Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Favorite farm tractor as a kid?

Farmall H then International 656.

We had a jd A and a farmhall M before we moved up to a 4020 and a jd720.

My older brothers would ride the tires to do cartwheels when we picked up hay bales after we moved away from loose stacks.

If you are dreaming of old tractors, the image of twin big buds pulling monster discs with 20 foot rooster tails laying down fire line ahead of the fire is quite a sight. We did it once with the 4020 but it was nothing like the neighbors big buds.

About 1974, my dad bought a new IH 5486 Center pivot ... cabs had just come into commonality here and this was something from the future... we had people come from miles around to see it. It was
a beast.

I have mentioned before. My folks had a little 20 acre hillside barely suitable for growing pasture and a bit of alfalfa. Dad had to trade out work to get the alfalfa baled. They milked six or seven cows and shipped ten gallon cans to the creamery.

He spent the summers self employed, bucking hay bales for many farms in a ten mile radius of the house. When I was four they had another baby, and Mom was stuck at home taking care of the baby while Dad stacked hay. I have no idea what he did for a tractor driver that summer.

The next summer, when I was five (turned six in July that year), I became the official tractor driver. And held that position for the next six years. I drove whatever the farmer owned. Farmall C, and Super C, H, Oliver 33, and 77, John Deere A, B, 50, Ferguson TO 20, 30, 35, Ferguson 40, Allis Chalmers WD, Fords from the ubiquitous 8N up to a brand new 4000. Grandad had a Massey Harris 44, an Uncle had a Farmall M (the BIG tractor in the family). One farmer supplied us with an old orange CO-OP brand tractor when hauling his fields.

Anecdote time: That Ford 4000 Row Crop was the biggest tractor I had been on at that time. It was brand new that summer of '63. I remember Dad would holler "Turn Right" at the end of the field, and I would have to look down at my hands to remember which one I held the pencil in at school. Anyhow Dad yelled for me to turn right and I proceeded to start the turn, then he hollered, No I meant left!

So I started to turn the tractor the other way. Dad suddenly became afraid that I was going to drive the tractor over an embankment at the end of the field. He came flying up the cables from the hay slip and over the back of the tractor then slid in right behind me onto the seat of the tractor. He stomped the clutch, slammed it into reverse.......and backed right over his upturned hay hook which he had tossed aside as he came forward.

The drive tires on that Ford were ballasted with graphite powder. And it took a few days for the farm owner to get it repaired. In the meantime, I was out of the tractor driving business. Instead I was tossed into the seat of a 1958 GMC 1 1/2 ton truck with an 18 foot bed and a Clearfield elevator until the job was finished. What a pain in the butt. I would sit on my knees to see over the hood of the truck. Until Dad whistled, which meant stop. Then I slid down under the steering wheel where I could reach the clutch and brake. We just left the hand throttle set at about 900 RPM, so I never had to worry about the gas pedal. When Dad whistled again, just feather the clutch and let the truck start rolling, then climb back up on the seat to make sure the bales were lined up properly to catch the elevator.


Dad had an 8N to corrugate, mow, and rake hay with and later an AC WD45 for baling. Grandad had four 8Ns One had a manure loader and terracing blade permanently attached, another had the side delivery rake, and another was never separated from the mower. That left one more, with a Sherman OD for corrugating, pulling the grain drill, hauling hay, etc. An Uncle had another three of 8Ns.

I bought an 8N soon after I bought the 20 acres from my folks, and still use it 35 years later. It is a 1950 model.

As to my favorite:
As a little kid, it was really tough to reach the clutch and brakes on the Farm Alls.
I appreciated the hand clutch on the Jophny Poppers and the Allis as I could reach them from the seat.

But the little Fergusons and Ford 8Ns were my favorite with the almost horizontal steering wheel so I could get a good grip on it while I stood straddle the transmission and could just step down on the clutch and brakes.

Yep, every 6 months!! She say once you, Or me have had skin cancer, we have 50% chance of a repeat !!!!!

Favorite-- Ford 8N with 4 speed transmission and 3 speed Sherman auxiliary gearbox. Man, would that tractor fly in 4 High Range.

First tractor I bought was a 1933 Farmall F-12 with rubber tire option for $100 in 1968. 3 speed transmission, top speed was 3 3/4 MPH.

My neighbor put a Chevy 283 in his 8N so he could pull bigger equipment and not have to go at a snails pace.

In the 50 and early sixties I spent many hours on a D7. I hated the Cletrac with the thumb busting steering wheel!

😳😳😳😳😳🤔🥺🥺🥺🥺😳😳🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Sometimes the Tractor runs the mower,
Sometimes the mower runs the tractor!


Lotta bad schidt has happened with JD hand clutches too.
But telling that requires humility and admitting you done F'd up driving a tractor.
And many aren't honest enough to do that.
Have heard a lot of stories about the neighbor who drove through the,
Fence, barn, shed....


All this talk about old tractors.
IH and Farmall. T/As.
Some mentions how nice the T/A was plowing and going uphill, much.
Not a soul has admitted how nice one was for downhilling!

Everyone says how easy they were to tear out,
no one has done it.🤔🤔🤔

MF 135, gas, no power steering. We had 280 acres in SW Va.

Thanks for the great memories! Out in somebody’s field is where you spent the summer where I was raised. Cutting tobacco, hauling hay, whatever. Only way to make money until you got a driver’s license and could head into town.

By the time I was in high school, this had funded a classic car, dirt bike, street bike, 4wd truck, and a fish/ ski boat. I was the envy of all my friends. I even remember a couple of occasions where they were all actually running at the same time!

Minneapolis Moline 750G with narrow front. Someday hope to find one in good shape to restore and get all dirty from using it. Have the Oliver, basically same tractor, but it just isn’t the MM.

True.
I’ve about used up two of her liquid nitrogen blasters.

In the old days we’d have been long gone pecans by now.

Massey 65 for me. Few 8n’s that were better looking pretty than working

8N Ford. My grandfather had one he used for his garden when he was older. I remember riding on it with him. I still see a few 8N's around here and they are still running.

Circa 1968

Dad bought a Ford NAA, I couldn't reach the pedals on an fHFarmall..

Sweet pic old boy!

Sam, how are the moocows doin'?

Dwayne, sorry I missed this great reply!
(bad habit not checking back on threads)



I hear you on the over heating. We have an old 875 with the same 855 Cummins as the 835 but it makes more HP and heat. IMHO Versatile should have used a better/bigger radiator setup. And we have a red Steiger/Case 9370 with an 855 and it makes the most horsepower of the three and runs the coolest. That tractor is a Cadillac to the Versatiles, heavier and more HP. Way nicer pulling without near as much buckin'......lol