TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 3/15/2024

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The Moline Universal Tractor

 

The Moline Plow Company was formed in 1870. They manufactured plows and other horse-drawn implements as well as wagons and carriages. At the time the name Moline Plow was also being used by Deere and Company but Candee and Swan, founders of Moline Plow, prevailed in a lawsuit against Deere and wone the rights to the Moline Plow name.

Moline Plow purchased the Universal Tractor Company in 1915. Moline redesigned the tractor, and from 1916 to 1923 the company sold the Moline Universal Tractor. It was basically a two-wheel tractor with a two wheeled sulky where implements were attached becoming a four-wheel articulated unit. Its nimble design was more suitable for cultivating row crops than were most contemporary tractors and its front powered design was familiar to farmers using horses. The Moline Models B and C used a 2-cylinder opposed engine, while the model D used a 4-cylinder engine. The model D was the first production tractor to come standard with a starter and lights. The model D also utilized the Remy Governor Generator system, which used a rheostat linked to the generator as both governor and throttle.

The Moline Universal tractor sold very well until the economic downturn of 1920 following World War one, production of the Universal ended in 1923. The company continued to produce farm implements since most farmers continued to use horses.

Many manufacturers in the early part of the twentieth century didn’t specialize in one product line. In 1916 the Moline Plow company entered the automobile business offering the Stephens Automobile, named after president of Moline Plow, George W. Stephens. The first model used a six-cylinder Continental 7-W engine and cost $ 1,150. Beginning in 1917 an overhead valve six-cylinder Root & Vandervoort engine was used, the same engine used in Moline Universal tractors.

John Willys of the Willys-Overland Company purchased a majority interest in Stephens Automobile from Moline Plow Company in 1918 and continued with the Stephens name until 1924 when production ceased.

In 1929, the Moline Implement Company merged with the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company and the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company to form the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company.