IH 986 vs 4240 fuel consumption

Absolutely made my old 966 look like a drunken sailor as far as fuel consumption goes. I worked the snot out of that thing and it just "sipped" the diesel fuel.

I even called him and asked if the darned fuel guage worked 'cause it sure wasn't moving. :>)

Made a believer out of me. However, $50K for a twenty year old tractor is totally out of bounds. :>(

Allan

'Course, I only farm 320 acres and really don't need a "high-powered" tractor.

Darned 1066 just usually ends up sitting 'cause it's just too darned big for most jobs around here.

Think I only used it once last year and that's just not healthy for a tractor. Doubt if I put 20 hours on the silly thing all year long. :>(

Allan

Guess the 966 is my "main" tractor. Did all of my own field work, the hay baling and ran across 180 acres of the neighbor's ground to boot.

Might ought to change the oil on this one next spring. Darned thing probably got a 100 hours or so on it last year. :>(

Allan

Nebraska Test 328 in 1939 reported 12.16 hp-hr/gal for the M. I used about $2,065 in fuel in 2007. At an average price of $2.79/gal this is 740 gal. I keep my tractors tuned up, so if I use the 12.16 hp-hr/gal I would have used about 9,000 hp-hr. If I had a good newer tractor getting 14.74 hp-hr/gal I would have saved 129.5 gal for the year, but might have only saved $155 in fuel due to the higher price of diesel.

Now if I buy me a new John Deere, I can expect to get up to 16 hp-hr/gal, and my annual fuel savings would zoom to $300. Maybe not enough to make one payment, but I'd still feel better about saving fuel.

One point about farming with an M or H. To save fuel you need to keep the main jet screw turned in to avoid black smoke at full load. You can turn the screw in when doing light work, and you will hear the engine miss when you need more fuel. Running a square baler is light work, so is brush hogging and sickle mowing, my Vermeer 4x5 baler takes a little more fuel, but plowing with 3 14's and pulling a full NH bale wagon down the highway takes the greatest screw setting.

I heard folks say an M sucks 55 gal a day but mine won't take that much.

I have somehow managed to get by with SM's and M's (of course most have SM innards) quite nicely. It takes me longer to plow and disk but I never did that much anyway, and haying is not a problem except I've never stepped "up" to a disc mower. When I get to wanting to mow in the wet I may have ot get one.

I'm putting a 450D together so we'll see how it does on the round baler. It may go to market with the little piggy if it doesn't do well.

If the SMDTA ever gets fixed it may just loaf around home to avoid getting hit on the highway.

I've had intake leaks on Farmalls with no adverse effects, and have never had a problem adjusting the main fuel screw.

Not only low compression, but also 1,500 rpm.

Back in the days of Deere 20 and 30 series, IH 06 and 56 series they were all very good. I was using IH and Deere in those days, had a neighbor that was all Deere, we both experienced the same. My 1066 burnt 5 times the fuel of my 560 or 656, however it wasn't 5 times the horse power.