Why dont Farmall H and M have fenders?

Its been brought up In a couple of my posts now that my tractors
should have fenders for safety. Its certainly a valid point, but I rarely
see these tractors with fenders, at least not in my part of the country.
Ive never owned one with fenders and the two Ms we had at home
didnt have them. I dont recall any on the neighboring farms having
fenders on theirs either. Why is that? I never really thought about it
before just took for granted thats the way these are, but it make
sense to have them. Were they an option that a lot of guys didnt get
when they were new? Were they taken off to make it easier to mount
implements? Thanks for you insight.
 
The same situation here, my dad had two M's, and a H, and not a fender in sight,and of all the neighbor's that had IHC,Zippo,They just wasn't a priority i guess, except the W series had fenders, to keep the dirt out of the operators face !
 
No fenders on my '41 H, but I have thought about adding them for the safety. I don't know if they were removed or if it never had them.
 
If you look in the archives there are discussions on it. Fenders were often an option at extra cost and most farmers didnt want to spend the money on it. However, some states (I believe Illinois might have been one) required a tractor to be sold with a set of fenders.
 
Ran without fenders for many years . Got in trouble one time up on a steep hillside plowing and the seat broke off if the loader frame hadnt been there I wouldnt be here . I ran for a long time after that with no fenders only put the fender back on after I painted the loader
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I had a M and it had fenders, if you could call them fenders. Didnt really offer much protection to the driver, nor did they keep much mud or dirt of the operator. Now my IH W4, it has great fenders. The M H and C were intended as tractors for row crop cultivation and other mounted equipment, and fenders would be in the way. While the W4 W6 and W9 were built to be field cultivation tractors, as used in the prairie grain fields, not mid west corn
 
Well back in the day when i was a young pup MOST did come with fenders BUT when you mounted Cultivators loaders mounted corn pickers the fenders came off and set in the shed sometimes they were put back on but most were just left off and they SAT . Also if they were factory mounted with out the extension kit on the FARMALL'S they were a real pain to get on and off the tractor fro short legged little people . I remember the one my uncle had for a short time that had the factory fenders with out the extension kits for what vary little i ran it at the age or 9or 10 i found it hard to get on and off of . A neighbor to my uncle had and M and a H that had the extensions and it was way easier to get on and off of . But during the summer months the H had the fender off and the cultivators mounted , when fall came around the M was put under the corn picker and the fenders came off . every once in a while i have run across fenders setting in a shed that have been setting for many years and the tractor that wore them has long since left the farm . Couple times when i inquired about said fenders i would get if ya want them take them or give me twenty bucks and take the twenty off my bill. I can remember seeing the NEW M'S and S/M's at the dealers that we HAD around here that they all had the fenders on .
 
It's pretty unusual to see one without around here. If you do, it's generally because a jockey took them off and sold them.
 
We never had very many tractors in our part of the world ever wore fenders either. I think it was because we were in corn county & everyone had 2 row cultivators (H's, WC AC's, B JD's, or SC Case's) or 4 row cultivators (M's, WD45 AC's, A & G JD's & DC Cases) were popular in our part of the world. I don't remember anything but front mounted cultivators. Nobody ordered fenders & only took them if they came with the tractor at no additional cost. Why pay an extra $$ for something that you were going to take off & throw behind the tool shed the first time you put on the cultivator? I have seen & purchased like new Case fenders from a junk pile behind the tool shed. That's what I base my thoughts on.
 
As to your subject line question. Two reasons, fenders were an extra cost option but the primary reason was safety was taken in an entirely different context in that era. A person was expected to use common sense to provide for his safety. These days we are trying for idiot proof,, which is not achievable but none the less they keep trying.
 
It was an option that most farmers didn't want to pay for. My 1935 JD B doesn't have fenders and rubber tire where an option that mos didn't get back then either
 
We had an M and Super C bought new that had fenders and a used M that did not. They weren't on long and hung on the machine shed wall. They had to come off for cultivators and a loader. My Super M had fenders when I bought it but I had to scour the junkyards for a pair for my Super C.
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(quoted from post at 17:31:43 09/19/21) As to your subject line question. Two reasons, fenders were an extra cost option but the primary reason was safety was taken in an entirely different context in that era. A person was expected to use common sense to provide for his safety. These days we are trying for idiot proof,, which is not achievable but none the less they keep trying.
itto! and mine nor any M that I have ever seen had fenders.
 
Randy's post got me thinking. I recall reading somewhere (probably here) that Michigan laws required fenders. I have fenders for my JD H but they don't appear in the parts book. Originals, they came with it when I bought it back in the mid 70s. Dad's three COOPs have them.
 
With wheels set out wide to cultivate corn in 40 inch rows, it was unlikely you would get into the wheel. I did put flat top fenders on my M, but for looks ,not safety
 
I think you might be right Mike. My Dad's Farmall had fenders way back in the sixties as did his Jd A. Both the Farmalls I bought later on in the nineties had 'em too...May have been a Michigan law thing?
 
Most h and m,s by us were bought with a loader, picker,or 2 row culivater so they were taken off by dealers or hung up in the shed never to see use again
 
How much "safety" do those small flat clamshell fenders add? Even with standoffs and extensions they are too low to grab onto if you fall out of the seat, and they're not going to catch you when you do fall. You just flop over the fender right on to the tire!

Around here the dealer ordered the tractor in with fenders, took them off, and sold them back to the farmer who already paid for them as part of the price of the tractor! Suffice it to say most tractors up through the 06 series did not have fenders in this dealer's territory. Rumor had it the dealer had a building full of brand new fenders that went to scrap when the dealer sold out to the larger dealer in the area.
 
I'd heard at one time that if you asked a dealer, they had to put them on at no charge, but can't say that for certain. Dad used to buy quite a few in Archbold, would come home now and then with one without. Us kids were never allowed to drive one until he put some on. They weren't always the correct ones. I remember a JD B that had what I think from memory might have been off a JD H. He never sold one without. As I said, you don't see many tractors of any kind without them.
 
You didn't have to take the fenders off an H or M to put a cultivator on. We had one here for several years. Had a cultivator and a loader for it. Dad was complaining to a neighbor one time about having to take the fenders off. He showed him that all you have to do is put longer bolts in them with spacers between the fenders and axle.
 
My neighbor told me some manufacturers the fenders were optional equipment. Deere and IH were two of them. All Olivers I have seen had fenders because the were standard equipment. Some states regulated the companies to sell them in their respective states. I do not know which they were.
 
I could certainly be wrong, but I think Michigan required fenders be sold with a new tractor back in the day... which would explain why a lot have them in your area...
 
As many times as I got off and on the Super C cultivating and cutter-bar mowing fenders would have been an obstacle. Probably a hazard.
 
Too many oafs can't get on or off the tractor without kicking the fenders, so off they go. Another reason would be saving money. Though I'm fairly certain they were only $18 to add on to the bill, but that was a lot of money back then. Oh, mounted equipment was another one. Some farmers just left them off after a spell.

Mike
 
Fenders were an option. Most people didn't spend the extra $'s. 9 out of 10 H's and M's in my area do not have them.
For what its worth, they really wasn't much of a fender. They did not go over top of tire, and were basically were just a side wall between the driver and the wheel. If extensions and what not weren't used in conjunction, they set in quit tight to the driver. Made it hard to get on and off.
I would not have a pair on an H or M that I am using. However, I do have an H on factory steel I think they would look nice on. But they bring around 2 to 3 hundred a pair around my area if you find a set. I just can't bring myself to pay that, for something just for looks.
 
Yep on incorrect fenders. Dad got a 72 Ford 2000 from a horse farm that owed him money for hay. It had clamshells painted blue but something never looked right to me till a neighbor told me they were COOP fenders. I should have realized that since there were three COOPs Dad used and he had plenty of spare parts. I took them off to work on the lift and just never put them back on.
 
Sorry, but Illinois did not require fenders on tractors. Wasn't till about '63/'64 that most tractors started having fenders. But not every tractor after then had fenders. You could tell which tractors they mounted the picker on, NFE and no fenders.
Dad kept messing around modifying fenders to fit on my '39 H and '54 SH, came off an 8N Ford. He had some fenders off a Minneapolis-Moline, big wide round full coverage fenders he put on the Super M-TA when I first started doing fieldwork. They didn't stay around long. The 4010 Dad bought December of '63 had WFE, and 11Lx15 frt tires, Year-A-Round made front fenders, Dad put a set on, then took them right off to mount the frt cultivator, then put them on again, about 2 years of that and they got stuck back in a corner of the shop.
 
In my area of North Western Michigan Farmalls were very popular. Once in a while you would see one without fenders , but most had them. I grew up on my Grandads H. It had a IH loader, Then in the summer an Ih mounted 2 row steerable cultivator. I may be wrong, it has been awhile, but I dont remember pulling the fenders to mount either. I do know if we pulled the fenders off, some how they would have been run, or backed over. This also is why I dont think they came off. I would guess about 80-90% of the Farmalls had fenders around here. They were nice, gave a guy something to hit his foot on climbing on and off, like the shifter wasnt bad enough. Al
 
I don't remember fenders on our H. I think grandpa took them off for the cultivator and ease of getting on. He was a rather tall thin guy till he died. No mounted picker. The depth bracket for the cultivator mounted about the same place the fenders did for our cultivators. Our MD they came off after being in the way to get on by them and have not been seen since. Never worried about them not being on. We even ran our 1466 without fenders for a few years. didn't miss them either. Later put the cab back on for weather protection of GPS when spreading fertilizer and planting.
 
My uncle had a Farmall H and M and neither had fenders and I dont recall seeing any laying around his sheds. Here in the South it is rare to see 40,50s IH&JD tractors with fenders on them I think they probably came from the dealer naked.
 

Cheap people raised in the depression would not spend on luxuries such as PS , fenders , three point hitch , hydraulics etc .
Some tightwads would have probably deleted the tractor seat
If it would have saved $200 .
 

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