[Farmall] IH Hydro tractors (was Re: Some ads from the 8/11 Lancaster Farming (Mike Sloane)

[Matthew Gray]

yup, i have spent quality time on a 474 hydro, 574 hydro, and 84 hydro 4wd

never seen one in a 544, but i don't think new zealand got a lot of those 
american models of tractors......and i ran off the assembly line in the late 
70's my self

there is even one or two hydro 100? round, they appear in the classifields 
every now and then, the last one i saw was dead, and had a mid mounted blade

the farmer with the 574 i drove had a loader on it, and it spent its life 
feeding cows, and a bit of baling,

the 84 hydro was the only one left running from a factory that used them 
fitted with front blades to push sweetcorn onto a drag chain to feed the 
factory, they had two others in the back shed that had expired, every man 
had driven them, and scratched there name into the dash or the cab. we 
aquired it and fitted a road sweeper for harvesting sweetcorn




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Sloane" <mikesloane at verizon.net>
To: "Farmall/IHC mailing list" <farmall at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 12:13 AM
Subject: [Farmall] IH Hydro tractors (was Re: Some ads from the 8/11 
Lancaster Farming (Mike Sloane)


> While I have no personal experience with them, I understand that the IH
> hydro mechanism is about as "bulletproof" as the rest of the tractor.
> According to various publications, many farmers were skeptical that a
> hydro would hold up under the heavy loads presented by actual farming
> operations in 50-90 hp tractors, but IH engineers did their homework and
>  apparently built systems that did very well in actual practice. The
> 544 is probably the smallest of the farm hydros (the 884 and 966 were
> among the other sizes sold). Operators appreciated being able to change
> "gears" depending on ground conditions without first stopping, which can
> means all the difference when working in soft or wet soils or baling,
> etc. And, of course, many farmers appreciated having clumsy/ignorant
> employees not crashing gears and burning out clutches.
>
> Mike