Farmall M Louisville

Wicksfield · Apr 16, 2018

I hear this....It's a "Louisville". What's the difference between an M built in Louisville vs. Chicago? Is one better than the other?

Thanks for your response.

gene bender · Apr 16, 2018

The "M" was never built in Chicago but at the tractor works in the Quad cities

Bob M · Apr 16, 2018

Aside from the "L" prefix letter and an extra digit in the serial number, there is no difference whatsoever between a Super M assembled in Louisville and Rock Island. (I own one of each, both built in 1953...)

DR. EVIL · Apr 17, 2018

Tractor Works was in Chicago, not far from the reaper plant. But they built the early Farmall Regulars, 10-20, 15-30, 8-16, etc, but NEVER built an F-20, '30, or -12/14, and certainly never an H, M, or Super H or M. Farmall tractors were built at Farmall from 1926 till 1985, 500-42nd Street, Rock Island, Ill.

Just saying the Quad-Cities makes it easy to confuse Farmall Plant with the East Moline Plant.

DR. EVIL · Apr 17, 2018

Farmall Plant in Rock Island, Illinois made all the parts for 50 tractors a day in Rock Island and shipped them to Louisville for assembly, so the only difference between a Farmall Super M and a Louisville Super M is the plant final assembly took place in and the "L" on the serial number plate.

I can only imagine what a madhouse Farmall was building 350 tractors a day plus shipping parts for another 50/day to Lvl.

BarnyardEngineering · Apr 17, 2018

The difference is, it was built in Louisville.

What makes it special AFAIK is that it was NOT built in the Farmall plant like every other "large" IH tractor, at least as far as North American production is concerned. I'm thinking that it was the only "large" IH tractor produced in North America outside the Farmall plant, though I could be wrong.

D Slater · Apr 17, 2018

May just be the areas I see the tractors. Only difference noticed on stage 2 SM is the Louisville ones are more likely to be equipped with a countershaft driven liftall over a engine driven pump than the Farmall built ones. Doesn't mean both can't be found both ways, just that there seems to be more Louisville ones. Stage 2 SM and SW-6 with frame rails used the same center housing that have the casting made for SW-6 battery mounting hardware with holes drilled and tapped. More Louisville tractors seem to not have the drilling or the thread tapping done. Some serial number lists show 1954 Louisville SM. None were built there in 54. Notice this site serial list has a L in front of SMTA numbers. Serial numbers is the only 100% way to tell where built is what it boils down to. Regardless of prefix letter Louisville SM is the only one with 6 digit serial numbers. 5 numbers or less is a Farmall built one.

Farmall M Louisville

Wicksfield

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gene bender

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Bob M

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DR. EVIL

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DR. EVIL

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BarnyardEngineering

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D Slater

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