Allis 716 Off-Road Build

Well I've officially decided my MTD rebuild is a no-go, so it's about time I built another tractor to take it's place. I had one in the tractor collection I figured would be perfect.





My '76 Alls-Chalmers 716 6-speed! I figured it's a nice looking tractor with a real solid frame, trans, axle, steering etc. Also it's a nice change from all the Sears and Wheel Horses.

Anyways here it is after some tire swapping:





The front are off the MTD and are staying on the Allis, but the rears are off the GT. They're only there until the actual rear tires come in. I also wanted to reuse the bumper from the MTD and add a 3000 lbs winch.



Burned it right to the front of the frame



Got the winch on too and wired it up. Looks kinda messy but I got everything zip-tied so it can't move around.



Controller on the dash next to the range selector:



I also did a simple hood mod so it's just a quick release deal.



Works good!



Gonna be a real fun build, I'm really liking it already. I'm hopefully going to work at it some more today so I'll try to keep the updates going.

Nice looking tractor! I think that there was a simplicity that was similar to this with a limited slip diff. I think this could work out in your favor.

Thanks! The Allis tractors were actually made by Simplicity, but I don't they had them in the 700/7000 series.

SO, I'm guessing the MTD is being retired?  Allis looks pretty BEEFY!

Thanks Mighty. Yeah she's done for, but parts of it will live on in this build.

Did a little exhaust tinkering yesterday, not 100% sure I'm happy with it, but we'll see. First off I removed the entire front PTO clutch assembly:



It will be swapped over to my 710. Then the exhaust



Little on the sort side so it's pretty loud, but if I keep it I'll extend it to go under the footboard. I also added a steering stop so the tire does not hit on the pipe.

Then of course I took it for a little ride afterwards, nothing crazy though just driving around in the snow basically.







Obviously some stuff I'd like to change, but I'm liking it so far!

The Allis is looking like a winner!  You going to keep the font pivot, or are you eventually going to "update" the front in @AllisKidD21 fashion?

Sweet tractor! we have several hydro 716's for mowing and they last forever. The k341 kholer will serve you good as well!

that thig is sweet looking

@MightyRaze wrote:

The Allis is looking like a winner!  You going to keep the font pivot, or are you eventually going to "update" the front in @AllisKidD21 fashion?

Haha, believe it or not there's no plans for suspension at this time, the front axle setup on these is so heavy duty I don't even  wanna change it. I do think it needs some custom steering though, maybe even the truck steering box out of the MTD?

@LJHunter429 wrote:

Sweet tractor!  we have several hydro 716's for mowing and they last forever.  The k341 kholer will serve you good as well!

Thanks! Yeah they are a great tractor for sure.

@Northwest_Ohio_Mud_Mowers wrote:

that thig is sweet looking

Thanks, much appreciated!

@AllisKidD21 wrote:

Thanks Mighty. Yeah she's done for, but parts of it will live on in this build.

I am officially hurt.

I kinda wanna buy whatever's left of the MTD from ya, but NC to Canada..... I don't think so.

Man I was under the impression nobody even liked it, haha.

I'll keep the frame around, you never know. I need something to do when I'm 70.

@AllisKidD21 wrote:

Man I was under the impression nobody even liked it, haha.

I'll keep the frame around, you never know. I need something to do when I'm 70.

Yeah, You showed that you could take an old Yard Machine and make it capable and cool.  It'll be missed.

@MightyRaze wrote:

@AllisKidD21 wrote:

Man I was under the impression nobody even liked it, haha.

I'll keep the frame around, you never know. I need something to do when I'm 70.

Yeah, You showed that you could take an old Yard Machine and make it capable and cool.  It'll be missed.

LOL, yeah. I kinda put it in the same class I put Red in. The ATLTF "Seniors Class." LOL. That's the class I put Lil Red, MUTT, AK's MTD, Ol' Red, Redline's MTD, etc in. Shame to see her go but I guess she had her run!

I guess good machines have to retire sometimes.. not to get off topic but when doc scrapped mule II I was pretty blue... can’t blame him though, his machine after all. I got a fondness for the old square fenders I guess. That’s enough of my thread jack lol. On another note, that last picture looks really cool! I humbly suggest that you enter that in the next cool tractor picture competition.

Well thanks fellas. I'm likely going to miss the ol' war horse, but at least parts of 'er will live on in this build.

The truck steering box would be nice! Nice and heavy built! I'm liking the progress so far!

Thanks Blake!

Well I had the ol' girl out again this weekend:



Still a snowy mess but were able to make it to one of the trails and ride it. Had lots of fun!

One thing I wanted to do though was increase my speed in high range a bit, so I took 'er all apart and swapped the trans pulley out for smaller one.



Had to make a belt guard, inside a belt guard!



Found a belt that fit and she worked great!



I'm happy with the speed increase. Quick enough for some fun but not enough that I'm gonna overspeed the ol' trans. It feels very comfortable at the current top speed.

The nice thing about this setup is that swapping the high range pulleys doesn't affect the low range, so I still have my super crawler gear. Pretty nice.

That's a pretty neat setup. I had no idea those had a separate pully for low range.

It's a cool setup for sure. When you press the clutch in and move the range selector it slides the clutch idler from side to side. Then when you release the clutch it tensions the belt for the speed you selected. Pretty neat, it works great too.

So I haven't quite figured out the best way to put a steering box in the Allis, most due to clearance issues with the driveshaft. But for now I did a little changing with the steering to get a little lower steering ratio.

The factory setup uses a drag link along the side of the frame:



Great for ground clearance, but not too easy if you want to put a steering box in. So I made a new drag link, and welded a steering arm to the bottom of the spindle.





The steering arm is longer than the factory one, which is where I get my lower ratio at the steering wheel.



I do lose a bitof ground clearance which sucks, but I might be able to raise it up a little more, we'll see. I will say the steering is nicer for sure now, even though it doesn't seem like I did anything. Easier to turn and not so much steering wheel feedback when hitting ruts or logs. Which is what I was hoping for.

Next thing was a brake handle. These tractors use a little eccentric lever that pulls up and locks for the park brake. Works great but I wanted to use it for the main brake as well.

First I put a longer bolt through the lever with a lock nut, and removed the old middle PTO lever.

Nice brass bushing even!



Then the handle was simple, just welded on a pivot point and ground a little hook into the end so it would grab onto the bolt in the brake lever.

Disengaged:



Engaged:



Disengaged with parking brake locked on:



Works great!



I'm quite happy with the setup now. Hopefully I'll get a better idea for some steering one of these days.

Well nothing really exciting to post here, but I have a couple minor things I did recently. First thing is the brace I put on the steering arm at the spindle:



That should help keep it from snapping off, haha.

Then I finally got around to fabbing up a simple rear bumper like I've been wanting to do:



Should work nicely!