Tractor Story – 1966 Allis Chalmers D17

About 10 years ago, I helped my best friend check out this 1966 Allis Chalmers D17 Series IV tractor. He ended up buying it, and using it to help keep our local public shooting range groomed. Last fall, he lost a long battle with cancer, and his wife offered the tractor to me for a price I couldn’t refuse. This spring, my son, a friend of his, the friend’s dad and I spent three long days doing a complete restoration of the tractor. We pulled it apart, sandblasted everything, power washed it all, then took it in the paint booth for four coats of paint. As payment for their help, I gave the friends who helped us a couple of antique military firearms I had purchased from my best friend years earlier, so they, too, would have something to remember him by.

Ray Baltes
Hampton, Iowa