Minneapolis Moline hwy dept. Tractor

NDIHC

Member
Back in the 60s through the 90s my dad
worked for the city in our small town.
They had a Minneapolis Moline RT, I'm
assuming an industrial because it had a
foot throttle. It was a short, squat heavy
looking unit that was a former North
Dakota highway department tractor.
Apparently the highway department had a
fleet of these that they sold off at some
point. It had a heavy loader on it, but I
don't think it was a Lull like I've seen
on some. It had a stack of grader cutting
edges mounted on the rear of the tractor
to offset the heavy loader. Live hydraulic
was from a pump in front of the radiator.
The loader controls were 2 long levers
coming from the platform up on the right
side of the operator that were side by
side. Toward the top of the levers they
bent away from each other at a 45, then
back toward each other to meet in the
middle again. It was sold by the city in
the late 80s or early 90s. I've seen a few
of these tractors over the years but not
in the last 25 or 30. Has anyone else ever
seen one of these or know of any around
the NoDak area?
 
I live in ND also never seen one,but i went to Lennox South Dakota for the Minnie Moline show in maybe 2002 or 2003. Minneapolis Moline made a lot of speciality tractors, for the Military,any body that wanted one, i got a picture of every one that went thru the parade,I was impressed!They even had a working UNI tractor there with corn picker and Baler. My dad had two R farm tractors,a 1939 and a 51,Fairly tough, but not as handy as a Farmall H, I am in Dickey County, not to far from Hwy 281.
 
South of Jamestown. Been through there a few times taking the kids to Aberdeen for Story Book Land when they were little. I'm North and east of Bismarck in Burleigh County.
 
RTIs were and are around central Mn. I think I could find 1 or 2 in sheds that I know of. They come out for shows sometime. The military models show up as well and linger in the area probably due to the proximity of Camp Ripley. As you mentioned Lull had its origin in Minneapolis and seem to be the common loader frame on the industrials, but I do recall seeing other makes and dont remember the names.
 
I would like to show you the pictures i took in Lennox SD, i couldn't believe all the differant model's they had !!!!
 
Yes that would be an rti, I have a 1954 rti with the lull loader, and as you describe that's how this one is. You interested in buying one?
cvphoto151319.jpg
 

UNI System thoughts-I acquired a book once on the history of MM. The author was of the opinion that the uni system was the beginning of the deathnell of MM. The president of the company was determined that farmers should want this system. What's not to like about having one tractor that you can mount all these tools on. Sounds good unless you are the schmoock that has to do the change over at about a day for each change. He plowed so much money into the concept and sales didn't make it back. We had one with a sheller on it that worked pretty good but we never changed it. The concept reminds me of the Shopsmith woodworking tool system-it looks good on a video but you get sick of all the changing pretty fast.
The v-4 engine I guess used z blocks and heads on a v platform.
I was aware of all the different attachments that were available over the years. I didn't know until a couple of months ago that one attachment was a manure spreader. Looks like it is front unload and there was a hood over the delivery so the operator didn't wouldn't get pelted with "honey".
 

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