Bought myself a present

A while back I talked about my ruptured disk and that my doctor told me to quit farming or buy a "Cadillac" tractor. Don't get all excited - I didn't buy a new tractor!

I bought a new air ride seat and pedestal for the old IH 886 chore and hay tractor. I was at CIH today for some random bolts. I mentioned something about it and got the "let's see what we can do" business. As it turns out, I could get a self-contained air ride unit and new seat for just under $800. Funny thing is, if I ordered it put together it was over $100 more. He ordered the pedestal separate of the seat and it saved all of that cash. Not a big deal for me - I wouldn't be able to get them in there put together with my back anyway. He was going to get it in for me this afternoon so I could pick it up tomorrow and check and see how many amps it will pull for fuse install.

I know my back will appreciate it when I am raking and baling this summer. Yippee!

Good for you. Hopefully it will let you continue with what you love for many more years

You will not believe the difference that a good seat will make on your back. I have switched several tractors over to the air ride seats. They make an old tractor seem like a new one. Another thing I did is to install a good set of radial tires on the rear and run them with just enough air to carry the normal loads I haul with them. I also dropped the fluid out and went with wheel weights. That made the ride much better too. Us old timers are guilty of airing tires up tight so the don't squat. Leave that radial squatting and it will pull more and ride better.

Took the back rest off an old steel secretary's chair and put it on my "H". Man, the total difference, having high-up-correct-position lumbar support. Total comfort.

That tractor has bias ply fluid filled singles. I've always had them aired to death (I think 19) because it seems that bias will ruin a valve stem faster if run lower. Have you found that? Both sides are 75% full of saltwater.

I'm so guilty of having everything aired too much. I bought the FWA 7800 at a sale years ago and never checked the front air in the front radials because they looked good. They were way over (like more than double!). Since I corrected them I've gotten out the tire gauge 100 times thinking I had a low tire.

notjustair.

I have disk problems along with the hinges on L4 & L5 are missing so they slip and slide, pinch nerves in spine.

In 2004 Dr. told me to lose my Cadillac and buy a truck or SUV. So I bought both. Dr also told me I had to stop doing what I'm doing. Don't bend over when lifting and don't lift anything more than 20#. Dr was right.

I had to give up on riding mowers, motorcycle, anything that would jar my spine, twist spine, put stress on spine. I sold my goldwing. Hire people to drywall, frame buildings, build pole barn, shingles. I hired my kids to mow. After they left home to go to college, hired neighbor kid. After he moved, I bought my Mon's 1950 Farmall C to mow. It has the old monroe seat, large spring and shock. That's what I call a Cadillac seat. I tried putting a different seat on my Jubilee, but nothing compared to the old Monore seat. Then I found a guy on Ford's YT who had a 1940's monore seat made for fords. I had to rebuild the bushings, move one of the mounting bracket. Yes, my back loves it.

Reminder, a seat alone won't stop you from lifting things you shouldn't. Every time I do, my back talks to me for days. Just think of your back pain as a nagging woman telling you, YOU SHOULDN'T DO THAT!
GEO

Found you another present. A 38 Chevy grain truck located in Lawrence listed on Purple Wave. That way your 35 doesn't get lonely. Sorry not good enough with a computer to post a link. It's item # BU9168.

I know your right about not over airing radials and I am guilty of doing it on everything but we have to road our tractors quite a bit between pens when winter feeding and also when making hay on several smaller fields in the summer. Somewhere along the line I got it in my head that if a radial is squatting it will wear more when roading the tractor, do you think it makes any difference?

Radial tires will not wear more if inflated to the correct air pressure for the weight your carrying. The side wall flex actually puts more tire on the ground. This makes the force per square inch go down and that actually reduces tire wear. Running them over inflated will actual stress the tire more and make it wear faster. I have seen this proven in JD test track tests.

This was about 12-15 years ago when we started reducing air pressures in radial tires on high horse power tractors. I sold several JD 9000 series four wheel drive tractors that we weighted to 135 LBS. per horse power. The tire pressure required was 8 PSI. They road like a dream and caused less compaction than a track machine. I personally did compaction probe test to check this out. You did have to keep an eye open for slow bead leaks.

The trouble is too many guys have one set of plows/heavy three point load/attachment. So they run around with their tires over inflated 95% of the time just because of this one attachment. This cost them more in fuel, tires and ground compaction. Plus makes the ride worse. This is simpler than just airing the tires up for the 5% of the time you need it.

Also fluid filled tires are terrible in many ways. They ride rougher. You run the risk of corroding the rims if your running calcium chloride. You actually cause more stress to the tires because there is less air to cushion the tire going over uneven objects.

10 amps max. 16 AWG wire and a 15 A fuse. Due to the very intermittent operation and open wiring, this will work just fine.

You got a really good price on a complete seat and system. Do a www search and you'll see that they are running $1100 to $1400 with seat. I just bought a new unit, minus the seat off ebay for $375....seller had 7 left. My Branson 6530C came with one and that spoiled me. This one is for my Branson 2400 I bought in January.

What's neat about air is that the control lever is between your legs. You can reach down and push it in to air it up as much as you want, for certain applications, or pull the lever and let the pressure off for others......just fine tune the ride as the terrain changes......and there is no friction, no rough spots, to be felt with air....silky smooth. I got my tractor for a great price so figuring in the cost of my seat and 4 ply turf (had 6 ply industrials) tires, I am less than the cost of the complete seat and the total figures in what the basic tractor was selling for at other places.

That's a very nice old truck. There were lots of upgrades in those few years, but they're still a lot alike. I'd have it in a heartbeat (if the price on it wasn't what I will likely spend on tires for the 35). They said the 216 isn't the big brother of the 207 that's in the 35, but they look so much alike. There's something about the water jacket cooling, etc. The old 207 seems do just fine.