I guess what I'm wondering is are they any good? I know people may think I'm crazy for asking this on a AC forum, but I know if I ask on a Oliver forum the opinion would be very one sided. I'm not wanting to trade it in for my AC stuff, just wanting to branch out and ad a little more color to the shed. At least I'm keeping it in the family and it's better than JD green, I guess.

Never ran Oliver so can't help with that. Just couldn't resist as you left yourself wide open!

Cheers

A friend of  mine had that happen to his 1755. If I remember right

the rod came out and took the injector pump out also.

J Carlson

1755 is a great tractor if as with all old tractors its in reasonably good mechanical condition. I have several of the later 4 digit Olivers 1600,1650,1800,1550 in both gas and diesel.

For running a round baler they can't be beat with true LPTO controlled by a handy lever right by the seat,1755 has  3 speed on the go shifting direct drive plus over and under drive the one negative is it won't hold back in under drive.I have a 185 and a 180 good tractors but to run a round baler I'll take the 1550 or 1650.Most of the negative comments you get will come from people that never owned one most likely.Also 1755

has 18 forward 6 reverse gears compared to the 8 a 190 and 185 have and I have yet to get on a 4 digit Oliver that jumped out of any gear.The one with rod trouble mostly was the turbo 1855 but most of those have been reworked years ago.

Dad bought a new 1755 in 1970.  Sure had a lot more power as we had been using a D17 for 10 years prior.  Quite the surprise to see when I got out of the Army

The 3-sp Hydraul-Shift was great, but like others mentioned, it does not hold in Under-Drive.

One thing that really stood out was that with the hydrostatic power steering, the steering wheel never returned to the same position when making a 180 turn like discing.  Something ya had to get used to.

I suppose the valving could have been adjusted to get it closer.

Later on he traded it for a White 105.  Nice tractor too.

I wouldn't mind having a good 1855 or 1955 with updates. I used to think they were among the ugliest tractors built at the time just ahead of the Massey 1100 and Case 1030. I prefer the looks of the 190 and the late model Molines best but the others have grown on me..... except that the Masseys are just a bridge too far in that category.

Not simple to swap around those Perkins 354 motors,the Oliver 1850 had the Perkins but its not an easy swap to put one out of a MF combine in an 1850.Although its a tough motor,most Oliver repowers are done with Cummins motors.All my Olivers are on their original motors BTW no rod issues.And I have seen a few AC motors with rod issues.

I'd say the 1755 is comparable to the 190xt/200 hp wise and is around the same vintage. I have no doubt that a 190xt would out perform it in the field. About the biggest thing I pull these days is a 15' Woods cutter, and that is about all the D19 wants in heavy stuff.

Oliver did briefly offer a Dogtriot option in the 4 digit series tractors, as well as in the largest of the previous models. nothing but noise and oil leaks. The Cummings swap is the way to go for reliability and power. 

The "free-wheeliing" was an inherent result of how the reduction in speed was carried out via the planetary gears and sprag rollers.

If that grill falls off, damage to the grill will be the least of you problems

Doing a little research, I found some info that supposedly Oliver had a CVT transmission ready to go into production in 1970, but White (who owned Oliver) was having money troubles and scrapped the project to save money. It this is true, and it would hold up, that would have been a game changer for Oliver. 

I never understood why White got rid of Oliver and MM, and went with the White brand. At least the first few years of Whites were just basically an Oliver with that funky box sheet metal and awful gray color. You would have thought that sales would have been better sticking with the Oliver brand. What do I know though, White lasted longer than AC.   

OK so it's a frankenstein hy-bred. Still the same as a MM1355 though isn't it? Finals look like those on a 1355 and Ollie 2255.I just have to post this. It's well worth watch.... they had a great film making team.

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The G955 was an Oliver 1855 rear with a Moline 451 diesel, or available as Gas and LP versions. 

DrAllis wrote: I would agree with that. 1850 was 354 Perkins was pretty darn good. 1855 with Waukeshaw was terrible.

If the 1855 has had the updates which by now would be about a 99% chance it did have them it'd be a fine tractor.

I hope you didn't get it from McScrew at Seven Valleys Pa. 

What I've found out-

Pros- 

1) The thing has plenty of power. When running the 15' woods cutter, I can run through some pretty nasty stuff at 4 mph and the tractor acts like there is nothing back there.

2) I really like the 3-speed over/under. 

3) It's a heavy tractor. I guess this may be a con in certain applications, but the thing looks like it's built like a tank, from the heavy cast grill, to the heavy engine tub, to the beefy rear end.

4) The independent PTO sure is nice.

5) It rides really well.

6) It seems really easy to service and perfrom rutine maintenace.

Cons-

1) I can't figure out how to service the air filter without removeing the whole side panel. 

2) No hold back in underdrive. This isn't much of a problem, becuase you still have 2 other powershift speeds that do hold back. 

3) The trans shift pattern is a little odd, but I suspect it will just take a little getting used to. I could see this being more of a problem doing loader work.

4) This model uses the Saginaw steering pump, which is known for wandering and steering harder one way than the other, and parts to repair are obsolete. This tractor has both of these problems. Over the winter, I'm going to try to figure how to retrofit a steering pump out of a F2 that I have.

WHITE was a truck manufacturer that, after WW2, had to find a way through the decline of production caused by cancellation of military contracts.  Competition was tough, so they went looking for ways to 'hedge', to stabilize their future.

They determined that one way, was to make leveraging purchases of similarly-aligned competetors.  They made strategic investments in many different companies, enough so that when those companies were experiencing 'weak' moments, they pounced on the opportunity to obtain directorship control.

How to explain this in a 'simple' way...

Okay, you and your neighbor live on ranches in  a rather arid prarie.  You both have cattle... you both sell to the same cattle processor.  A creek runs through his farm, then yours.  You both have wells.  His is shallow, yours is a bit deeper than his.  During wet periods, the creek flows, and he gets plenty of water... and you get what runs downhill from his herd.  During drier periods, the creek dries out, so YOU pull water from the well, and the aquifer starts to fall on his, which gives you an advantage.

A Hedge, in this case, would be to dam up the creek on your property, wait 'till just before a really dry part of the season, and start pulling really hard on your well, draw down the aquifer, and pump it into a watering pond.  Pull down the aquifer so hard, that he can't get any water from his well.  To 'help' him out, you offer to allow his herd in, to drink from your pond, in exchage for say... 40% of his sales revenue.  Do that enough, and he won't have enough remaining cash-flow to feed his own herd, he'll go bankrupt.

Instead, you 'do him a favor' by buying his mortgage and tax debt.  He's still there doing his thing, but now you control him, and his water... and his herd.

This is what White did with Oliver and M-M... and many other companies (not just engine companies).  The general philosophy of that era, was that as business declined, the smallest would die, the largest organizations would survive, so by obtaining control of a large number of subsidiaries, they would withstand the economic evolutionary process.

Which is like operating a restauraunt that effectively loses two dollars for every plate they serve... so they decide to make up for that loss  by selling a higher volume under the same circumstances... 

in SOME instnces, the strategy had merit.  White had gone from an automobile and heavy truck manufacturer with a smaller production volume (in comparison to those who specialized in large volume cars, or large volume trucks), to a MILITARY contractor cranking out scout cars and other war material, as fast as they could... and having them immediately bought without a second thought.  This process came to an abrupt halt, leaving EVERY aspect of the manufacturing sphere to figure out how to resume their pre-war business model.

What complicated this scenario, was that DURING the wartime effort, many manufacturing realms that were (sorry, I GOTTA use this term) 'non-essential', got shut down, as resources were directed to war materials.  Fortunately, existing facilities and tooling were simply re-directed to making products similar to their original output (like combat boots rather than stylish shoes), or re-tooled and re-trained to the circumstances of new (to them) parts, like Singer setting aside their domestic sewing machine line, and tooling up for manufacture of 1911 pistol parts.

To secure it's ability to manufacture war machines, WHITE did what any sensible company would have done-  secure their resources through horizontal AND vertical integration... which meant buying  (through any possible means) the supply lines for those resources.

They kept doing it after the war... they bought basically anyone that was weak enough to be absorbed. 

I have the number of a fellow that rebuilds those PS motors if you want it.The steering can be adjusted,there is a good group of guys that know those tractors on the YT Oliver

board.As far as a loader with that 3 speed and  6 speed trans you have a choice of 6 gears

straight back and forward to reverse much like a shuttle shift.