers. Buda had been making automotive, industrial and marine internal combustion engines since 1910 and formed the basis of what was to become Allis-chalmers’s short but illustrious era as an engine builder. One result of that era was the Consolidated Diesel agreement with Cummins that yielded the legendary 5.9L diesels in the ’80s.

For a brief period the D-19 was Allis-chalmers’s most powerful rowcrop tractor. Jim Stammen’s ’64 has all the bells and whistles, including front weights (75 pounds each), Power Adjust rear wheels, rear-wheel weights (75 pounds for each “pie” section),...

Here’s what made the D-19 stand out, the Thompson turbocharger. Thompson Products (a part of what would later become TRW) was a well-known builder of turbos back then and is best remembered for making the turbo for the Corvair Monza. The D-19 turbo...

 Stammen’s D-19 is loaded for bear. With 600 pounds of iron on the 18.4-34 rear tires, 400 pounds of iron on the front wheels and another 300 pounds on the front weight rack, plus about 2,000 pounds of liquid ballast in the tires, this beast is in the...

 The air cleaner marks another first for AC, a paper air filter. AC engineers claimed the paper filter was 20 percent more efficient than a typical oil bath filter, thus adding to engine life. Earlier versions of the B-series Buda engines had used an...