Tractor trivia

[Bob Bancroft]

According to Cummins, in July 1930, an Allis Chalmers crawler, powered by a Cummins diesel, was tried out in Columbus, IN. They claim this was a first, adding that Caterpillars first diesel run was later that same year.
Nothing ever came of this. No reason is given. And we know what AC did for years before they bought Buda.

 

[T.R.K.]

Then about that same time there was the Red River logging company who tried re-powering a Cat 60 with a Diesel and the engine just shook the tractor apart.

 

[37 chief]

Sometimes things don't work out for one reason or another. I have several late 30's Allis Chalmers model M Crawlers. Some are gas, and a couple are propane. Diesel would probably be nice, rather than 90 year old mags, and carburetors. Stan

 

[docmirror]

More trivia, related to Allis Chalmers. In a rather roundabout way, AC wound up as a builder of a nuclear reactor.

https://www.ans.org/news/article-1858/elk-river-rural-americas-first-atomic-power-plant/

The reactor part of AC's involvement could only be considered an ultimate failure. While AC made some money on development, and deployment of the reactor, eventually, the poor quality of construction led to it being economically unfeasible to repair, and it was scrapped.

On the positive side, AC made a smart move in making it a breeder reactor(it would irradiate fertile isotopes of Thorium to make its own fuel) which, if it had been built correctly would be self-sustaining for many decades. In the late 1970s, with proliferation of atomics around the globe, the US made the stupid move to self-restrict reactors from being breeders, thus hamstringing an entire engineering discipline and making nuclear reactors far, far less efficient than their potential.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

My memory isn't as good as it once was. Please fact check.
The Cummins diesel was first used in fishing boats in the early 1900s.

Can't remember when the Cummins diesel was first put in the semis.

Did Cummins put a diesel in a race car that ran at Indy?

Just a little more Cummins trivia

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Yes, indeed, the first major (if one can call it that) use was in boats. And they did run one in Indy. In a Packard auto, and finally in a small truck in 1931 for a cross country adventure.

 

[caterpillar guy]

An engine shaking that badly was not balanced in the least. MOst engines are balanced to some extent ot like a race car engine or some of the smoother running ones but balanced never the less.

 

[cdmn]

Packard also installed their radial diesel airplane engine in a Stinson.
Flown in 1928. It set several records. It didn't sell, so I believe that
someone modified it and used it to power army tanks. Interestingly, the
actual engines were built by Buda under contract.
Packard powered Stinson

 

[37 chief]

Vista Calif. has a very large farming museum. I was nosing around in their bone yard, and noticed a couple 9 cylinder diesel radial engines. Camp Pendleton is next to vista. A good chance the engines came from a WW2 tank years ago. Stan

 

[Duner Wi]

Cummins engines in more than one entry during the 30s , Cummins power sat on pole 1952 at Indy.