5288 and 5488

urbancase

Member
question for you guys as something I never got a chance to run and have not been around. been starting to look around for either tractor with front assist not wanting 2 wheel drive. I have talked to a few people that are ih guys like myself and been around little long then me and asked what they thought of them and nobody I talk to has much knowledge about them. and one guy told me there was an update on them after they came out but do not know how to tell what it was or if it was done. I was looking at 7240 and 7250's but they are more then what I can justify for my farm right now. the 1586 I redid a few years back does not fit what I want with the 3 speed trans so its going in for part of the trade. my main concern is the transmission as they were power shift and not sure how the rate compared to the 70 and 90 series case's that I have. any info welcome and thanks ahead of time.
 
Weren't those the models that had the fan shaft through the radiator? If so A friend of mine was telling me the bearings on that shaft were a problem. If the bearings were not monitored fairly closely they would trash the radiator when they went out. Why not just go with a 7110 or so with the mfwd on it. Still has power shift and no shaft deal. So far we like the 7140 my brother bought last spring.
 
I don't know much, but I like the thought of going with an IH instead of case IH. I would take an international motor over a Cummins any day. The IH 466 I believe is still being put in new trucks today it's so good. I worked for a farmer with a 7110 and the motor took a crap one day someone else was using it. Cost $20k to rebuild. (You can get an IH dt466 out of a truck or bus for $1000) . Also I tested it plowing 5-18"s and it took over 7 gal/hr. I know a 1066 can do hard work on 3-4.
 
Also could consider putting mfwd on 1586. If the 3 speed isn't good enough use the torque or fix torque it's not hard.
 
Ask this question on the RED POWER magazine forum. Lots of guys there have them and use them. In fact, Mike Links there runs a company rebuilding and refurbishing them, last I saw him discuss business He was booked up solid for a year.
REDPOWERMAGAZINE.COM
 
Thing about it is, you're not going to be saving much going with a field ready 52/5488 vs a 1st gen boxcar Magnum.

These tractors were introduced right at the low point of the 1980's farm recession. Not many farmers could afford to upgrade, and few did, so there aren't that many of them out there. Parts are starting to become an issuenow too, if not with availability, then with $$$.

On top of that, they're the current "hot collectible" among IH fans so you'll be fighting with deep-pocketed collectors on a good one. They're not usually interested in the basket cases, but you shouldn't be either.

That's just my opinion. I would skip over them and go right straight to the 7120/7130 Magnum.
 
The Forward Air Flow cooling was revolutionary back in 1981 when it started production. IH learned in their testing that the drive shaft had to be absolutely straight. If not, the fan wobbled, ate up the bearing and fan went thru the radiator. Fans PULL air much better than they push air. Left them with only limited options. Electric fans were years away still. Plus they pull lots of current, would need twice as big of alternator. Actually, a HYDRAULICALLY driven fan is a great idea used on other brands of construction equipment. Every time the fan starts, it spins the opposite direction, cleans debris off the radiator and the grill.
If CIH doesn't offer the bearing anymore, somebody else does.
 
Good 71XX tractors are not much more in cost than 5X88 tractors in good conditions as collectors have driven the price up to where it is hard to justify buying an 88 to
farm with. I would go find a good 7130 for 28-32K. You'll pay well over 20K for a a good 5488.
 
All i can tell you is that they did and upgrade to the transmission with a shaft change and clutches , Myself i have never really worked that much on them as we did not have only a couple in my area , I do how ever havve all the service tools for them except the annilizer ()sp) for the hyd. system as ya need that to work on the late 86 series and up Hyd systems and i don't have that and at this stage in life i am not even looking for one anymore. . I will only work on what i have tooling for .
 
I believe there were several different machines that used push fans but IH claimed to be the only one pulling the air through to the front and not pushing it from behind radiator. That is why they had to go with the hole in the radiator and long shaft with bearing supporting the shaft.
 
I've been racking my brain as to where I saw those brand new back during the early 1980's. There were a couple at the nearest IH dealerships. I think that a vegetable
farmer in Ontario County had one but don't recall any others in the field back then. Probably a number were shipped out to areas where a dealer had one sold such as it
was with a lot of iron back then.
 
Cat was doing that long before 50 years ago . as of 60 years ago when i started working for a construction company when fall arrived the Push er fans were removed and the puller fans went on . and when we were still moving dirt on them frosty mornings the side curtains were put on so you had warm air coming around you . Not till 63 did we have a dozer with a cab and that one ended up being the one i ran . Thqat one you did not have to remove and replace all ya needed to do was push in and turn the blades if you wanted to . The pusher fans were made to keep dust and heat off of you in the warm weather . Up in the parts room were racks of summer fans and winter fans . You had to remove the whole fan back in the day , some of the OLD equipment that dated back to 1937 was still around . Lot of the old 2 U D 8's and the 3T D 7's were still used .
 
I know nothing about Cat so did the puller fan sit in front of the radiator and pull the air through toward the front like 50 series IH tractors.
 
No Pete , they mounted behind the rad on the engine . Summer fans pushed the air tghru the rad from rear to ft. and when we changed them ya unbolted the old style and replaced with the winter fan that drew air thru the rad and moved it back along the engine . When you added in the side certains they were made of heavy canvas and came all the way back to the fuel tank and you could adjust them up to shoulder high when setting in the seat.It made it nice and toasty once you got it up to operating temps . And due to the w2ind that the fan made it would help keep snow from coming down on top of you . Back in 63 when i was a pup my boss called me one night/ morning at 1:30 Am and his words were COME AND GET ME I AM STUCK, We got hammered with a big snow fall and i lived about a mile and a half from the shop , while my boss John lived seven miles away . We had been called out by the state to open roads over two counties . It was so bad that i could not even find my car and if i had there was now way i could have driven to the shop . I had to use my old ski's and Do cross country . We had just changed the fan on the one D 6 and put it in the mains shop along with one of the bigger gallion graders that evening just incase we needed them . Before i left with the D 6 i put the heat houser on it . And before i made the center of the village i had heat coming and even with the snow coming down so hard that you could only see maybe and 1/8 of a mile no snow was getting on me . We had lots of snow and snow bound trucks everwhere as back then old U S 224 was a major truck route . Took me almost two hours to go seven miles and a quick tug to get John's Jeep pick up out of his drive where he high centered it and two hours to get back to the shop as the main entrance was on U S 224 I stayed warm and dry tucked down in . Now dozers come with reversing fans that you do not have to change the whole fan , you just remove one guard reach in PUSH AND TURN . . Last dozer i was on was a new John Deere 750 J building the pad for a friends new cattle barn. Saved him over 12 grand from the lowest bid on the dirt work and did it two days faster then what everybody else said it would take with four machines .
 
I started with that company mowing grass and cleaning the offices and shop at the ripe old age of 13 . By the time i was 17 i was a class A operating engineer and a lowboy driver , welder and heavy equipment mechanic and some times a ditch dweller with a #2 shovel in my hand . and they even let me play with dynamite . I was involved in some of the interstate building , if i was not on my dozer i was running pan , and not little pans they were Cat 641 double bowls . and my main tonka toy was a brand new D9 G cat dozer the first power shift in the fleet . and that went along with my company truck a new Ford F 350 4x4 cab and chassis thaqt myself and my boss john and i made into a super service truck witha 250 amp Hobart PTO driven welder and a Gardner Denver air compressor PTo driven that couold run 2 90# jack hammers of two rock drills . I also havve every tool that MAC toold company made at the time along with the whole line of OTC pullers includeing our first portable track pin press . Way better then driving out the main pin with a B & O and a 20 pound sledge . Had pullers to 100 ton air over hyd. . Ya never lived till ya pull the sprockets off a big cat and then pulol the bull gears . At times we had to max out the 100 ton and still have to hit it with the 20# sledge and stay out of the way when it let go . At 16 i was welding with the best . did a total rebuild on a 2 U D8 at 15 . The old man did his best to keep me out of trouble and always had something to keep mne busy . That old 2 U was the first new big dozer he bought and wanted it REBUILT before he came back from his winter vacation . Every year he would take his wife and sister to his home in Cal. and would leave the 1st of Nov. and not come home till April 15 . He told me he wanted it like new when he got home in the spring . I took that dozer down to bare frame and every bolt and nut was taken out of it and a ground up rebuild happened . When he got home it was setting in Bay # 3 totally done The only stuff Org was the frame and castings and gears . Every bearing was new every seal was new engine was totally rebuilt along with the pony motor . New paint and decals , new hand made seat recover and the three lights even worked . I even rebuilt the injection pump and injectors . I can not tell you how many hours i put in that with 98% of the work done by myself . Old John helped some . Many nights the lights in bay #3 burned late . You would have had to seen this operation as you did not have to call for parts outside , everything you needed to rebuild any piece was on hand at all times . During the winter months the shop was working six days a week 10 and 12 hour days . and the horde of people working there was unreal . we had Mechanics , welders and machinists five people in the parts room keeping up with what was needed and restocking six welders working non stop rebuilding a dozen mechanics five machinists six carpenters building forms for jobs coming up . The amount of equipment was staggering if it ran on tracks or tires it was there or still out on a job . Dozers from D 4 thru TD 9 Hd 6 and on up to the biggest for the time pans ranged from 12 yds to what ever shovels and cranes from small to 250 tons . of every make and color . And a fleet of trucks that i can not put a total number on . As we had all the makes and models I learned more there then any place else and i worked with some of the best . You will learn more from the OLD guys then you will ever learn from a book .
 
Vet, you do indeed type up many interesting (would you call them autobiography or just stories). My life seems pretty tame alongside of yours. One thing, where did you learn to type. You must be pretty good at it and not just hunt and peck.

I took typing in high school and I can't tell you where the letters are on my key board as most are wore off but I just type away, watching the monitor and doing some backing up now and then. I got to know my typing teacher again in the last few years. She turned 90 a couple years ago and I see her now and then. Good teacher.

Only classes I liked in school were typing and business law. Did a little typing while in the Army but never liked the office work. Our outfit was disbanded so we had to type up all the vehicles etc to send them back to the states. I worked in the office then for a few weeks, then went down stairs to shop floor and opened my tool box and started working on the trucks again.
 
Well Pete i am a two finger hunt and peck. . Never took high school typing . I did what was needed and industrial arts for wood shop , metal shop and drafting . Sports wise only rifle club and yes we carried guns to school every Thursday and had the club meeting after noon classes that i returned to just for the meeting and range time . As i went to work after fifth period and would come back to the school around 3:45 for rifle club . Saturday afternoons we would have our meets with other rifle clubs during the winter months and when spring came we would do the outdoor long range shooting and out of the 54 of us in the club only six of us did the long range shooting M 14 A 1's out to 650 meters open sights. Noiw back to typing if ya wanted to see someone with flying fingers then my grand mother was the one , man could see pound out a paper or letter . When i got tired of twisten wrenches due to not being able to go back to constructio due to a union split while i was in Nam and not able to transfer my book during the GRACE period i took a jhob as a mechanic at a Chrysler Plymouth for awhile till i was offered a job at a large Ford dealer to run the drag club program and take care of the two cars the dealership ran . stayed there for awhile till a offer was made to become a parts manager for a Dodge dealer and i had to learn the hunt and peck . and made a move to a new Chrysler Plymouth dealer ship with better pay and DEMO's of my choice , There ya never knew what i was going to be driving , Might come home on a Fridaywith a new GTX convertable HEMI powered four gear or a road Runner a Duster a Cuda and come monday evening i would be out in the lot shopping for my new ride home because someone saw the car over the weekend and they would come and buy it on Monday evening as we were open till 9 . Plus i was hobby farming and the main horse power was a Farmall 450 D and a Super M D , Both were rags that i fixed up . . Yep i have covered a lot of ground in my time . Got hooked on running coal buckets and left the parts managers job for a 1970 R 700 Mack and a 32 34 City Welding dump trailer and became and outlaw . Worked for the Fat man for a couple years then went with another o/o and worked for him till the Blizzard of 77 till he ticked me off and i quiet , got a call from and old friend from my days in construction to come run his oil field service company , that sucked and i went and bought my own semi . Stayed with that even after the big crash of 79 when the mills and strip mines went down . I was tryen hard to hang on but with fuel prices low rates and no freight i hung it up in late 83 and took a gamble and went into tractor repair and buying and selling . Till everybody around here started going under and if no one walks thru the doors to either buy something or needs something fixed you start to starve . So it was back to the truck to keep the food on the table . Now it is semi retirement , i have five guys i still do work for and help keep there junk running . Ya can tell spring is not far off as today i have had two calls to come and fix this and that .So since they both have nice WARM shops once again Have wrench will travel. Oh yea they both have cold beer.
 
Could be and most likely there was more than one 88 series around. I thought the one that I saw was a 5488 with full cab and MFWD. F & W had a couple in their yard when the 88 series was launched back in 1982.
 
When navistar got in trouble trying to not use urea, and sold controlling interest to VW, everything from the dt570 and down got the axe.

The B and C series will put out more power per cubic inch, and burn less fuel, while living longer.
 

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