1917 Moline Universal Model D

I would like to apologize ahead of time for the photos of the Universal Model D Moline we have in the museum it is in a spot where it is hard to take photographs.

Moline Plow Company

In the far back of the first building here at Schwanke Museum, hidden behind another tractor sit a Red 1917  Universal D-Moline that was built in Columbus, Ohio, most people miss it as they walk by.
I know this sound a little cliche but in the beginning the Moline Plow Company started out as a group of men, Candee, Swan and Company. They began in 1865 and consisted of farmers, bankers, and business men who were interested in producing farm implements. A few of the items they produced or manufactured were fanning mills and hay racks. When this group, first started they were located in a wooden building which would later be torn down and they would build a plant which would later become the Moline Plow Company. As the business grew more partners came aboard like Andrew Friberg a former Deere and Company employee, while there he would learn how to manufacture a two wheel plows. In 1866, George Stephen would join, he would add enough capital to make him a equal partner, Stephens would be in charge of woodworking and later become the one of the President of the Moline Plow Company in 1882 mean while, Friberg would run the blacksmith shop and iron works, with R.K. Swan working in sales and tending to other business functions, and Henry Candee would do the accounting for the co-op. With sales increasing and production up the group would incorporate in 1870, to become The Moline Plow Company.

Sulky Plow manufactured by the Moline Plow Company 1884 to 1929 (not feature in the museum)

With capital on hand and the business doing very well the Moline Plow Company would buy out the struggling Flying Dutchman Company in1884. The Moline Plow Company would go on to revolutionize the plow business worldwide with the all ready recognized sulky plow. The sulky plow was of the two wheel variety and the Moline Plow company would improve on that design. Now for most of you out there who don’t know what a sulky plow is. It is a plow, or set of plows, having a seat for the driver. With sale soaring and the popularity of the sulky plow that was being manufactured Moline Plow Company was becoming rapidly popular with the farming community.  Again in 1886 Moline Plow Company would buy out the Moline Champion who produced corn planters the company would once again revolutionize manufacturing with their new design of their version and it would almost match or equal that of the Flying Dutchman sulky plow. Even though the company had never built a corn planter before they would soon become a leader in this field. Even though they started out manufacturing fanning mills and hay racks along with the sulky plow the company would take on other farming tools such as, cultivators, harrows, disc harrows, pulverizers, potato diggers, stalk cutters, cotton planters, cane tools, sugar beet tools, and in fact, practically everything used in the way of agricultural implements excepting grain drills and harvesting machinery.
 

From 1895 to 1910, The Company had become very successful and would double their business every five years with gross profit estimated at 15 million by June of 1913. Power farming was beginning to take off and the company could no longer ignore what was happening around them, so in 1915, the Moline Plow Company would buy the Universal Tractor Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio.

Universal Tractor Manufacturing Company


The Universal Tractor Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio, started out in 1914 featuring the Universal Motor Cultivator. Later that year the company would incorporate, the Universal Motor Cultivator was designed with the drive wheel in front with the engine over the drive wheels it would feature a two cylinder opposed horizontal engine rated at 10 horse power at the draw bar and 12 at the belt and operated at 800 to 1,200 rpm. Forward speed ½ mph to 3 mph. Before the Universal Cultivator sold the company to the Moline Plow company they had Moline design a plow that could be use with the cultivator. The company would only last two year from 1914 to 1915.

The new Moline Universal would feature numerous advanced technologies with its final model. The Moline Universal was so versatile even today people consider it to be the first practical row crop tractor this tractor was a decade ahead of both Farmall and the Fordson. The Universal would become the best-selling tractor of its time; there were many imitations made and it would become the patriarch of the long line of farm equipment which would later become the Minneapolis-Moline.


The Universal would be built upon two ideas. The first idea was obvious; farmers were ready for an agile lightweight row crop machine. Many of the tractors of that time were large, bulky, and unwieldy and never really able to do daily farm work.


The second idea was many of the early-1900s farmers were not ready to let their horse out to pasture and were refusing to retire their horses. Many farmers were reluctance and did not want to change and many farmers still love to work their horses because it gave them a sense of control and that my friends is the biggest reason. 


When Universal Tractors released their Universal Motor Cultivator, the cultivator tractor sold for $385 and featuring a two-cylinder, 10 hp engine, the tractor would soothe a lot of the discomfort felt by many farmers. This tractor was lightweight a lot more maneuverable than earlier tractors and now the farmer could sit right above the actual ploughshares, thus making it easier to operate the implement with levers at hand. In fact, with the engine and drive wheels in front of the farmer and with the steering column, throttle, and brake controls it kind of looked a little like taut reins.

The Universal Company did not build their tractor for very long (1914-1915). The Moline Plow Company had built and experimented with a self propelled design motorized plow starting in 1913. The Moline Plow Company had been working with International Harvester on a design that would work. The Moline Plow company had five sample models built, all of them proved to be less than successful. The Moline Plow Company started looking around for other ideas. That is when the company focused its attention on the Universal Tractor Manufacturing Company so in November of 1915 the Moline Plow Company would buy the company for $150,000.

Now the Moline Plow Company had been building a plow that went with the Universal Motor Cultivator. The Moline Universal tractors continued to be built in the Columbus factory until 1918. Moline would open its own factory in July of 1916 in Moline, Ill.

The 1916 Universal Model D Tractor would still feature the two-cylinder opposed engine which was produced by the Reliable Engine Co. of Portsmouth, Ohio. Several minor design changes were made according to the 1918 instruction book which listed two-cylinder models B and C. The changes would involved the front drive wheels on the tractor, they grew in size and weight, and now the left front wheel could be raised which would allow the tractor to ride level when the right front wheel rolled through a furrow.

People who are fans of the Minneapolis-Moline line are likely to recognize the Universals featured color scheme. The engine and chassis were red and the wheels were yellow. These colors will forever be linked to the Minneapolis-Moline line as long as it existed.

Moline was essentially known for its plows and this would make it easier for the company to offer their implements at a reasonable price when purchasing a tractor. Moline would also offer a power lift option with its factory plow.

Safety also played a big part in selling the Universal. With the drive wheels placed at the front of the Universal made it less likely to roll over a lot less and it was a lot safer than most tractors on the market at that time. Even thought the tractor was ahead of its time it still had a few problems. The first problem was when putting the tractor in its reverse gear the tractor like to buck most likely because of the heavy front end and the light rear end. One of the other problems with the early Universals was tipping. The Universal engine was offset to the left so when taking a right hand turn this would cause the tractor to tip. Moline tried to fix that problem the cheapest and easiest way possible and it worked. They would put concrete in the right wheel and this would hold the tractor down so it would not tip. Most tractor of that time had their drawbacks and the Universal was one of them even still the Universal would become a very popular tractor in its time and it would really take off in 1917 when they release the Universal Model D.

1917 Universal Model D Moline 4 cylinder engine

The Universal Model D would make good on its promise of the earlier models and would prove itself technologically, it was at least 20 years ahead of its competitors. The tractor would feature an electric starter, electric governor and even electric lights, they also improved the engine by putting in a four-cylinder. This would provide 9 draw bar and 18 belt horsepower and had a top governed speed of 1,800 rpm. The Universal farm tractor would be the first tractor with a variable speed governor.

The company would also release a complete line of new implements to go with the tractor. The implements would include grain binders, rakes, mowers, disc harrows and manure spreaders. Salesmen would use these advancements as selling point and it did, the Moline Universal Model D had production numbers of 20,000 tractors by 1918.

The Steering Column of the 1917 D Moline

A look from behind down the back of the D Moline

The Front of the D Moline 

Like most great inventions the Moline Universal would became one of the most copied designs in the history of agricultural engineering. Many blatant copies of the Universal were produced. Most prominent among these were: The Indiana Silo & Tractor Company of Anderson, Ind., The Hokes Tractor Company of South Bend, Ind., made a very similar, if short-lived, model. One of the more popular collectors tractor, the 'Planet, Junior, made by S.L. Allen & Co. of Philadelphia, also seems to have been inspired by the Universal. 



John Deere engineer Walter Silver made an attempt at motor cultivators using a Universal-style chassis in the year’s just prior to1920, but the most successful of all the imitation of the Universal was the Allis-Chalmers 6-12 it was made well and had a low-priced that made it affordable to farmer of the day. Imitation alone would not be able to kill off the Universal Model D; it was because there were just too many things that the other imitators could not get right. One example was the belt pulley on the Universal Model D was at the far front of the tractor. Engineers also added a 90-degree drive and this would allow the user to back the tractor up to tighten the belt.


The thing that was more detrimental to the Moline Universal than the imitation would be its assembly line. The Moline Plow Company devised a mass production line system of sorts. The Model D tractors were built in one place and when parts were needed they would have men using wheelbarrows bring the other parts when they were needed. It did make it easier than making them one or two at a time even still it really was not an assembly line. The truth is because of the lack of mass production it was more likely the assembly line that Henry Ford use to build their Fordson tractor was the real death for the Moline Model D Universal. The Fordson tractor was not any better than the Universal it really wasn’t anywhere near as advanced, it was because Ford could make his tractor cheaper and put it in the price range so that more farmers could afford, it wasn’t till the Ferguson plow system that the Fordson would finally matched the versatility of the of the Model D Universal.

Even though the Moline Plow Company had some success, they were like many other companies they began to struggle. John N. Willys the car magnate would take over management after purchasing controlling stock in 1918, even with his success, the company would still struggle mostly because of agricultural depression and World War I. So near to bankruptcy the company would stop producing the Model D Universal Tractor and many of the implements that went along with the tractor in 1923. When in 1929 the company would merge with the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Co.

The Universal would go the way many ideas would, it was a great idea but it was ahead of its time. The thought of an all purpose tractor would eventually make a comeback in 1924 when Farmall would create their own all purpose tractor the Farmall Regular which proved an all purpose tractor could work.