![]() The rarest of Oliver tractors is an experimental model built for engine research known as XO-121. Why is it the rarest Oliver? Well, that's because there was only 1 Oliver XO-121 ever built! As for the tractor model's name, the "X" was for experimental, "O" for Oliver, and "121" for the 12:1 compression ratio of the gas engine used in the tractor. In 1953, Oliver engineers at Charles City partnered with engineers from the Ethyl Corporation to develop high compression gas engine that operated on high octane fuel. The project started with an Oliver Row Crop 88 tractor with a modified front frame to fit the custom Hercules diesel engine block used as a base for the engine project. Three of the 12:1 compression ratio engines were built and tested, but only 1 experimental XO-121 tractor was assembled. The tractor used the side tins for the Super 88 model fitted with special badges instead of normal decals. For the paint scheme, Oliver decided to stick with its normal meadow green and red, except they reversed the location of the colors. The tractor body was painted red instead of green, the wheels green instead of red, and the traditional yellow grill was upgraded to a custom chrome grill. By May of 1954, the tractor was ready and went to get tested for the executives of Oliver and Ethyl at the GM Proving Grounds near Milford, Michigan. The tractor was a great success, but was never meant for production. The engine research and design principles tested were carried forward into not only Oliver's future engine design, but into gas engine design for nearly all farm tractors. By 1960, the tractor had served its purpose for Oliver and was given to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa to be used as a teaching tool for the ag engineering program. By the 1980's, the tractor had been donated to Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa and was being used to pull wagons around. The tractor had been repainted and almost lost it's identity as the rarest of Oliver tractors! Luckily, the tractor was rescued in 1987 and was donated to the Floyd County Museum in Charles City, Iowa. Since then, the tractor has received a full restoration and is on display at the museum daily and occasionally ventures out of the museum for exhibition at Oliver tractor shows. Oliver and Ethyl produced a promotional video titled "Getting Ahead of Tomorrow" to share the results of the XO-121 experimental tractor. The video tells the entire story and has great footage of the research, design, assembly, and testing of Oliver's rarest tractor! Wheel Tractor Production - Charles City Plant For 86 years, the Charles City plant produced Hart-Parr, Oliver, and White tractors. Production started with Hart-Parr No. 1 bearing serial number 1205 in the winter of 1901-1902. It ended with a White Field Boss 100 with serial number 401 505 built on March 28, 1988. The chart below shows the yearly production of wheel tractors built at the Charles City plant. As you review the numbers, you can see the impact of droughts, wars, commodity prices, politics, and ownership changes on the annual tractor production numbers.
A fairly common question among collectors is how many Oliver tractors were produced? Even with the annual total tractor production number below, this question can be complicated to answer. If you are asking specifically for Oliver tractors, we need to look at numbers from the start of Oliver Farm Equipment in April 1929 all the way to February 13, 1976 when the last Oliver branded tractor was built. To get close, we can take the totals from 1930 - 1975 which gives us 487,264 Oliver tractors. I say close because there was over half of 1929 that would technically be under the "Oliver" name along with the fact that the first White tractor was built in 1974. With that, a few Oliver tractors (models 99/Super 99, early 950-990s, and Super 44) were built at the South Bend plant and are presumably not included in these numbers. If you consider just the Hart-Parr years before the merger in April 1929, we can get a really close count looking at 1901 - 1929 with a total of 43,075 Hart-Parr tractors. Lastly, there is the production of White tractor models. Their production started in 1974 with the White 4-150, but the plant was still producing Oliver tractors at the same time in 1974 and 1975. To get close, we can use 1976 - 1988. Keep in mind, the Charles City plant didn't build a complete White tractor after March 28, 1988. Instead, they did castings and built sub-assemblies for White and some Deutz tractors into 1993. The chart below does list numbers for 1989 and 1990, but also notes the number of Deutz tractors built in the plant during that time. White tractor assembly moved to Coldwater, Ohio later in 1988 so I am not sure what these numbers represent. Regardless, to get close for the Charles City built White tractor numbers, 1976 - 1988 gives production numbers of 40,304. When you put together all the years of tractor production in Charles City under the 3 brands, the grand total is 570,663 tractors. That's right, over half a million tractors built in Charles City, Iowa! Former Oliver employee, the late LeRoy Kuhlers gets the credit for this great piece of history. Oliver 1600 Prototype Tractor Three years before it hit the market, the Oliver 1600 existed as a prototype tractor in 1959. The 1600 was an extension of the model 1800 and 1900 new line of Oliver tractors that were released in 1960. Take a close look at the pictures of the 1600 prototype tractors paying attention to the engine! Although the production models of the 1600 where equipped with the traditional Waukesha six cylinder engine, the prototypes had a 4 cylinder engine under the hood. The engine was "2/3" of the Oliver 1800 engine (283 cubic inch Waukesha diesel) meaning it used 4 cylinders instead of 6. Likely, this small of an engine (approximately 189 cubic inches) was drastically underpowered for the size of the 1600 and was later upgraded during testing to the six cylinder engine found in production models of 1962. It is believed 12 of the 1600 prototypes were built and tested - two of them are shown in the picture below. Production Model
When the Oliver 1600 was debuted in late 1962, the 4 cylinder prototype engine had been upgraded to the six cylinder engine shown below. Additionally, the "checkerboard" decal seen on the prototype 1600 tractors that matched the early production 1800 and 1900 tractors had been replaced by the Oliver "spear" badge that was used all the way through the 55 series Oliver tractors. The Oliver "Low Profile" Prototype Tractor If you are at all familiar with Oliver or White tractors, you might be wondering what the heck you are looking at! Well, this image is a prototype of what would become the the White 4-150 from June 1973. At the time, White Farm Equipment owned Oliver and Minneapolis-Moline and was in the process of merging the two lines into one new tractor line - the White Field Boss tractors. The first White tractor to debut was the White Field Boss 4-150 in 1974. This prototype for the 4-150 tractor is shown in Oliver themed makeup - meadow green paint, clover white wheels, and the gold/black accent decals found on the 55 series tractors. These were known as the "Oliver low profile" prototype tractor. Interestingly enough, the hood displays a Field Boss decal - a name that would make it on the White tractors. But the silver paint scheme, hood design, and grill shape of the Field Boss line are all missing from this prototype. At least 2 of these prototypes were built. According to Oliver historian Wayne Wiltse, one tractor was serial number X-677 with Cat 3150 engine number 97M2275 and another was X-692 with Cat 3150 engine number 97M2728. A key engineer in the design of this tractor was Mike Verhulst. He began developing the A4T articulated four wheel drive concept in 1969. Later, he also was involved and did a lot of work on the legendary Corporate Tractor in 1970. Whether these prototype's paint scheme and styling was an intentional disguise before the "official reveal" or one last final attempt by some of the Charles City plant's faithful to hold onto the meadow green color, the answer is probably lost to time like too many other stories from the "Finest in Farm Machinery." White Field Boss 4-150 Tractor White kicked off its White Field Boss line of tractors with a four wheel drive model known as the 4-150. This articulated tractor was powered by a Caterpiller V-8 diesel engine rated at 150 hp. It served as a replacement for the four wheel drive tractor model White Motors had manufacturing and selling as the Oliver 2655, MM A4T-1600, and the Canadian sold White Plainsman A4T-1600. White continued to add tractors to the Field Boss line and discontinue Oliver and Minneapolis Moline branded tractors over the next 2 years. In 1976, the final Oliver tractor bearing the meadow green paint was produced ending a 75 year run of tractors wearing green paint as the left the plant in Charles City.
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AuthorJim Fitzgerald Archives
May 2024
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