1974 Homelite T16H

[Deleted]

16 hp Briggs and Stratton, Vickers hydraulic pump, electric lift,  headlights cigarette lighter,  and rear lift. These were made by Allis Chalmers in Lexington South Carolina

[sweepleader]

Nice tractor, it needs a bracket on the back for that nice saw with matching paint!

[undee70ss]

I have never seen a lawn mower/ tractor with a cigarette lighter. Can you post some pictures of that?

[jklw77]

clean looks nice

[tjthechainsawmech]

That's cool!

[sweepleader]

I have looked at a lot of Homelite garden tractors since this was posted and this is the only one I would consider owning, it is a really stout looking rig. Of course, I have never seen another!

[Deleted]

Jul 28, 2018 9:15:14 GMT -5 sweepleader said:

I have looked at a lot of Homelite garden tractors since this was posted and this is the only one I would consider owning, it is a really stout looking rig. Of course, I have never seen another!

The 1974 Homelite T16H was only made one year;1974. It was made by Allis Chalmers at their Plant in Lexington South Carolina. A few months after this tractor was built Allis closed the factory and sold all remaining parts to Simplicity, who was prior to 1967, making their lawn and garden equipment and who again was making them after 1974. Simplicity did make a Homelite tractor after 1974, but it was based on the 3415 and 7013 models made by Simplicity called the T-15 and T-13 in both shuttle shift and hydro. Simplicity had made Allis Chalmers tractors going back before 1960, but in 1967 Allis Chalmers got in trouble with government, along with several other companies (GE, Westinghouse) for price fixing large government contracts on hydro electric engines and was forced to liquidate some of their holdings;Simplicity being one of those holdings. Allis admitted their guilt and opened their books to show that they actually lost money and in turn the government lawsuit was over turned in 1974. From 1967 to 1970 Allis merely had Simplicity parts shipped to South Carolina and assembled the different colored garden tractors, but in 1971 not knowing the government was going to overturn the suit Allis created the subsidiary Outdoor Power Products Company and designed their own line of garden tractors for the 1972 sales year. The T16H and Allis 416H were only built the last year of the new production design, and I know this to be true because the 16hp Kohler engine did not come out until late 1973. In fact the reason there are almost no 414H Allis garden tractors (or Homelite T14H's) is that they had already made a deal with Kohler to purchase so many of the new 16hp engines, and since the 14 hp was an engine that had been in production for many years they were not held to a commitment to buy the 14 hp engines. Both the T16H and 416H Hydrostatic transmissions were made by Vickers and they ceased to exist on tractors made after 1974 and were replaced by Sundstrand and Eaton hydros that were almost 50 pounds lighter. I dug through a lot of archives to get this info, I did the same with Massey Ferguson Lawn and Garden tractors.

[phandad]

New member with a Homelite T-12 Garden Tractor; it's been in the family since about 1974.  Dad bought it used.  

A couple of pics: 




As with the tractor pictured above, it is an "early" AC built Homelite.  Later AC built Homelites had a different front axle that wasn't as robust.  

Here's another "Homelite Tractor History" as written by Les Kreifels and posted at: simpletractors.com/research/history/unofficial-history/

Homelite



The first Homelites were painted red and reputedly made by a firm called "Brady." Beginning in 1971, Allis-Chalmers produced Homelite tractors at the Lexington, South Carolina plant. The T-10 and T-16 used AC B-Series frames with the seat decks, steering wheels, and pedals from the Simplicity 3300/3400 series. The hood used a 3300/3400 series front, turned upside down. Hitch spacing was different from AC/Simplicity models up until early 1973. The dash/cowl, running boards, and front axles were exclusive to Homelite. The Lexington built T-8’s were identical to the AC Homesteader series except for using dash and hoods from the bigger Homelite tractors(T-10 through T-16). The FE Series appears to be totally unique. After the 1973 closing of the Lexington plant, Homelite models were made in Port Washington. These later models appear to be nearly identical to Simplicity models of the same time period (except for paint, front grill, and mower decks). AC/Simplicity built Homelites were painted blue with white hoods, most had electric PTO’s, and all had Briggs engines (although a Kohler powered T-16 has been reported).



Textron Corporation had purchased Homelite in 1954. In 1975, Textron purchased Jacobsen, putting an end to Simplicity-built Homelites effective the end of that model year. It appears as if Jacobsen bought tillers and possibly other attachments from Simplicity for a few years. Jacobsen built Homelites were painted red and had Kohler engines. Jacobsen also built Ford garden tractors as well as Minneapolis-Moline, Oliver, and the early White branded models (prior to MTD).  

Catalog photos/specs can be found here:

simpletractors.com/research/other-labels/homelite/

[phandad]

I also have a matching Homelite Tiller:


And Revitalizer (not mounted on my Homelite tractor; the attachments are pretty much interchangeable with Simplicity Tractors):

[phandad]

And finally a pic of the "late" AC built Homelite tractor (note front axle and deck mule drive difference):

[blythkd]

I overhauled my 16HP Briggs several years ago and at that time decided mine was a 1971 model. The front end of mine looks like the one in the original poster's pictures. MIne's a shuttle, which I always preferred. You can reverse direction with a simple flip of the lever without even clutching but without the HP drag of the hydro.

I always thought it was a novel idea how they just turned the grille of the Simplicity/Allis upside down on the Homelite models and gave them a flat hood.

The electric clutch driving off of the front of the engine was a Cadillac setup compared to the manual engage mid-clutch design of the Simplicity.

They're a really good setup overall, the steering was always just a little weak.

The Homelite dealer that I started working for as a kid, had sold Homelite, Allis and Simplicity at some point in time. By the time I came along in 1984, Homelite tractors were gone, the boss was no longer an Allis dealer and we were selling new Simplicitys. We worked on lots of all of them.

[rowdy235]

Those are very cool, thanks for sharing! I don’t see many homelite garden tractors in my area, but I do occasionally see the smaller Jacobsen built riding mowers.

[blythkd]

Yeah, like Rowdy said, thanks for sharing. Guess I was too lazy to go get some pix of mine. It has a 48" Homie mower deck, a 48" Simplicity snow blade and and Allis tiller, about 32" I think.

All I recall ever seeing in Homie badging was the 4 speed shuttle or hydrostat drive. Simplicity/Allis had also offered a straight 3 speed gear shifter, 3 speed with variable speed and a 3 speed with hi-lo range shift.

Simplicity also offered garden tractors up to 20HP which was pretty amazing back in the 70's/80's. The boss had a Simplicity 9020 PowerMax and a 720 Allis, same thing, different trim. They had 20HP Onan twins, hydrostat drive, 3 point, PTO and remote hydraulics. A big garden tractor set up like a real tractor. He had many implements for them. The 9020 had a 60" mower deck on it and was used weekly for the mowing chores and the 720 was used for other implements like a disk, cultivator, 48" tiller, snow blade, and landscape rake.

Ironically, although I mowed the first 20 years after I was married with the T16 Homie, now I mow with a Simplicity again. 52", 24HP, ZTR, full suspension. What a way to mow!

[jklw77]

Best of both worlds Allis-Chalmers and Homelite

[Todd4165]

Can someone tell me what of hydraulic 0il a 1972 homelite T16 takes

[MI Old Saw]

Aug 20, 2022 9:57:31 GMT -5 Todd4165 said:

Can someone tell me what of hydraulic 0il a 1972 homelite T16 takes

Dex or type F tranny fluid.

[daven]

Jul 28, 2018 6:22:11 GMT -5 jklw77 said:

clean looks nice

I have a Gravely G14 with a cigarette lighter, I have a Homelite T16H without. I’m not sure if factory installed