The Minneapolis-Moline 445 was one of the tractors built by the Minnesota firm that pioneered the closed-cab farm tractor in 1938. The company’s published history gives no separate description of the model, so this page sets it in the context of the firm and its range.
Minneapolis-Moline 445 at a glance
| Maker | Minneapolis-Moline, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Company formed | 1929, from three merged firms |
| Factories | Minneapolis (Lake Street at Hiawatha Avenue), Hopkins, Minnesota, Moline, Illinois |
| Landmark model | UDLX Comfortractor of 1938, the first closed-cab farm tractor |
| Post-war four-cylinder line | Z series, including the 34.8 hp ZB of 1953–1955 |
| Six-cylinder line | G series, produced from 1959, including the G-1000 |
| Ownership | Motec around 1960, White Motor Company from 1963 |
| Brand retired | 1974 |
Based on one source: the English Wikipedia article on Minneapolis-Moline, which does not describe the 445 separately.
History of the Minneapolis-Moline 445
Minneapolis-Moline was formed in 1929 by merging Minneapolis Steel & Machinery, the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company and the Moline Implement Company, formerly the Moline Plow Company. The firm had works on Lake Street at Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis, in Hopkins, Minnesota, and in Moline, Illinois, and began life as the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company.
Its most famous product was the UDLX Comfortractor of 1938, the Model U Deluxe that pioneered the closed-cab farm tractor. It carried a passenger seat, a heater, a cigarette lighter, an ashtray and a radio, and its 46 hp four-cylinder engine gave a 40 mph top speed. At US$2,155 the tractor cost about twice a Farmall or a John Deere, and only 125 were built before production ended in 1941.
In the post-war years the range was built around four-cylinder tractors such as the Z, whose 1953 ZB version produced 34.8 hp, and from 1959 around the six-cylinder G series, which grew into the company’s largest and most powerful tractors. Between 1946 and 1949 two U-series tractors were also assembled in Britain, the UDS and the Meadows diesel UDM, but both were too expensive for the market and were withdrawn.
The 445 comes from the later part of that story, when Minneapolis-Moline was already part of the White Motor Company, which bought the business in 1963 and dropped the Minneapolis-Moline name in 1974. The published company history does not record the 445’s own production dates, engine or output, so this page keeps to the firm’s documented history.
Design and features
- Minnesota engineering: built by the company whose UDLX pioneered the enclosed farm cab in 1938.
- Part of a wide range: the four-cylinder Z series, the six-cylinder G series and the British-assembled UDS and UDM.
- White-era brand: the Minneapolis-Moline name survived until 1974, under White Motor Company ownership.
Minneapolis-Moline 445 versions
- 445: the model described on this page.
- Z and ZB: the four-cylinder line, the ZB built from 1953 to 1955.
- G series: the six-cylinder tractors that began production in 1959.
The closed-cab U series, the four-cylinder Z and ZB and the six-cylinder G1000 each have their own page. More tractors are in the Minneapolis-Moline collection.
Video: Minneapolis Moline 445
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Minneapolis-Moline, English Wikipedia: company history, UDLX, ZB, G series
