Denny's <B><FONT COLOR="ff0000">I</FONT><FONT COLOR="000000">H</FONT></B> Ramblings...

[kide]

Marlin:
Me too....!

 

[pfeenstra]

Count me in please.

 

[rtunison]

I'm in Marlin!!

 

[mbounds]

HI Marlin...I'm in also...

Myron B

 

[snicklas]

Count me in!!!

 

[aaytay]

Denny-
Is this from your era?....
<font size="-2">If not it's a neat pic anyway!</font>

 

[aaytay]

Here's another.....

 

[rlittrell]

I love history in general and would love to know more about the cubs history!




Randy

 

[dtanner]

Marlin H

I read every new post on this site when I get a minute to do so. I will be paying close attention to what you post on the hydro .all info is welcomed.
count me in also guys !

 

[dfrisk]

ART - Those are all 66-series tractors, circa 1971 thru early 1976. The first 86-series were built in April or May of '76. I didn't start until Oct. 11, 1976. I hired into FARMALL in the middle of a Wildcat Strike. Strangely enough I started work on a Friday! About a dozen of us walked out into the plant as a group. Strange seeing this 2 million square foot plant with maybe 200 salaried & management people in the whole place. The strike ended about Monday night then Tuesday there were 3500 more people in the place!

That tractor in the second pic getting the frt tire installed has "Run-Off" tires on the rear. The dusty/dirty tire casing, dull paint on the rim, and the 45 deg. lugs on the tire tell me it's a very old tire/rim assembly. My predessesor wasn't near as good at keeping the right STUFF on hand as I was, he did have some other commodities like the small bit of steel to work with that I didn't get, but eventually the use of Run-Off's stopped. To put it nicely, Denny ALWAYS got what Denny needed when he wanted it or ELSE. I even called the farmer who was hosting the Farm Progress show one fall in central Iowa to have the farmer try to get hold of my BFG sales manager because I was having problems getting BFG radial tires in the size & ply I needed. When I finally got hold of him, I had a load of GY radial rear farm tires loaded and waiting at the Kelly-Springfield plant in Freeport, IL, 1-1/2 hrs away from my dock, BFG had 100% of the radial business with Farmall and didn't want ANYONE getting any part of that, so a special truck load of BFG radials, 10-ply instead of the 8-ply at the 8-ply price, shipped from the plant in Miami, Oklahome that night and was delivered the next day. I called GY and the load of radials in Freeport went to a warehouse in Rockford.

I had other commodities, I handled paint, batteries, some o-rings, stampings from a place in Dubuque now called Toledo Stamping, was Dubugue Stamping, and all the owner's manuals and parts books from Harvester Press. There was some other stuff too, a thing called a "Hammer Strap" for the swinging drawbar that I bought from IH Hinsdale Engineering Center with steel I bought from Wisconsin Steel. And ELWOOD Manufacturing, maker of the whole frt wheel assist axle and all related parts.

When I first started in Material Scheduling I had the "Interworks Desk", IH E. Moline, Melrose Park for engines, Canton (ILL) Plant, Shadyside, Ohio for 2+2 sheetmetal, and seems like there was a couple other places too, maybe like Memphis & LVL Foundry. That desk was the largest Dollar desk in the dept., about $12-15 Million a month. My tire desk with paint, batteries, o-rings, etc was about $10-14 Million/month. Even thought the term "Just in Time" (JIT) hadn't been invented yet some of my high volume parts like 16" x 38" rear rims and 18.4X38 6 & 8 ply R1 tires I was turning inventory between 300 and 350 times a year, which means I never had much more that one-half day's supply in-plant at any time. I actually got so I could sleep at night knowing I was that close to shutting down a $1 Million per HOUR assembly operation and sending 3500 people home due to lack of parts. The second shift traffic person had done this tire job several years earlier, and we developed a real good friendship, and he wasn't afraid to call me at 10 PM at night to let me know I may have a problem the next day. When I'd go back into the plant late at night like that He always got a good cup of hot coffee and a couple good donuts or rolls from a bakery on the way to the plant.

 

[mpatterson]

Dennis,
Its stories like these that I could read all day long. It must have been something to work in a place like that! I would have given my left finger to work on the assembly line or in the shipping/receiving area at a plant like that. Some days would suck I am sure, get boring or tiring. But to see what was produced each day and to know how long that tractor would be running in fields across North America and the crops it would plant and harvest over its lifetime. WOW!
The old black and white pictures you guys post are awesome! Keep them coming!

 

[dfrisk]

MIKE - It's really hard for me to accept the fact the last tractors I saw go off the line and out of the plant @ FARMALL are now 30 yrs old. It's just thirty years ago now, plus a month, maybe two that the 5X88 series was starting to be built. To put that into perspective, in 1972 when Dad quit farming my Super H was only 18 yrs old and the '51 M was only 21 yrs old, Still almost brand new compared to the 5X88's I see restored on the RPM forum!

Yep, there were some really bad days, but I can't really remember those anymore. Some days were tiring, but NEVER boring. For many months I went into work @ 2:30 AM, worked the imput station on the tire/wheel/rim Automated Storage & Retrieval System till 7 AM then did my normal job for 8-10 hours. One morning about 6:30 My Wife gets a phone call from my Boss at home about a problem I'd worked on from home the night before. Wife said I wasn't home, that he should "Start Looking for him (ME) there at work where He'd (I'd) been for the last four hours! Wife called me about 7:30 and told me the boss had called. Just to be ornery I went and told the Boss that he better avoid my wife at the next company get-to-gether, She'd beat him up!

For the three years I was in material scheduling I was 100% on time for ALL my service parts shipment to other IH plants & IH parts depots. I guess resurrecting my old CC 72 and keeping my old FARMALL's running right had taught me how important good new repair parts were.

My biggest regret is I didn't arrange a special plant tour one Saturday for my Mom & Dad. Dad bought a brand new '47 H when he got out of the Army after WW II, and traded that for the '51 M which was brand new. He never own any IH newer than the '57 450 FARMALL, but I think he'd have liked to have seen the plant from end-to-end. The Assisstant Plant Manager was a affable old guy, I'm sure he'd have been ahppy to do the tour, plus have new IH caps & jackets for them when they left.

 

[jchamberlin]

Thanks for reminiscing Dennis.

 

[mpatterson]

Dennis,

I bet they would have enjoyed the plant tour. To see a tractor start off as just a hunk of metal where the engine bolts on or where the tranny bolts together and build up from there - that would be something to see. I guess I just sit and think of how things were back in the late '70's growing up when we all didn't have much of anything. Looking back now, seeing the things there are in the world now compared to then, are we any further ahead. Sure to a certain extent with technology we are, but we really didn't have it that bad. I enjoyed life back then growing up on Grandpa's farm. I was there every day to get onto the school bus and back there again at night until my parents picked me up after work. I basically lived there all summer long. Rode my bicycle there and home every day. I thought I had life by the nuts back then! Thinking back, I really did too. Spend a few hours in the barn doing chores in the morning and night, otherwise out working in the field. Yes, you worked hard everyday, but it didn't kill you. I survived, I am still here. Heck, ask kids growing up now a days to do the things we did back then - HA! Dad had an old H at home that was in rough shape that he had to work the garden and attempt to make our lawn better to plant grass, but that was it. I was never really exposed to anything IH until I was in my early teens. I grew up with Allis Chalmers & Massey Ferguson at Grandpa's. They bought a little Massey Ferguson 35 back in 1950 or 1952 when they bought the farm after Grandpa left his machinist job at E.B. Eddy Paper Mill in the city. That was the first new tractor they bought. Its still running and doing regular daily work on the farm. I think its up to 3 or 4 motor jobs now and the last time I think my uncle said they had to do some welding on the piston sleeves to keep them in place. Things were starting to get worn inside, but they have no intention of parking it.

I just enjoy reading and looking at the old black and white pictures of farming in the old days and think back to the way it was. I really had fun and remember it like it was only yesterday. But the things I did three days ago here in the present, I have NO clue! I throw them memories out at the end of the driveway I guess? Strange.
I'd like to see a documentary on IH and the plant workings on PBS sometime. Not sure if they have such an episode, but I think it would be VERY interesting. I seen a little blurp or read it - can't remember - of Max Armstrong from US Farm Report and his collection of IH tractors. He is a big collector of them and I have a calendar here somewhere with a picture of him sitting on an H I think in one of the IH factories before it was knocked down. I think that was the story behind the picture. I will have to find that now to confirm what I am rambling about. It was kinda interesting reading.
Anyway, I am done babbling. Basically I enjoy the stories and pictures you all have to share about the past days in IH life and farming. It makes me smile and day dream about the past, growing up when life was simple. Just think, no cell phones, game boys, satelite dishes, and people wanting to text you! Peace and quiet. When your friends actually had to COME VISIT YOU, if they wanted to talk. Standing around the machine shed leaning on a tractor talking. Picking the stem of a piece of timothy and nibbling away on it. Laughing away, rubbing the ground into little piles because you have been shooting the #$&% for so long. Crazy...the odd things you remember, the things that stick in your head.

 

[dfrisk]

MIKE - Max Armstrong was an Indiana Farm Boy growing up. He has a Stage I Super H and a Stage II Super M that were his Dad's. They're all fixed up and make the rounds to various farm shows. Ertl even made the Super H/ Super M collectors tractors patterned after his tractors. I "REALLY" wished he'd had a Stage II Super H because then Ertl would have made a Stage II SH. It's sad, there's 19,225 Stage I SH's and between 9000-10,000 Stage II's and to date there's only been ONE Super H ever made and it was a Stg I and a poor one at that. BUT, Ertl has seen fit to make NFE 300's, WFE 300's, Hi-Clear 300's, and the same with the 350's, and even made 300/350 Utilities, but I in NO WAY feel slighted because NOBODY has ever made a decent Stage II super H... Nope... Not irritated at all about it.... Nope!

I had just had my 10th B-day when I started doing field work, but I had driven tractors frequently for several years already while doing chores, etc. I won't go into my rant about the POS jd R diesel Dad bought for MY field work tractor. He pulled rank on me and ran the Super M-TA that he had repainted that spring. Wish I could find that M-TA! The next spring he traded the M-TA for a 450 gas Farmall. Seems like I was doing ALL the fieldwork by then, plowing, discing, cultivating, mowing/raking hay. But Dad always did the planting and combining & corn picking. I normally hauled in and unloaded into the crib, except when we baled hay/straw at home, then he hauled in and unloaded the racks. In Dec. '68 Dad bought the 4010 JD, I'd been doing fieldwork for the big time operator that spring who had a pair of 4020's and was real used to running them. I seem to remember working on that 4010 more than I remember running it.

Last BIG tractor I ran was a JD 8440 owned my my land-lord for the old stone house We lived in for two years west of Freeport, IL. I'd chisel plow for him a couple weekends in the fall. There was enough room in the cab SON would ride along. After an hour or so he'd fall asleep and I'd run for 6-8, sometimes 10 hours at a time. The chisel plow was about two shanks wider than the tractor should have pulled, but we just ran a gear or two slower. I had that tractor spinning ALL eight tires a time or two!

 

[jdiederichs]

Dennis! More of the IH "ramblings" please, we enjoy them. Never made it to any of IH's factories, worked for/owned an Oliver/MM dealer so I saw plenty of activities their end.

Saw a prototype MM V-12 LPG engine with 1600 cubes. Several in fact. Two of the big 800's joined on a V-crankcase! It was intended for use in the "next gen" of the articulating FWD tractors, the old A4T-1600/White Plainsman type.
Hearing those run on endurance dynos was a sight i will always treasure.

Same concept was tried with some MM diesels, I think it was the 585CI direct injected 6 cylinder (but may have been 504's) in the V-12 concept stage as well. The next gen A4T series were to be quite a radical upgrade. Much like IH's Super 70 series, they were to have been much more refined.

I farmed with a Detroit 4-53 powered Oliver just long enough to know that: A) NOT A GOOD "STRAIGHT PIPE TRACTOR.(shouting due to bad ears) B) Needed to be kept wound tight, wouldn't pull a sitting hen off her nest at idle but quite a beast when cranked(right Tom H?)I overhauled enough of them to appreciate the design.

Never a huge fan of the 3208 Cat powered series, they were good reliable enough tractors but didn't lug like the MM powered tractors.

OK, enough Oliver/MM, back to you Dennis!

 

[dfrisk]

JIM - I guess I didn't realize you owned a MM dealership.

How on earth could you mount a big enough fuel tank to run a 1600 CID V12 LP on a 4WD tractor? Maybe tow a 1000 gal nurse tank behind the tractor and a field cultivator or ??? behind that?

Next door neighbor had a G1000-D with a bunch of Vista updates. Gettin up into the seat was like climbing up into a hay mow.... lots of steps & climbing! Last time I saw that tractor it had an ALLISON V12 airplane engine in it. Bill Newlon of Prophetstown, IL bought it at the neighbor's auction. ;-)

And ALL Detroit diesels were gutless unless wound up tight. Company I drove for had an IH TranStar II with an 8V-92 TTA, stock was something like 400-425 HP with a 9-speed RoadRanger. First time I drove it on I-88 from Chicago to Davenport I bet it took 3-4 miles to get wound up in 9th gear to 75 MPH. All the Cummins powered trucks would wind themselves up in a mile. You really needed a 13-speed to make a Detroit run right. Far as running a straight pipe on a 1950 Oliver with a Detroit, I'm not sure your can put a big enough muffler on a farm tractor to quiet that engine down.

I've been watching NTPA pulling on RFD TV lately. The new 2011 Super Stock rules allow different makes of V8 diesels in place of the stock in-line 6's. They're fast down the track from 100 to 200 ft but they don't lug as well as a 6 from 250 ft on. They lose wheel speed much faster but have enough momentum to win most times.

IH was working on alcohol fueled tractors in the early 1980's before Tennaco bought the ag division. They were converting the 6-cyl diesels, DT-466's, etc. With the BIG gas 6's & V8's they already made it would have been too easy to put a 450 CID 6 or 549 CID V8 in a 2+2 or ???? Biggest IH gas engine I've heard of was a 605 CID V8, a slight over-bore of the 549 I guess. Last big truck I drove was a LoadStar w/ 478 CID V8 & straight 5-speed, would run 62-65 MPH grossing 45,000#-50,000#. I'd get right at THREE miles per gallon running between Davenport & Des Moines every night. The little Ford F-700 with a Detroit Fuel Pincher 8.2L diesel V8 the LoadStar replaced got about 5-1/2, maybe 6 MPG. That Detroit 8.2L was a TERRIBLE engine, about every 1000 miles it would drop 2-3 cylinders for some reason, and have to go back to the shop for a couple days. When it was running bad the 300-6 in my F150 would pull more than it would. But it was a nice truck to drive when it was running right. Just like driving my F150 but with air brakes!

 

[rlittrell]

I bet when engineers designed the DT466, they no idea just how much horsepower, pullers would end up putting through it!






Randy

 

[dfrisk]

From what I've picked up from friends who know, Jerry Lagod who started Hypermax Engineering who makes pulling engine parts for IH engines, mostly the 400-series which the DT-466 is the most famous, was actually employed by IH @ Melrose Park,IL when the design for the 400-series engines was being done.

Guy FAY wrote a great article about 10-12 months ago about the design work for the 300 & 400 series engines for Red Power Magazine. IH had the old D282 glow plug IDI engine in the 706,(a poor engine by IH standards) the D361 dry sleeve engine in the 806, then for the 756 they used a D310 Nuess Germany built engine and a D407 engine in the 856 which was just a bore&stroke increase for the D361. They made the necessary modifications to the turbo versions for the 1206, 1256, & 1456 like piston cooling oil jets from the main bearing webs, larger engine oil pumps, etc.

The engineers @ Melrose used some of the design features from the Nuess engines plus some new ideas all their own to create the 300 & 400 series engines. I personally like the Nuess engines better than the 300-series, I think they make as much HP but use less fuel and are a much cleaner design, but the 400-series are probably as good a 6-cylinder diesel engine as Anyone has ever built. They do have some weak spots, like the main & rod bearings which some people suggest you should replace around 5000 hours when used really hard, but compared to what was available back in the late 1960's/early 1970's for engines, they did for the medium duty truck market & ag/construction equipment market what the small block Chevy did to the automotve industry in the early 60's.

The shop manager for the trucking co I drove for had been the shop manager at a big IH truck dealer before coming to work where I drove. He told me that IH had an article in their company published truck magazine on a trucking co. out east, a smaller regional carrier that used ALL 26 ft pup-trailers pulled by single axle IH tractors with DT-466 power. They pulled doubles with those little single axle tractors up all those hilly roads out east and got about THREE miles per gallon better fuel milage than any comparable engine made by any other company. They would run those DT-466's about 250,000 miles or more and drop in a complete new factory engine. And the fuel savings paid for the new engine in only a couple months. And THAT was back when fuel was cheap! About $0.40-$0.50/gallon. I bet it took a LOT of gears to keep a 200-250 HP engine pulling 80,000 pounds up some of those steep hills out east, but the fact a DT466 would survive that type of usage for a quarter million miles says the design was good. The only other ag/construction equip. company that tried to make over-the-road engines was Allis-Chalmers with their "Purple Monster", an in-line 844 CID 6 which made around 375 HP turbo'd and up to 450 HP turbo'd & intercooled. Of course CAT made many good truck engines, and Detroit Diesel, and Cummins, but Cat didn't make any ag equipment at that time.

Back in the 50's & early 60's when IH had three competing divisions, Ag, Construction, and Truck, plus the complexity of both gas and diesel engine requirements, it was tough for them to cater to all their customers. But when IH created the "Components Division" in the late 1970's mostly to give the engine group at Melrose Pk, & Indy more attention, and the markets demanded more diesel engines. And as Paul Harvey used to say, "The rest is History".

 

[rlittrell]

Dennis and company, you guys can keep talking about tractors for as long as you like. I love hearing about the history of tractors!





Randy