The 17-30 Cross Motor Minneapolis

By Staff
Published on September 1, 1971
article image
Leroy Quandt, Ryder
Courtesy of Leroy Quandt, Ryder, North Dakota 58779.

Ryder North Dakota 58779

In the Development of the Agricultural Tractor in the United
States by R. B. Gray, the 17-30 Minneapolis is first shown in 1918.
It does not appear in the 1919 Tractor Operating Book and Directory
and was not tested in Nebraska until 1921. The Minneapolis pictured
in Part I of Gray’s book looks like a type B since it has spade
lugs while the one in Part II looks like the type A as it has angle
iron cleats for lugs.

Some of the specifications from Smith’s Album of Gas
Tractors are as follows: Rear drive wheels 54 inches in diameter,
length 132′, width 74′, height 68′, weight 6000 lb.;
Engine: Own, 4-cylinder; vertical; valve-in-head; cast in block; 4?
x 7 in.; 775 R.P.M. Pulley 15 x 7? in. Two Speeds 2 & 2?
m.p.h.

In 1921 Nebraska Test 70 for the Minneapolis 17-30 Chassis No.
2038 gives the rated load belt test as 30.07 hp. and the rated load
drawbar horsepower as 16.88. The tractor was equipped with angle
lugs.

The type B had the bore increased to 4 7/8′ and the R.P.M.
to 825. This model was tested in Nebraska in 1925. This model also
appears longer than the first 17-30 built. By 1929 the R.P.M. was
increased to 925 and the rating changed to 27-42. I have noticed
only two collectors with a 27-42 Minneapolis. Was there only a few
of this model made?

A November 1920 advertisement in the American Thresherman and
Farm Power reproduced in the November 1966 E. & E. shows the
Minneapolis Threshing Machine Co. tractors as the models 40-80 and
12-25. While in 1929 four sizes are advertised by the Great
Minneapolis line shown in the December 1961 E. & E. from
material sent in by Ted Worrall, Loma, Montana. Would the four
sizes be 17-30 B, 27-42, 39-57 and 35-70? The 39-57 was the last
tractor built by the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company just
before the company became part of the Minneapolis Moline Power
Implement Company. The Great Minneapolis Line began in about 1887.
I don’t have serial number listings for the Minneapolis
tractors.

Pictured is Joe Johnson, Roseglen, North Dakota, past president
of the Makoti Threshing Association, driving the 1926 type B
Minneapolis No. 8908. This tractor was originally owned by Leslie
Benno, Plaza, North Dakota. It is now owned by Edward Dobrinski,
Makoti, but was restored by Joe Johnson. This tractor has been in
our show and museum since 1966.

I am not sure if the Minneapolis tractors were built after 1929.
Some were purchased from dealers in the early thirties but whether
they were hold overs by the dealers or newly built I am not
sure.

Was there a Minneapolis 17-30, then a type A and later the type
B, in other words three models of the 17-30 cross motor
Minneapolis?

R. B. Gray has four similar names in his book Part I. Do these
all refer to the same company? They are the Minneapolis Threshing
Machine Co., Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Threshing Co., Hopkins,
Minn., Minneapolis Tractor Manufacturing Co. and Minneapolis
Machinery Co. For this last company he lists models 15-25 and 24-45
for the year 1914. What are those two tractors?

In all the weather reports around the nation for February 1917,
North Dakota was conspicuously absent. While other places were
having snow, rain, hail, and sleet, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods
or what have you, here we had one of the mildest Februarys on
record. With temperatures at times soaring into the forties in the
daytime nearly all the snow melted except in sheltered or shaded
areas.

In the 1921 Nebraska test the 17-30 Minneapolis was equipped
with a Dixie H. T. Magneto and a Kingston Carburetor, while in 1925
the Type B had a Wheeler Schebler Model A carburetor and an
American Bosch ED21TC magneto, and in 1929 the 27-42 used a
Stromberg model UTR carburetor and their own make of fly-ball type
governor. The magneto used was an American Bosch model ZR4ED34.

Joe Johnson of Roseglen, North Dakota, driving the 1926 Type B
cross motor Minneapolis No. 8908.

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