Re: Hydro 84 Transmission Replacement

Around me hydro's don't have all that good of a reputation. Were expensive to fix and were not all that durable. Now most of the people that owned one around here were dairy guys, and worked them with little maintenance. So was probably the biggest problem for the durability.

If the transmission is truly 'out',it will cost 5 to 8 thousand dollars to rebuild. Best bet is to buy a 'reman' unit from Herr's Machine,Washington KS.Often it is something much simpler. Acctually,Hydros are good reliable tractors. When I was a 'kid',there were several large Hydros that worked ground,for years pulling disks,plows?..with incedent. Biggest issue is fuel economy is not as good as a comparable gear drive tractor.Most issues are caused by 'operator error'.You have to know 'how' to run it. Run it at full throttle,use low range while in the field,dont simply shove the lever fully ahead. Pull it back to optimum speed/power. Watch you speedometer. Let it breath.And don't just ram it back and forth between foreward and reverse. 'shift' smoothly,letting it come to a complete stop before changing directions. And do not neglect regular transmission oiland filter changes. Dirty/'worn' oil are huge killers.I've owned 3 Hydro's myself.Hydro 100;1026;still own an 826.Run it for probably 20 years with no issues.Now,before you start complaining about "how much it costs",go price a transmission overhaul on a JohnDeere powershift. Both 8 speed and 15 speed. we wont even mention the IVT trans.....

That is the only thing on a I H tractor i have never had my fingers in is a hydro . Around here there was only one Hydro sold and it was a 1066 that sold to a strip mine for reclamation pulling a 18maybe a 24 foot disc . They had nothing but problems with it and it was down a lot . They traded it off for a 9600 Ford and that tractor sat at the ford dealer for YEARS and never moved from where it was parked . It finally vanished overnight and has never been seen or heard of again. The only Hydro i ran was a brand new 750 John Deere dozer in the oil patch . It was the first in the patch . Everyone laughed at it since it was not a Cat they were sure it would not do the job . Now i have run Cat's from D 4's to D 9's and I H from TD 9's thru the T D 25's Allis Chalmers from small to big and i have run a couple J D 450's , BUT the 750 was something new and did have a learning curve . Took a couple hours in the saddle to get the feel of it but did i ever get my eyes opened up at what it could do and HOW FAST and nimble it was . A 24 ton Dozer that moved with the speed of a skid steer and turned like a skid steer with the push and pull power of a D 7 F . The caution decal on the dash read FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT BEFORE OPERATING THIS MACHINE , you had best believe what it said or you may find yourself layen face first on the hood hugging the air cleaner . The more i ran it the more i fell in love with it , No decelerating to make a shift no pause between forward and rev. . The only down side to the first ones were the operator needed three hands and arms to use it to the fullest , Ya needed your left hand on the direction control your right hand for steering and for blade control while backing steering ya needed one to lower the blade as you were doing all this at max speed . Deere made it a load speed sensing transmission so you did not have to figure out where to place the direction control Just pull all the way back and it was full travel in REV. and shove forward all the way and it was hammer down till the load came on and it would compensate ground speed for power . Deere got it wright and as for abuse according to the Deere engineers that came out to address a problem with the right charge pump at 300 hours he told me to run it like i stole it and see if i could break it . My only suggestion was and i told him , you guys need to make these pedal steer and when he asked me WHY i showed him WHY and he told me he had never seen anybody use there ELBOW to knock the blade control into float to drop the bade while manoeuvring into the next cut at full travel and changing direction all in one move before and could see how pedal steer would improve control since your feet were doing nothing . Then next year new models had pedal steer as and option . . Now had I H built in the load sensing then it may have been a force to recon with . The hydro would be great for loader app and baling , mowing , might be ok for tillage in flat country but not in hill country with out load sensing . ON the 750 you had a TEE handle next to your direction speed control that you could lock out load sensing and try and control manually , Ah yea that did not work well at all as you could not keep from overlaoding and stalling the engine . So why use it . man that tonka toy was fast i was building up to two locations a dayand for dragging in Frac teams to frac a well nothing was faster and i was called on by the one frac team from Haliburton for ever well they did our record in one load day was four well frac at four different locations , drag them in thru mud bumper deep push each truck into possession then drag them back out to the road load move repete .

Have an IVT apart at work, $45,000 cdn & 4 days to get the stupid thing out. Last power shift I rebuild was up there. Ill take a Hydro any day to own, neighbour of my use is 100 for years in his feed lot. Still has the tractor on original hydro.

Do yourself a favor and run from that tractor. Owner probably knows what cost will be to fix it, Also if it was a loader tractor it probably been beat up pretty hard, Around here when people still used loader tractors before skid loaders, saying was putting a loader on a tractor was kiss of death for tractor.

I do thank everyone for the replies and suggestions. I will likely pass on the potential purchase of the IHC Hydro 84. The expense and difficulty of this and all other repairs would not be in my best interests.

Hey BYE:
Thanks for your reply. As you can see, I am a Newbee and need all the help I can get from you experienced guys. Because the complexity and expense of any IHC Hydro 84 fix, I think I will pass on this potential purchase, but will pass your info onto the Owner; He told me that he really liked the tractor/loader but was not able to find anyone to repair it.
And, could you take a peek at my post/question in the Cockshutt tractor forum regarding converting 6v positive ground to a 12 volt system? Thanks.