Orange is Yellow

[JDSnyder]

You club members with "Yellow Fever" Did you ever think it strange that the Allis Chalmers brand, which was built on Persian Orange, used yellow for their garden tractors? It's the Simplicity line that is orange. Other big ag names used the same colors; JD uses green, Massey used red, Case used Case Yellow, Ford used blue, but IH and AC used yellow. Go figure?

[Chris727]

Massey's first garden tractors, the "executives" were yellow as well. -Chris

[Les]

Nobody has ever been able to give me an explanation for the yellow AC's, Cub Cadets, and Masseys. White also sold some of their garden tractors in blue and white. Deere also experimented with different colored garden tractors at one time. Now my GUESS as to the rational lies with the dealers. There were certainly dealers who loved garden tractors, esp. those in more urban areas, but there were a lot of dealers who despised them, considering a lowly garden tractor beneath their dignity after selling big ticket tractors, combines, etc. Also, servicing garden tractors naturally took second place to their major business..commercial farmers. Now commercial farmers were not the largest part of the garden tractor market so many times separate, and competing lawn tractor dealers were set up in the same area as a farm dealership. So to pacify some dealers a different colored product was offered. Anybody have a better explanation?

[thedaddycat]

Yeah, some guy(we'll call him Joe) who was in charge liked yellow.........

[LewS]

Allis Chalmers built more than farm machinery and garden tractors. They also made road building and other heavy contractor's equipment as well as industrial products such as lift trucks. Most, if not all, of these were painted yellow or yellow with white wheels. The dealer I bought my B series from also sold Allis Chalmers heavy equipment - all yellow, no orange.

[docs]

Yea I used to run a YELLOW Allis Chalmers Electric Stand up Lift Truck for couple years, Did everything with that baby, I recently seen the same truck in the warehouse parked and put to rest just sitting there. It took quit a beating over the years, This was in the late 70's, company baught it new and I broke it in. It worked really well from what I remember.:(

[DaveM]

The farm machinery and lawn and garden line was only a small part of the allis chalmers company. Get a hold of "The Allis Chalmers Story" by G.H.(?) Wendel. It is very interesting and informs you that allis chalmers produced everything from nuclear reactors to engines for war planes to refrigerators! A must read for the true allis enthusiast. DaveM

[goatfarmer]

Some IH garden tractors were red like their big brothers.

[Les]

I dont know about AC forklifts, but AC construction yellow is different from AC garden tractor yellows(there were three different shades). Plus, the garden tractors were sold by the AC farm equipment division, not the construction division or the materials handling division. I personally have never seen another yellow AC farm division product, all orange except for the silver seeders. I HAVE read Wendel's book as well as all three of Norm Swinford's AC books and to my recollection, there was no mention of the color of the garden tractors. You would think that there would be an old AC man around somewhere who would know the answer! And yes, I am aware that AC construction division dealers DID sell the B-1 with forklift attachment and with front end loader as part of their normal product line. Some also may have had a garden tractor franchise. If fact the forklift and loader were manufactured by the Henry Company of Topeka Kansas, who made backhoes and other equipment for AC and was eventually aquired by AC about 1966 or so. That plant was divested in the early 80's and was shut down by the new owners a few years later.

[Kent]

Thanks Les for confirming who made the loaders for Simplcity & AC. I had noticed that some parts for the mounting subframe carried a Henry in front of the part number. But, I wasn't aware that they made the loader itself.