The Old Iron Zone

When a person hears the words prairie tractor, if they don't picture a Rumely Oil Pull, they almost certainly imagine a 30-60 Aultman Taylor.  They were among the most successful of the big old tractors, with more than 150 30-60 models surviving today.  The amount that survived has much to do with their solid construction, my dad knew a man who operated a salvage yard in the 70s who had one with a double wide rear wheel that he was still using for crushing cars.
Introduced in late 1910, the 30-60 Aultman Taylor was their first model and was produced until 1924.  The first models had a square radiator, but after a couple years they switched to the familiar tubular style.  There was no lack of iron on the 30-60 Aultman Taylor, it had 90 inch drive wheels, with a 107 inch width at the drivers.  Total weight was 24,450 pounds.  Its 4 cylinder engine had a 7 inch bore and a 9 inch stroke and was very powerful.  In the 1920 Nebraska test, the tested Aultman Taylor 30-60 put out 58.05 horsepower on the draw bar, nearly twice its rated power!  In addition to the 30-60, they built 3 other heavyweight models, first the 25-50 and 18-36 and later the 22-45 which replaced the 25-50 and 18-36.  Even though Aultman Taylor built some of the best machines of the era, they had financial difficulties and were bought out by the Advance-Rumely Thresher Corporation on January 1st, 1924.  Advance-Rumely sold off the remaining Aultman Taylor inventory but no tractors were built after the takeover.  The Aultman Taylor tractors have remarkable handling characteristics, if you ask someone who has experience with large old tractors "Which one would you have wanted to use for farming?" their response will quite likely be an Aultman Taylor.