Worst tractor you ever drove

DeltaRed

Well-known Member
What tractor did you hate the most? For me,it was a 1070 Case. Under powered,cumbersome,POS powershift trans,besides being beat to holy crap. Because of that tractor,I have hated those Case tractors.Drove another one later. Better tractor,but still a POS. So bad,it/they effected me for life.I ran and spent a lot of hours on a 2590 back in 2018. Pulled like locomotive,sipped fuel,started good(first piston up),had good brakes.Manuverable,easy to operate.
Acctually it was a pretty good tractor. Nothing wrong with it. But I hated it. Just because it was Case.All because of that 1070.
 
Belarus. I don't remember the model number, but the dealer wanted me to try it out. I picked corn with it for several days. The controls were a nightmare, especially the PTO lever.
 
I do remember it being very difficult to get on and off the MH 44 and hard to steer.

The worst cab was the 4430. Little tiny steps that don't even line up with the door! Hard to get in hard to get out. Can't see the drawbar to line it up. Just bad design all the way around.
 
Our Physicians Assistant, we go the same church, always have to chat farming afterwards, he came from Minnesota, him and his dad farmed together there had, two 560 Diesels, to start with, so they traded one for a 1070 power shift, that broke them, he said, the dealer couldn't fix the power shift, so Dad retired and he went to medical school!That's his story, he never complained about anything else!
 
Sounds like when Dad had a cable lift loader on a John Deere A. There was a winch that ran off the PTO. There was a long lever that came up on the same side as the hand clutch. He'd stab in to the manure pile, pull back the clutch, take it out of gear, wrap his elbow around the winch lever and push the clutch with the same hand to make the PTO work. He didn't have that set up very long.
 
Wore out Oliver 70 with steel rears. On recently cleared ground those huge lugs would find every chunk and root. Then you were in for a ride! Late 50s
 
A farmer I worked for had an International 1568 that was junk. It wasn't really the tractors fault though, it had been abused and neglected and was beat to death, half the glass in the cab, straight pipes and gutless as can be. I was so happy when he got a 2290 Case, I never touched that IH again after that
 
Not sure exactly which tractor would make the list for me, and it wasnt always so much the tractor as maybe the condition of the tractor or job it was being used for. My brother hat a narrow front 22Massey Harris tractor with a manure loader. It was better than a fork, but thats about all you could say. Wrong tractor for a manure loading tractor. Those row crop front wheels could roll up against a frozen turd, and spin the steering wheel right out of your hand.
 
They are all good when new or in good condition. Some better than others in terms of location or positioning of certain controls. I could readily go from a JD 4010 to an Oliver 88 to a Farmall M and not miss a beat. Case 830 was hard because I never got in any time between uses to get a feel for it.
 
My uncle's father (by marriage) had a B Farmall with a near homemade backhoe mounted on it permanently. the tractor was an oil burner and every control from steering to PTO lever, was worn to the point the holes were twice pin diameter. The backhoe was in worse condition and more or less flopped toward the desired orientation, then moved in a loose sort of way toward operator intention as the pivots encountered the sides of their mount holes. the controls were not in a block, they were spread out over a 3 foot area and didn't move the way intuition would predict. I dug a septic tank hole with it that we had to finish by hand on the bottom to smooth it for the tank. The single good thing was it didn't leak oil at all. Jim
 
My uncles, I believe it was F12 Farmall. I was probably 10 or so and had a hard time reaching far enough with foot to push in clutch. Also wondered if seat would fall off with me on it. This was on a bundle wagon so had to stop often.
 

the worst tractor to get on or off was an Allis B/C/CA OK once you got on. I really liked our Farmall H and M but no live power.
 
Never drove a bad tractor.Did drive a few tractors that the owners or former owners beat them to almost junk.Unless you drove it new or fully restored haRd to talk bad about them
 
Not a tractor, and I didn't drive it. But it was the only piece of junk I recall in all my years. A late AC SP100 All Crop Harvester Dad bought used. I never ran it because I couldn't. As a youth I could run the tractors, but not this thing. Besides being a monstrosity to run, it never worked right. They tried it for one season. Fortunately still had the JD 12A pull type to finish up. The next year the SP100 was traded for one of the last, new E Gleaners. Total opposite of the All Crop. It's still going!
 
My Dad had a DC and I always liked it because of the hand clutch and it was the first tractor I ever drove. Although I will agree on the loader part. He would put a loader on it every winter to clean out the barn. It had a trip bucket and a narrow front. We really thought we moved up when we put a similar loader on our Cocksutt 540 and that being two wheel drive and light on the rear wasn't really much compared to todays four wheel drive loader tractors.
 
My brother bought a new 1155 Massey and it was a piece of junk. Hydraulics never worked on it. I was young so I got the job of driving it a couple times. Turned me off Massey for ever. He only had it a couple years and traded it on a new 1370 and it was much better.
 
Dad bought an A tricycle John Deere. We took it down to the beach to grade yards. Between the single front wheel in the loose sand and the sticking hand clutch it was miserable. He sold it back to the guy he bought it from.
Ron
 

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