Quadrange vs TA

Bill VA

Well-known Member
It?s the mid to late 70?s. Off to the JD and IH dealers to find a replacement for the Hoyt-Clagwell...

The JD full powershift is out of the price range.

IH sales guy says TA is the best. JD guy says the quadrange is the cats meow.

Both give 16 speeds?

TA vs quadrange, which is better, easier to operate, more versitle, easier/less costly to repair, has a longer life, etc?

Why would one want a TA over a quadrange or vice versa?

The above was a 70?s hypothetical. What about today?
 
I had a quad range in the 4040. It didn't free wheel like the 706 IH TA that I had before it did. The shift pattern left a little to be desired. Whenever you shifted from reverse to low,low to high,you had to shift the quad up or down over and over because the vertical movement was at an angle. If you were baling in B4 for example and wanted to back up to spit out a bale,you had to go to B3,B2,B1 then R2. I had something in the neighborhood of 12,000 hours on that one before the dealer had to put a new quad unit in it.

All in all I'd rate it higher than a TA. In all honesty though,I prefer the shift pattern of the Whites with the Over/Under. Six gears with three powershift speeds in each gear and you don't have to go through other gears to get from a forward gear to a reverse.
 
TAs are not two-speeds. You have 8 speeds with gear reduction in case the going gets tough. This is why so many TA's are out. No one knew how to use them.

That said, the quad range is superior.
 
Yes,there was something wrong with it,but they all free wheeled when you pulled them back to low didn't they? Not going to argue about it,the tractor went out of here in 1981.
 
Nope they did not free wheel in high or low only the small frame tractors did from the 656,686 down and older.
 
Yes, the TA in the Super M-TA, 300,350,400,450, 460,560, 504,656,544,666,686 free wheeled in the low side. The 706,806,756,856,826,big 66 and 86, and 88 series did not.

To say the shifting of the Quad-Range left something to be desired is gross understatement, IT SUCKED!

With the IH you got the great fuel economy of the 300 and 400 series engines, excellent lugging ability. Things like clutch and brakes easier to service. Twin shaft PTO, no swapping stub shafts, pto good for up to 400 hp. if built properly.

The 5x88's actually had the best transmission, Synchro-Tri-Six, 17% speed increase between EACH of 18 speeds, ALL progressive, started with a powershift between pairs of speeds, later became full power shift. I understand the powershift parts retro-fit back into the early 5x88's easily.
 
The case power shift is better than both in many ways. Its easier to shift, has 3 speeds power rather than 2, reverse to forward is As easy as a shuttle shift. And all the controls are on the right and easy to reach and use. And no cab post to look around like the jd. And most likely more fuel efficient than either, depending on model.
 
That one barely worked when I got it and didn't work at all after a short time. In fact,when I'd stop to wrap off a round bale and kick it out,then start ahead again in direct drive,sometimes it would hesitate then jerk so hard it would pull the front wheels a foot off the ground. That's one tractor that I never missed after it was gone.
 
An why would I have expected any other answer from my die hard Oliver guy... Got to give old randy an A for dedication... LOL NEVER owned a JD but had plenty of the IH s . Ta is what it was just a torque multiplier.
 
I wonder if it hurt when they stapled the blinders on the Red and Green guys. Even though I lover Oliver/White, everybody seems to leave out the best power shift of that era the 7040/7060 Allis Chalmers. Hours on 4020 P.S. and Ford Select-O-Smash and the Allis spanked both of them.
 
I had a Ford 6000 Commander for awhile couldn't ask for a smoother shifting tractor than it was,I always touched the clutch when going from one gear to another.Operator abuse was the
problem with them most of the time,of course that goes for a whole lot of tractors and equipment problems.
 
How does pulling the lever straight back from a forward gear to reverse suck ? In b3 pull it back to r1 ?
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I really liked the white 2-135 I ran but I don?t know If the one I ran was missing something but it had a 5 inch square hole and then there?s 3 gears and lever that slopped around in the giant hole and you had try to figure where to put it to find the hole pull it back up past a detent and there was another but you never really knew where anything was
 
Or it has a smaller tank like I pointed out the case holds 20 more gallon fuel than a 4020 of the same size no wonder it looks like the others do better on fuel
 
If international didn?t make the cab so you had to be an ambidextrous octopus 🐙 they seem like a neat tractor dad had a 1486 before he got a 4850 . I?d still like an 86 or 88 series
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I didn?t care for the quad range. No particular reason just didn?t like it. Probably because I had ran a 4630 and 4840 with the power shift quite a bit before I had ever even seen a quad range and I think that kinda messed with my opinion of the quad range. Trouble with the TA or not would be hard to steer me away from a 1466. At 16 or 17 years old nothing makes you feel like more of a man than reaching up a tapping the throttle to the right and watching the black smoke roll with a 496 disk buried in the ground and somewhere inside everyone on YT there?s still a little bit of that 17 year old left that loves muscle cars and most important muscle tractors
 
looks like the IH are going to take a beating again. this is what i know of the IH tractors my family owned. dad got a 706 diesel in january 63 it has 17000 hours on it and i can remember only 1 TA replacement and dad abused that poor tractor never greased it or changed the hyd filter. in 68 grandpa bought a lease returned 806 it was turbo charged in the early 70s last i knew it had 8000 hours and may have had 1 TA replaced the engine and transmission have never been worked on. in march 69 dad bought an 856 it has had 2 cluthches but no engine TA or transmission work it has 8500 hours but sometime during the 14 years i worked in town the tach cable broke so it may have as many as 10000 hours or more on it again dad never took care of it. i use to like chopping in the IH i would go in low 2or3 TA back and just shift from low to reverse to unhook wagons only 1 lever to move. i have driven a 4040 with quad range but thought it was ok. and an AC7080 with a power director seemed like at workes the same as the IH we traded it just before the PD gave out
 
The Farmall literature of the day would say otherwise - here's the description in a vintage Farmall
350 brochure. This is also evidenced by the fact that a number of later Farmall/IH models were run
in TA gears for the rated drawbar power tests at Nebraska, including the non-stop 10-hour pull.
The fact that they can be prone to failure isn't because of use, it's because of abuse.
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I think it is going to somewhat depend upon the model tractor built. Thinking back to when I was in high school during the final years of IH, and in years following, a 1086 was a pretty durable tractor, while the four 1486 tractors in our neighborhood needed a zipper in the rear end due to the bull gear final drives, and the three 1586 tractors could not keep a torque amplifier in one piece, until the owners finally put the Hy-Capacity torque amplifiers in them. I never cared for the left hand transmission controls and the lack of synchronized gear shifts in the 66 and 86 series IH tractors. The Quad Range Deere tractors held together quite well, but I thought the lack of synchronized gear shifting from forward to reverse was a bit of a shortcoming. The old 8 speed synchro was better than the quad range when the tractors were used on front end loaders, when shifting from forward to reverse. I am more of a Deere fan, but I did think the STS transmission IH had in their 5X88 series tractors was a really nice transmission set up, and I feel it offers advantages over the Deere quad range. My 4640 is used in the field in most generally B1 and B2, or C1 and C2. When used for fall tillage, it mostly is in the low end of B range, and for spring tillage, it is in the low end of C range. When planting corn, it is the low end of B range, and in soybeans it is in the low end of the C range. My preferred transmission happens to be my 15 speed powershift, but I have that in only one tractor.
 
I own or have owned almost every brand that has been tossed around here. I feel the proof is in the pudding. The tractors you are asking about are not new by any means and have tons of history behind them. Everybody has a color of tractor they think is best and will defend that stand, but look at what is still out there working. Maybe not in your neighborhood , but across this Whole country. Who built the most, how many our left still working, and who has the best resale? I never heard of many quads going bad. Maybe not the nicest to shift, but sound. TAs are easy to use, but the repair history speaks for its self. I have a 1086 so I am not bashing them, but they grind shifting gears way more than the green ones. The cab isn't the best , but for what they cost to buy they are a lot of tractor for a small investment. Not much different than women. Each one rides different, but all have some really good qualities. Al
 
I’ve had a 1086 since new and it now has 17000 hours. I have tolerated the TA the whole time. There is too much of a gap between the high side and low side. Besides that, a person shouldn’t need to do certain tricks or to be careful not to do something that will take take the TA out. It should be built to be used.
 
I grew up with 2 806 Diesels both had the original working TAs when they sold on the farm sale in 1989. I wanted to keep farming the small farm but my oldest brother told mom we were renting the farm out and that was the end of the discussion Both tractors are still with the guys who bought them on the sale
 
I?ve got four IH tractors - some are old enough to be Farmall, and four Deere tractors - two quad range and two power shift. I have the opportunity to use each tractor for what it is best at. I don?t have a fancy new tractor for a loader tractor but I find my 886 a little easier to use on the loader than my 7800 because I can have one hand on the joystick and the other changing the gears. I like chores, raking and square baling, and drilling wheat with the 886. I wouldn?t have anything but the 4440 quad range for mowing hay or spraying fields. The 7800 with a power shift is the cat?s meow for plantingand round baling.

I have Farmall and IH because that?s what I grew up with and I love how they are made. I have Deere because dealer support is great here and they have a very sound machine (the 8430 and 4440 quad ranges are bulletproof). If IH had a quad range in an 86 or 88 series I would own a dozen and nothing else. As it is, I?ll just have some of each and love them for the jobs the do for me. I guess that?s kind of a luxury.
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As for as reliability in the 2-speed/hi/lo hydraulic shift mechanism the "quad" is exponentially longer lasting and tougher than the "TA".

If something does go amiss,it tales a single split between the engine and the clutch housing to allow the unit to be removed/replaced.

There's not much left in one piece on a "red one" when you get the "TA" out.
 
For what its worth.
When I was in tech school I had a SelectOSpeed apart. What a pos that was. Great idea, bad follow through.
Dad had a Oliver 1650 with the Hydra-Power never could get it to work right. Logged alot of hours on a 8 spd Syncro range 4020 JD took a liking to them once you got used to them. Put almost as many hours on a power shift Deere. Put up hay one year for a farmer with a 1086. Was a solid tractor but the trans had a "awkward and clunky" feel to it.

I drove a 6410 for a big dairy farm with the 4spd and 4 range trans. Of the tractors I drove I thought those were the nicest.

Say what you want about Deere but they have done something right to be the only company still around out of the above ones mentioned

Sod Buster
 
I used to chop corn for a neighbor with his 4020 diesel when I was a teen, it was a total fuel hog. Those old Deere's were good tractors but they'd use more fuel than any other tractor.
 
You don't pull it back from B3 to B1. You pull it from B3 to B2 and when you do,the quad goes from hi to low,then if you want to go to reverse,you have to go back to low in B1,then back to hi in R2. All I'm saying is,you shift the hi-low back and forth every time you shift the transmission. Does it hurt it? I don't know.
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(quoted from post at 03:36:51 07/20/18) I used to chop corn for a neighbor with his 4020 diesel when I was a teen, it was a total fuel hog. Those old Deere's were good tractors but they'd use more fuel than any other tractor.

"This one time, many years ago, I seem to recall that the tractor burned a lot of fuel."

Huh.
 
(quoted from post at 17:25:34 07/19/18) Nope they did not free wheel in high or low only the small frame tractors did from the 656,686 down and older.

I owned an 856. It DID NOT freewheel in low range.
 
There were some things I liked better about the 4040,but as far as haying tractors go,the 3 speed over/under and shift pattern on the gear shift are just a more convenient set up. On the quad,C low gears were in between B low and B high as far as speed,but you had to stop the tractor to shift from B to C,then when you got there you only had two speeds without clutching. The over/under is a three speed and you can go from 3rd to 4th without coming right to a stop. Just a whole bunch better deal if you're baling in varying conditions. That's not to say that I didn't bale a LOT of hay with that 4040 Quadrange.
 
It mustn?t because I?ve baled about a million round bales with a 4430 quad range shuttling that leaver back and forth for 14 hours a day for 4 months a year and then the rest Of the year stacking bales with another 4430 with a loader and loading and unloading semis and then feeding cows from December until may so no it doesn?t hurt em
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It has a 30 gallon tank compared to 50 on other tractors . I pulled a 5x16 plow with mine for the years 9 or 10 hours a tank that?s about 3 gallon an hour . Just did 146 acres of summer fallow with my 3020 pulling 16 cultivator and burned . 112 gallon diesel 55 drawbar horsepower. How much cheaper than that can you run ? Pulled a 3x14 plow running 16 inches deep last fall with the 4020 breaking sod and used about 2.5 gallon per hour
 
I don?t know what it was but there was 3 gears in a row then you pulled the lever back and there was 3 more If you could find em . Then there was a 3 speed powershift lever buy the steering wheel and some where on that one lever was reverse if you could find it
 
Seriously, what's the difference between a worn out TA on an 06 International that free wheels in low range compared to an Hydra-Power unit on an Oliver that was intentionally built to free wheel in Hydra Power Range?

Don't hold me to it, but doesn't an Oliver / White 3-speed free wheel in low range? I honestly don't know.

I logged many ours on them red things growing up, I would never buy an 06 or 86 series International as you just can't shift them things. I juts love hearing all the reasons why or how I was shifting them wrong as they shift perfectly as some will say.

I would buy a 56 or 66 series International as they shifted a heck of a lot better than the 06 or 86 series.

I'm bias, I would take a Quad or a Powershift any day of the week, no questions asked!
 
They cover sizes A to Z and work the customer's needs. They populate the area with dealers. They provide road service; warranty and service interval
field support for folks that don't do their own. They are pricy and lots of things are optional. Example, I put a neighbor onto a 2016 JD 4052 with cab
and fast hitch because of the road service mentioned. One day it was sitting beside my 2007 Branson 6530C and he asked me: "Why doesn't my
tractor have outside mirrors like yours?" I think he said he gave $45k for his. Mine was $37 with 6' med duty Kodiac mower, hay spike and 6' HD
bucket.....and the dealer took 3 tractors in trade worth $14k on trade in.....had them sold before I closed the deal on mine.
 

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