1942 Farmall H on steel

Hello all,

First post, here goes,

Retired, bunch of tractors, starting to fix, etc..

Anyway, I am putting together a H on steel and have a wide front with and have the "adapter" to shorten the wheelbase.

I am curious as to when the adapter became available for the H?

My tractor is a 42', and came with steel. Most likely did not come with a wide front, but I got one now.

Any opinions on the long or short wheelbase.

Thanks,

Carl

Try to post a picture. Lets see what happens..

Ok, figured out the picture deal.. Here is the front axle and the wheels..

Took the hubs apart and the bearing are same size, so far everything will work..

Thanks for looking,

Carl

As far as I know, the adapter was always part of the system. The long wheelbase allowed the front cultivators to be fitted behind the front axle but the longer wheelbase implied a greater turning circle. If one was never going to use the front cultivators then the adapter allowed the wheelbase to be virtually the same as the narrow front version and gave a smaller turning circle, though no where as small as the narrow front version. The shorter wheelbase also meant a shorted shed required to house the tractor. This is my grandfathers M (1945) with the short wheelbase.

Thanks for the reply, and nice picture to boot.

I am torn between the anteater look or the short version.

I'm thinking, that if the buyer couldn't afford rubber tires, he probably didn't buy the adapter either. LOL..

I can always add it later if I don't like the look.

More to come,

Carl

Hi Athol, all the Farmall H and M tractors with wide fronts to come into the UK were fitted with adaptor plate so I assumed that was so they could get more tractors in the hold of the ships. This may be the same for tractors going to Austraila and New Zealand. MJ

Hi,
We never did any row-crop work the Farmall M was chosen, rather than the W-6 tractors all around us, as we had some terraces that had been ploughed with horses but after my grandfather purchased the first 10-20 in 1926 they had been left in grass. With the outbreak of war in 1939 they wanted to get those few acres back in production and had contemplated a T-20 crawler but IHC advised wait for the new Farmalls as they had a long back axle so could plough those terrace bases. See picture of the 1940 (1939) Farmall M below. My father always said the M was difficult for ploughing, one had to steer the tractor all the way down the paddock as against the standard tractors where you could drop a front wheel into the furrow and it would virtually steer itself. My father overturned the M in 1945 (at the base of the terrace, it stalled as coming up to the headland and started to drop back on the plough and as soon as the brakes were touched the front came up and my father baled-out. The tractor was up-righted using shear-legs and it was replaced by the one shown in the photograph. The wide front was a natural choice. I haven't seen any Farmall M or H with the extended front, I suspect those who wanted to use the mounted cultivators used the narrow front as getting the cultivators mounted behind the front axle would have been a nightmare. In wartime 1940 there were no choices, no starters, no belt pulleys, no swinging drawbars and no lights, the rubber tyres were not very common either.

Set it short. Long wheelbase turns wider and harder. And looks goofy unless you have mounted equipment. Make sure to set up the radiator drain properly. Standard style has a straight nipple thru the casting. With the adapter plate in the way, you have to use a 45 street elbow and longer nipple. The IPL shows this.

It may not be the best wide front, but the old style IH adds some character.

Chris B.

Here's a 1940.