Lets see all those off topic tractors

[dfrisk]

I knew Kraig would post that picture when I made that last post!

TOM - I'll be the first to admit that even IHC made some stuff they shouldn't be too proud of. They never made a hay baler that would tie worth a darn until the last couple years they were in business and bought them from somebody else. They only sold hundreds of thousands of #8 plows because they sold hundreds of thousands of M's & H's, not because the #8 plow was any good. In later years they spent the $$$ to develop good tillage equipment and lots of BIG IH plows & discs got pulled with tractors of all colors in the late 60's & 70's. And until they released the AxialFlow combine in '78 they deserved to be in about next-to-last position in the marketplace. I won't even get into their truck & construction equip. businesses except to say most of their construction equip. was not up to par with the competition.
I've never liked the 2-cyl. green tractors, VERY crude machines compared to the competition. But in '61 when they started making 4 & 6-cyl. tractors, and when jd improved them in '64 they had a decent tractor. JD's wasted some time & $$$ developing equip. for markets with no potential but probably not to the extent IHC did. TOTALLY different management styles between the two companies. JD learned to not take risks on R&D, sit back and wait, then COPY, or Buy the other company. But they take good care of their customers for the most part and because of that they have a VERY loyal customer base.

Oh, and even with some of the better models of equip. companies produce, every once in a while a piece of "JUNK" sneaks out of the plant. I always laugh when I hear someone who's never been around a 560 FARMALL bash them about having bad rearends & Torque-Amplifiers. Neighbor across the road from the farm I grew up on farmed 320 acres with a used 560 gas, Farmall Cub, two 8N Fords, one with a Funk 6-cyl. conversion, & IH #203 self-propelled combine. Last year or two He farmed He bought a W-9 to do some fieldwork. He was REALLY hard on equipment but that 560 ran non-stop from about first week of April till about the end of June, plowing, discing, planting, spraying, cultivating, mowing & raking hay. If HE couldn't tear a 560 up they must not have been too bad of a tractor!

 

[thoffman]

Dennis,
I think IH made the biggest pieces of crap when you talk about the construction side of it. Ag equipment is one this but the small industrial tractors, end loaders, trucks, and the GAUD AWFULL piece of s--t was the IH Excavators (backhoes). I've been in the dirt for a l-o-n-g time and when you gotta' get 'er done.........CATERPILLAR LOADERS AND MACK TRUCKS period!!!

 

[dfrisk]

TOM - Does CASE still have the reputation of being good in the smaller tractor/loader/backhoe market? I know 25-30 yrs ago CASE owned that market. But now JD & CAT and a few others have jumped in.

MACK has really taken over the over-the-road local del'y fleet market on semi-tractors around here. IH owned that market 30 yrs ago and let that slip away from them too. Used to be a lot of Freightliners but they must have all fallen apart!

 

[klejeune]

Our day cab tractor and straight trucks are Internationals here at work. I don't get to drive them though...

 

[dfrisk]

KEITH - IH still seems to sell more of their 4200/4300/4400 series straight rucks that just about everything else combined.
Company I used to work for had just leased an FL70 Freightliner when I started there. It was a DISASTER. Lease was up after four yrs, they got an IH 4300 w/DT466E, Allison A/T, air ride seat & rear suspension mostly at My recommendation. The Young man they had as a driver liked it so much He'd take His breaks in the cab listening to the CD player. It was a good reliable truck, after 4 yrs & 175,000 miles. Still looked like new. The FL70 Freightshaker started looking old after six months!

Ford used to make really rugged trucks for commerical use, L8000 & L9000's. Dumps, mixers, that kind of thing. 25-30 yrs ago there was a local cartage company called WILLET in Chicago that used to run Piggy-back rail trailers ALL over town that ran hundreds of L9000 tractors. They seemed to survive that beating as well as anything. I imagine they're running MACKs now. The Sterling brand never really seemed to catch on.

 

[bnolte]

Here is my other mower, a Simplicity Sunrunner which was built in the late '80s and served as my primary mower from 1998 to 2006, when I got my 129 up and running. Technically it isn't a tractor, but it's an interesting machine nonetheless. It steers from the back and has the mower deck up front, and a dump cart on the back. It still runs and cuts grass, but isn't quite as solid as a Cub, and parts can be a problem. It's not built too badly though, and has hydrostatic drive and a 12 hp electric start Briggs I/C engine under the seat. I've mounted a sprayer rig designed for mounting on ATVs to the dump cart, and use it to spray the vines in my vineyard.

 

[dmull]

new tractor -

 

[dsterley]

hi all here the update on the lawn ranger its pretty much done untill winter anyway then itll get 15 or 16 inch truck tires a stearing mods

 

[mwhoward]

Just bought this Friday night. Neighbor wanted it out of his garage so he could work on his truck. My wife offered him $600, and before I could laugh at such a low bid, he said OK. Then after we got home we got in a fight when she said "You are going to get rid of that little yellow tractor now?" Girls just don't understand farm boys and their tractors, do they?

 

[mwhoward]

Sorry, Website won't take the picturefile. Not sure if I can downsize it, Anyway, the tractor we bought was a 275 Kubuto with a factory loader bucket and a Caroni finish mower,,Anybody knows anything about these mowers, please comment.

 

[mwhoward]

Tom: As an Operating Engineer who grew up farming, I want to have a friendly dissagreement with you on the Mack trucks..Mack engines lack power, the trannies grind all the time, and they are the roughest riding, noisiest pieces of junk on the job site, Give me a KW or Freightshaker with a 525 Cummins or a 500 Cat and an 18 speed fuller/eaton tranny any day!

 

[thoffman]

Mike H,
I would agree wih you if you running down the road, but if you're grinding through sort dirt on site, the Mack will go places the the KW or Liner wouldn't even think of going. Still thing the IH truckes were junk though.

 

[mwhoward]

Tom: As far as big trucks, yeah IH was lacking, but my Dad had a 53 pickup that would go places that I would be afraid to take my Jeep! What I would give to have that old truck on my farm now

 

[mwhoward]

Got it now.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Mike, <strike>you</strike> your wife bought that for $600?

Wow, she did good! She does need to learn about guys and tractors though... that is clearly a loader tractor, while the "little yellow tractor" is for a different purpose, mowing and MANY, MANY other uses.

 

[mwhoward]

Yeah, She does real good, couple of years ago a teenage kid ran a light and I totalled my Jeep. She found me a Wrangler for about a grand less than any that I had looked at.

 

[mwhoward]

Here's a picture of the real horsepower on our place!

 

[mhomrighausen]

Anyone ever hear of an Agri Power tractor? Little fella came from California around 20 years ago. Made In Argentina. It too is for sale.

 

[vthomley]

Marlin,
At first glance that looked like the David Brown 1200 we had on the farm. But it had a 12 speed trans, I think 4 range 3 speeds, or maybe 3 ranges 4 speeds.

I remember cultivating with this David Brown and a fully mounted 4 row rear cultivator as a kid. I could drive in 9th gear when the corn got to be 1-2 feet tall. Seemed like I was flying down the corn rows, never looking back, just looking at the bolt on the front axle which was right on top of the corn row. It was odd to do field work without looking back. One glance back could wipe out 4 plus rows of corn very fast.

There was a bridge between our farm and some rented land that was too narrow for this cultivator. I would pull up to the bridge at a slight angle then lift the one end of this cultivator up a few inches by myself on top of the cement rail, then pull forward a few inches then lift the other side up so the steel frame of the cultivator would then slide across the top of the cement sides of the bridge to get to the rented land.

 

[mhomrighausen]

Vince T. That is what I first thought. I saw a Hesston tractor only no way could I manage to manuveur to get any pictures. I had to try and exercise my foot yesterday and clear my head. So, I slowly walked one very limited walk in the yard. Today, I am resting my foot again. It's getting stronger only I still can't do much time on concrete or pavement. To see a couple of old yellow four wheel drive IH tractors parted and then other tractors that had been burned or apparently just worn out was interesting to say the least.