First IH or Farmall

It had to be a 200 because I was too young for the C or A that preceded that. Dad got the 200 new in 1955.
 
I think it was an H or maybe a super H but not sure. That was back when I was around 8 or 9 and lived in Leigh NE. We where picking up corn in a harvested field to help the church and church school. They would let the town kids take places driving the tractor
 
Mine was a 1066. My Dad had a John Deere 60 and an IH 1066 while I was growing up on the farm, they were the first two tractors I learned to drive.
 
Cub... Dad bought a Cub in '47 when I was 5 years old and the first things I remember doing were pull the rope on the hay fork and a wagon to unload oats from the JD 12A combine.
 
Super C, in the summer of 71. We had just moved to MN from NJ and I got a job helping with hay. The next summer I did some plowing and haying with 560D's and a 826.

Rick
 
Dad's Super C at age 14 0r 15
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An M, it was given to my father in law from his best friend and my brother in law pulled it before I saved it, did a working restoration, and retired it to a life of tractor rides.
 
'46 H. Dad bought it 15 miles away and I drove it home. Man did that thing roll along on the road!
 
Dad bought this 460 new in 61.

First IH tractor I drove ,at the age of 7,on the baler.

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A Fordson Dad bought a new Cub in 1954 it was easier to start and steer. I still have the cub.
 
farmall 706 american diesel, wide front, flat top fenders, 3pt. My grandpa's but will be mine when I have my own place, Dad is not happy about me taking up his place in the buildings... lol
 
Super A, I think. Could have been a 1940 A. My grandfather bought the A new. Some time after his death in 1968, dad sold it and bought the Super A. I was 6 years old in 1968, don't remember if I ever drove the A.

Dad still has the Super A. We start it up regularly but it's retired from work. I may restore it one day, if I ever get these M's done.
 
I must be the oldest guy on this forum, at least in Farmall experience. The first one I drove was a Farmall Regular. Before that I drove the Ford 9N as it was smaller, easier. Cranked that ol' Regular many a time and NEVER once had a kickback. Also sometimes shut it off in summer and tried to restart on "tractor fuel" but had let it sit and cool down too long. Seemed like hours of cranking to get it to start, even after draining the t f and trying to start with gas!
 
It was a 1949 Super A. My first job was pulling the hay rope to deposit loose hay into the barn loft. Not long after that, we started baling hay and the loose hay era was over.
 
I am now the owner of the first tractor I ever drove, 53 Super H. However,the first tractor job I had was pulling the hay rope to put bales in the hayloft with the Super C.
 
First tractor i drove was a JD B with a hand clutch, but as soon as i could reach the foot clutch i ran our 56 300. Kent
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My first memory of driving was a family friend's 560 that Dad borrowed from time to time. I drove while Dad rode the hay rack. I couldn't push in the clutch, Dad would get us started and I'd drive slow around the field (it was pretty flat) while Dad stacked. I could yank it out of 2nd though into N.

One time Dad told me which row to turn to and I turned into the one closer. Too close and I bent the long tongue of our New Holland baler before Dad got the clutch pushed in. Thinking back I can't believe all us kids survived living on the farm. I was the only boy and the youngest of four. I must have been 6 or 7 years old at the time.

I'd say the very first Farmall I rode on was a 650 diesel. Dad said he'd work in the garage all day and plow at night. He was a farming mechanic, LOL. The 650 had a cab and Dad built a box that I slept in while he plowed most of the night away. I begged to go with him everywhere and Mom got tired of it so I went with him no matter what. I was 2 or 3, Dad had a big auction when I was 4. I have one memory of the 650 before it left the farm the day after the auction.

Good topic!
 
As of now it is just setting inside the barn. My brother may try it someday.

I'm afraid it is junk.

No oil was left inside of it anywhere. All the tin was warped.

Gary
 
From the time I was old enough to climb on it I spent a lot of time sitting on a neighbors '40 H and a (not sure what year)MD. Spent a lot of time sitting on the H and flipping switches and buttons, and pulling the hydraulic lever.

First IH I drove was a '56 Farmall 300 when I was around 15 years old, was the spare tractor on a neighbors farm, I used it to pull hay wagons, pull rocks, and rake hay when the other tractors were busy. The new JD and White tractors were very smooth diesels, I liked to run the 300 because you could hear the engine work, it had character and a soul.
 
An early Farmall A that I started driving at 5 or 6 pulling a wagon with a hay loader behind it to load loose hay on the wagon. Then we went to the barn and pulled it up in the barn with a hay fork which ran the length of the barn in the pitch of the roof, Hal.
 
Well fellows: I see mast of you were over the age of 5 when you first drove a tractor.
I was the boy on the that drove my mother into a tizzy; the men had come in from the field for dinner; left the key in the ignition, left the Ford 9 N in low gear and shut off; Mom looked out the Kitchen window to see ?? YOU GUESTED IT ME on the 9 N driving across the barn yard toward the lane >>>> WHICH lead to the road *** OVER a creek bridge. What I had done I climbed on turned the key the 9 N fired up there I was, standing on the transmission looking over the steering wheel, heading for the lane. Her quick thinking, she ran out the back kitchen door, called to me to drive to wards her. {{ the only difficulty> the back yard garden fence with a 12 inch corner post and brace setup was between us}} you guested it I hit that big post squarely >>>>> just right of the grill on the front I beam axle; pushing the post over only slightly stalling the tractor.
NOW MY AGE WHEN THE INCIDENT HAPPENED>> 2&1/2 to 3
years old.
Ny next time driving was at about age 6. Dad made certain that I was well trained for that one.
I don't have the 9 N or the B 275 D both sold at the farm sale in 65 when my parents & I left the farm ( dad's health) But I am re doing the experimental that Dad bought from the IHC dealer he worked for in the 40 s & 50 s ope to have it complete later this year ( Built by IHC just as they were deciding on which ones would win out with touch control / this model didn't so it is very special)
Wm.
 
believe it was a farmall H,
seems logical to me that this was the one i drove
helping grandpa make fence and raking hay.
 
My dads 52 H which my grandpa bought new. He ordered a super H but was told it would take 9 months to get so he bought a straight H off the lot. I was 9 years old and can still remember that day!
 
(quoted from post at 10:54:03 01/15/13)
One time Dad told me which row to turn to and I turned into the one closer. Too close and I bent the long tongue of our New Holland baler before Dad got the clutch pushed in. Thinking back I can't believe all us kids survived living on the farm. I was the only boy and the youngest of four. I must have been 6 or 7 years old at the time.
Good topic!

When I was about 9, Dad started me pulling the NH 77 baler while he loaded on the hayrack. We had a 1940 JD A that he would adjust the clutch so I could just barely engage and dis-engage it. Dad always raked his windrows heavy, which was okay if it didn't rain and had to "tip them over" a couple times to dry. This twisted them up like a rope so if I got to a heavy place, it would keep pulling hay in after I pulled the clutch... must have sheared 50 pins in my lifetime that way. Some days Dad wasn't very happy with me. Was sure glad when he got the JD 60 in '53 as it was a lot easier and I was 11 years old and a little stronger.
 
1952 8N. Started on that about age six or so. Mostly watering trees and blading the drive. Once I got to be 8 or 9 I spent lots of time in the 966 mowing pasture or disking wheat stubble. When we traded in the 856 on a 1086 I figured I had died and gone to heaven. Air conditioning AND FM radio. Whew!
 
My father"s 1942 Farmall A. I don"t remember how old I was when I first drove it (around 10 I think), but I remember riding on the mounted land plow as soon as I was big enough. I had a great time and my father had some extra weight to help sink the plow into the ground. Now I got my Grandfather"s 1944 A and a 1949 Super A that I use.
 
My grandparents rented a dairy farm, had an H, Super H, and an M. My uncle continued to farm the same farm after my Grandfather passed away when I was three. His wife was our "babysitter" as both my parents worked, I can remember me &amp; my younger cousin using all three tractors at one time or another as "jungle gyms" crawling all over up &amp; down, and had the bruised shins to prove it. I don't think that would actually qualify as driving, but in our young minds it sure did !!
At 14 I went to work for a neighbor that, come to find out, was a good friend of my Grandfather back in the day, I cleaned his hog barn out by hand. I worked for him for about a year, and he would "dole out" my pay as needed or when I would ask for it, I asked him to keep the rest as I wanted to save up to buy a car. That following Christmas I showed up on a Saturday to perform my usual "task" and he asked me to come into the house to "settle up". He had kept excellent track of every hour I had worked, how much money he had given me over the past months.
We walked around the "milk house" (now used to store seed corn) and there set a 53 super H stage 1.......sporting a trip loader.
After forking pig stuff the hard way for months I have never seen a prettier sight.
He said that should make my job a bit easier from then on, but try not to hit any posts in the barn with it, ..." Take it slow"......." and by the way"....
"MERRY CHRISTMAS"........My jaw hit the ground, he paid me the rest of what he owed me that very afternoon, and never charged me a cent for that Farmall or the loader.
Couple years later he co-signed for a slightly used diesel 4020, and later a gas 3020 with a corn picker.....we were in business. He always used the corn picker, couldn't get him off of it....guess he loved doing that more than anything. Sure was a chore to put on &amp; remove, but for him..no problem.
 
First tractor I drove was an AC WD w/ a and clutch. It had a Kelley trip bucket loader on it, which I liked because my first name is Kelley.

The first Farmall I drove was a 656 gas w/ a Hesston stack hand bale hauler. It had 5 tines that slid under the bale and an arm on top that clamped down on it. If the bale was fresh, it would be fluffy and occassionally the top would slide off. Really made Dad ticked when I'd lose part of a bale going down the road.
I then moved up to the 966 w/ a cab that I had to cultivate with. I HATED that job. Sweet potato vines + rear mounted cultivator + hot weather + good dinner + the drone of the motor = several empty spots in the field.... and later, one red A$$. The AC in the cab didn't work and you drove w/ the doors propped open and the back window cracked. The dust was horrible.
Still have the 966, sans the cab. I love driving it now, mowing setaside w/ a 10' Woods mower.
 
Dan, Where do you live in Missouri as I'm down at Rolla and try to meet as many local IH folks that I can. Email is open is you care to send an email, Hal.
 
Might's well add something, if only to reminisce. Started "driving" my father's '32 Chevrolet 1-1/2 ton in the fields when I was 7, in 1938. Couldn't reach the pedals, but could steer in the fields picking up hay with the loader. Somebody jumped on the running boards to reach a foot in to step on the clutch! Then "graduated" to my father's almost-new '38 F-12 on rubber. Same story. I was "bound, bent and billy-be-damned" to drive (that's the way my father put it). In a year or so, I could slide down and reach the pedals, and after that I couldn't be kept off the tractors. I even helped the hired man shovel out the barn by hand, just so I could go spread the manure. One time, there was snow on the ground and I didn't see a hole made by a washed-out underdrain. Naturally, I was going full-bore, like most engine-happy kids, I guess. Bam! Front wheels in the hole and the entire stalk just snapped off. Lucky I didn't get thrown off, because the front of the tractor dropped like a rock and skidded along until it stalled.I went back to the barn and said to my father, in a very quiet voice, "I broke the front wheels off the tractor." He never said a word, but the next afternoon, I came home to school to find a new stalk on the tractor. My grandfather had a 30-something F-12 on full-steel, and I got to drive that in the summer, disking up potato fields after the harvest. What a difference rubber tires make! A neighbor of ours had had a steel-wheeled F-12, and once borrowed ours (mostly, I think, because I had the nerve to go borrow his "Regular" a couple of times, just to get to drive a "big tractor"--that's another obsession of tractor nuts, I suppose).The neighbor was amazed at what our '12 could do. We pulled a 2-12 Little Genius in heavy sod in second, with no trouble. A low-compression H my father bought later wouldn"t do much better.
"Graduated" at the age of 10 to our steel-wheeled 10-20. Music from those big cylinders--at a 1000 rpm, you could almost count the explosions. A hard-steering beast, but I loved it. We used it for 22 years, with no trouble and very little maintenance. The ride on pointed lugs on a gravel road was so awful that you couldn't stand to go much faster than a low idle in second gear, but on sod or plowed ground, it wasn't too bad. For its day, it had pretty good operator comfort--a platform, room for the feet, steering wheel in a comfortable position, good visibility.
Other tractors used over the years: An F-20, two H's, a Super M, an A and a B, a Ford 2N, and an Oliver H-P Row-Crop (about 1930--now THAT was a real beast to steer). Had no real use for farm tractors for years, but three years ago I noticed a "need" for a tractor to cut a good-sized plot of grass. Saw a Ford 1100, complete with a nice King Cutter rear-mounted deck. Ran great, still does. It's tiny, but it's definitely a real tractor, with independent hydraulics, PTO, 10-speeds forward. PTO is not independent, so the tractor is a little behind the times, but so am I and I don't mind. Once a week, it let's me play farmer, just enough to satisfy the craving to drive a tractor again. My wife doesn"t quite understand, but she smiles tolerantly. I"m sure you folks understand.Right?
Or maybe I shouldn't talk about Fords here?
 
(quoted from post at 15:42:30 01/17/13) My wife doesn"t quite understand, but she smiles tolerantly. I"m sure you folks understand.Right?

My wife is always amazed at when she hears me have a conversation with another farm raised cousin or friend, that we date things according to what tractor we had at the time... seems normal to me.
I have often thought of making a list of the tractors I have driven... don't know what I'd do with it, but might be a fun exercize. Between Dad, Grandpa, uncles, neighbors, friends, my job for 25 years in the engineering department of a hydraulics manufacturer and farmers I worked for, it could be quite a list... and not to forget my own two.
 
I didn't know this was a disease! I thought I was normal and that the people who were sick were the ones who didn't understand my fascination with gears and pistons and PTOs and pulleys and hydraulics and quick-attachable cultivators and threshers and combines and ensilage choppers and F-20s and Ms and Titans and Fordsons and Model As and Waterloo Boys and....have run out of random access memory. What should I tell my doc? Trouble is, I don't really want to be cured.
Years ago, I practically devoured the "literature" that you could get at any tractor dealer's place, as well as by writing the companies (which I did--I was Jr. so the companies never new I wasn't my father!). My wife is tolerant when I offer to tell her the bore and stroke and full-load rpms of an F-20, along with the horsepower as tested at Nebraska, but she only offers to listen when she can't sleep. Says this'll put her to sleep right now! Does, too. I have a hard time understanding her not wanting to know these useful bits of data. You never know when they'll come in handy. I can't say that they've ever come in handy in the last 60 years, but, as the old saying goes, ya never know.
 
By all means, MAKE that list! I sometimes just sit down at the computer and write a couple of pages about the different tractors I've used. Somebody will discover them after I'm gone, I suppose, and wonder what was wrong with me. I think it's good for the soul to bring back the memories.
I would like to encourage short "essays" here (there are no teachers giving grades, so you can write as you please!). Describe what a tractor was like in real use on the farm. Younger folks who collect the old stuff may not have much experience in their use and might like to know what an old tractor was like to use, what it's strengths and weaknesses were, how comfortable it was to ride all day, how convenient it was to add equipment (like cultivators) to it, how it performed under load. For example, if you compare an H to an F-20: They were supposed to be equivalent, but they performed very differently--the H had a small engine which ran relatively fast, AND it didn't have much torque. The '20 had a big, slow-turning engine and a lot of torque, so it could be pulled down and still not stall. Comfort? The H felt like a car by comparison, at least back then. Today, it might seem primitive, although to us old goats who spent hours, days and weeks on that stuff, any of the old tractors would seem perfectly natural to hop right on and ride away into the sunset.
WRITE 'EM UP, GUYS! (Ladies with tractor stories are welcome, too!).
One thing I think would make a nice legacy for our children and grandchildren: None of mine had anything to do with farming and really don't know much about farm life back when you got your water from a handpump or a windmill, chopped wood to keep the kitchen warm in the winter, milked cows by hand, cultivated corn with horses, used a hayloader and then took the hay to the barn to be pulled up with a "hayfork." Many of us could go on and on (I might). How about cutting corn green to take to the silo to be chopped up by a Papek run by a big flat belt turned by a roaring 10-20? How about harvesting wheat with a binder, stacking the sheaves, later taking it to the barn to feed into a thesher that shook and vibrated and sounded like a jet plane getting ready to take off? How about describing all the things farm families did when cash was scarce, but with ingenuity and initiative, you could do a lot of things yourself and not spend any money (big gardens and orchards + canning, chickens for meat and eggs, + selling some of the eggs, doing your own maintenance on cars, trucks and tractors. I hope to pass some of this along to my family. Have started this, so it's just past the "I'll do that someday" stage)
 
My Dad brought home a Farmall 200 when I was about 16. He let me sandblast and paint it. Looked new again. Now it's mine, and looking like it did 21 years ago. He isn't here to help me paint it again, but I look forward to the project. Good times.
 

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