I was a pipsqueak when the H and M came out in 1939. I used to find a way to get my father to take us to town just so's I could go in to the dealer's and look at 'em. We had a 10-20 and an F-12, so sometimes he had to buy a part and that made the 5 mile "trip" worthwhile. Back on the gravel roads of the 30s, 5 miles was sometimes a bit of a trip when you were busy. Most everybody knows these tractors were designed by Raymond Loewy and/or his design firm. I think the design itself is one of the most beautiful of anything ever made, and I am not just talking about tractors. These tractors had some shortcomings (like the H not having quite as much power as a rubber-tired F-20, and a LOT less torque for sure), but they were light years ahead of the F-20 and F-30 for comfort and ease of driving. The H, especially, is physically not much bigger than an F-14, and has similar characteristics--fairly small engine, running much faster than the tractors of the 20s and 30s, lighter gears, maybe somewhat smaller axles, etc., etc., compared to the F-20s and F-30s. An H is a delightful chore tractor, because it is easy to steer, has excellent visibility from the seat, has a responsive engine and governor, and a pretty good selection of gears. IHC was probably trying to save a little money at the end of the Depression by not putting in an intermediate road gear (say, 8 mph), and that is a real shortcoming. Pulling a loaded farm wagon over a gravel road at 5-6 mph requires the H to be in 4th gear with the throttle wide open. Fifth gear is much too fast to pull a heavy load throttled back to 5 mph. John Deere and Oliver got it right by making a six-speed, with both a fairly-fast high road speed and an intermediate road speed that would allow pulling at 5 or 6 mph with the engine running fast enough to give needed torque. Just for the record, fifth "gear" is not really a gear at all--it is just a dog clutch which moves forward to engage teeth on the input shaft--just like third gear in a traditional 3-speed auto or pickup transmission. This is probably why the tractor is so fast in fifth. Too fast, in my opinion. I still think this choice was an engineering decision to make for a simpler and maybe cheaper gearbox. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this tractor when you get everything working right. When it is painted shiny red, you will feel like a king sitting up there, peering down that beautifully-tapered hood and listening to the crackle of the exhaust.
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Today's Featured Article - Identifying Tractor Noises - by Curtis Von Fange. Listening To Your Tractor : Part 3 - In this series we are continuing to learn the fine art of listening to our tractor in hopes of keeping it running longer. One particularly important facet is to hear and identify the particular noises that our
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