Wondered why AC didn't put the Buda 273 in their WD45 diesel frame and equip it with

30" rear tires major upgrade at very little cost to them at the time.

The 180 was available with manual or hydraulic PTO. Luckily, our local dealer only ordered them with the hydraulic PTO, but there are some out there with manual PTO. I suspect it was the same reasoning. $$$

I always forget as was pointed out that all those IH and JD's didn't come from the factory with 15.5x38 tires on them. Most all the ones you see now are on either a widened rim or a new wide rim.

 14.9 x 38" rears Factory option was 13.6 x 38" with tall front spindles

28's on a D14/15 should be easy enough to convert to as the centers on a WD/45 should bolt right up?

I used to have a 185 with factory 38s.  The extra height/diameter was nice, but I got rid of the tractor because it had been butchered by a previous owner.  I still miss the tires, though.

I converted another 185 that I run to work with the 18.4x30 rims.  The difference on hilly, rough ground was very noticeable over the 28s.

As far as pulling goes, most pulls are on gravely tracks with little traction. At those tracks, 14.9 x 38 does best, at least for my brother and his D17. He tried about every size he could. It is like how an old Model T could goes through more snow than the Chevy even though the Chevy had wider tires. But in the field is what counts and the D17 does great with 16.9 x 28.

Another thing with pulling rules, at least around here, is that they usually put a limits on tires. For us, the rules stated that up to 5500# you could not go beyond 14.9 width. That means that if your tires were 12.4 wide stock, you could widen to 14.9. But they forced you to stay with the stock diameter. So a WD45 could only run 14.9x28 and most came that way stock, while an M, which came with 12.4 x 36 stock (36 was getting tough to find so they allowed 38) the M could run 14.9 x 38.

All that said, I took lots of 1st place trophies with my D17 using fluid filled 16.9 x 28 tires.......... as long as I stuck to pulling on wet sticky black dirt or clay tracks. I stayed away from slippery gravel tracks. And I never pulled below 6500# and I pulled all the way up to 8500#. On sticky wet clay tracks I did best and easily beat much bigger tractors like 720s and 880s.

I also plowed at the local threshing/tractor show. Pulling a 4 x 14 mounted plow, 9 inches deep and I plowed where all the others could not. In hard, dry, black dirt and blue clay in alfalfa sod . I did it in 2nd gear low range while the 560s, 720/730s, and 880s could not pull a 3 bottom. They were forced to hook up to 2 bottoms. A friend of mine, when I showed up that first year, said I may as well park that little tractor, as even his big 880 couldn't plow with a 3 bottom. I said I'd like to give it a try and away I went. My friend said if he hadn't seen it he wouldn't have believed it.

So that's all I need to know when it comes to tire size.

0-4500# class 170 sq. in. 4501-6500# class 229 sq. in. 6501-8500# class 300 sq. in.

13.6 x 38 - 168 sq. in. 14.9 x 38 - 200 sq. in. 18.4 x 38 - 300 sq. in.

14.9 x 28 - 170 sq. in. 15.5 x 38 - 189 sq. in. 16.9 x 38 - 252 sq. in.

16.9 x 34 - 229 sq. in. 18.4 x 28 - 250 sq. in 

The 77 was stock as was the WD45 and the 77 had less power so it'd pull slower but on the hills around here pulling a square baler with a wagon behind it the 77 would go where the WD45 would spin out.Also the 77 had 6 speeds forward.As far as tractor pulling I used   to pull quite a lot and mostly on hard red clay tracks that  take a lot of power and I can't ever remember being out pulled by a tractor with 28" rear tires when I was pulling my

Cockshutt 50 with 14.9 X 38 tires in the 4500 and 5000 lb classes.BTW the 50's came stock with 14..9 X 38,18.4 X 34 and 23.1 X 26 tires.

Comparing similar tractors I have 2 Oliver 1550 tractors with 38" rear tires and

an Oliver 1600 Utility with 28" rear tires and even though the 1600 has more power and

a little bigger tractor the 1550's are  more capable pulling a heavy round baler on the steep hills I bale on pulling and stopping.

A Cockshutt 50 it is a big tractor with 55 PTO HP and is an exceptional tractor at that power (therefore larger tires) so I'd believe a 45 would have trouble keeping up on the track. Put it in the field with a plow against a D17 and you may see something different, I don't know. I have never been around one. But from the 560 to the 880 to the 720, I have been in the same field with and those were proven lacking when it came to plowing as in the case I mentioned.

If the 45 was spinning and it were mine, I'd weight it down some and then climb those hills.

Well I couldn't care less about the plowing thing haven't plowed with a moldboard in 40 years and probably never will.But when you're comparing the D17 plowing with a mounted plow and tractors pulling trailer plows the thing that needs to be considered is the trailer plow is set at 8" and will be at 8" deep no matter what.But with the D17 you set it at

8" deep but as the Traction Booster kicks in it starts to lift the plow so you might go to

7",6".5" or what ever so you're not plowing the depth the tractor with the trailer plow is plowing anymore,its plowing 8" period.You hook the D17  with 28" tires to the trailer plow and

the tractors with the 38" tires are most likely going to out plow you.

Yea I've always heard that argument about the traction booster but if the arms come up the plow comes up the same distance.At any rate to test pulling power with a tractor plowing

every tractor needs to hook to the same plow set the same way just like at a tractor pull

all the tractors in the same class hook to the same sled not each tractor has their own sled set up by each tractor owner.

Yes if the arms come up beyond taking slack out, you are right but if you adjust correctly, and that takes trial and error time, the arms will only put tension on the lift links. Took me aa hour or so of tinkering the first time I tried it. It does work that way. I had an uncle that was an expert in everything Allis and he was very good at setting a plow and for that matter an All-Crop.

For pulling, like I said, I stuck to sticky high traction tracks where I relied on my governor to carry me through tough spots on the track where a 720 would fall on it's face. I only pulled in farm stock....... well at first it was called "stock" class but then as the rules morphed into "stock = stock appearance", whatever that means, after complaints that the open class losers threw their tin work and original drawbar back on and non sharpened tires and started pulling against mostly stock tractors, they came up with "farm stock" class and renamed "stock" to "classic" whatever that means. I did good in both classes but best in farm stock. Anyhow it's a long story about the politics of tractor pulling and how the greenie weenies always voted themselves onto the member board to continually morph the rules from true stock to something other than stock.

Sticking to tough high traction tracks negated even a suped-up 2 lunger for a while. My last year pulling was 2001, #3 girl came into our lives that year and #4 girl in 2004 and life sped up too much to pull anymore. ................. how's that for rambling?