George: Your right, I've operated many tractors since right up to 2007 models, and I've yet to see any tractor I liked more than my 656. It could have and should have had a TA that didn't freewheel. Those 656, 666 and 686 were comfortable even if your posterior was plunked in that seat 16 hours. Much more comfortable than the larger 56, 66 and 86 series, I believe it was the positionong of seat in relation to steering wheel and pedals. I once planted corn with my 656, close to 48 hours non stop. I should qualify that non stop, every 4 hours a young lad I had working for me, would come with lunch, help fill up with fertilizer and seed, he'd take that fill up, (about 1 hour) I'd eat my lunch, then catch a cat nap on pickup seat.
My 656 went 10,000 hours before rebuild, and the only repairs in the 10,000 hours was a rebuild of gear shift linkage, one bent valve push rod and one hydraulic pump. There was no damn need of that pump, I shouldn't have listened to an oil guy that told me his oil was Hytran equivilant. 3 pumps within 1 month, 300, 560 and 656. Other than that it was tires, filters, oil, grease, antifreeze and fuel. I've exchanged info with many 656, 666 and 686 owners, my tractor was not unusual. Unless someone was careless the diesels were all that good. Most of the 56 series tractors were just that good, just a more perfect Farmall M.
Speaking of a more perfect Farmall M, about 5 years ago, and this story is in the YT archives. I was dump trucking about 10 miles from here, up and down the same road in planting time. Two old guys were planting corn, Farmall 300 on a 4 row corn planter and the other guy doing tillage and broadcast fertilizer with a Super M. I stopped and watched him one day, pulling one of those 8 ton, tandem axle fertilizer spreaders that most folks use 100hp plus on. He was hiking along in 4th gear, smoking his pipe, basically unconcerned the old Super M would have any difficulty on the hill in the field, he had no need to be concerned, the SM climbed the hill never missed a beat and I could still see fertilizer above the sides, so he did still have weight on.
5 miles down the same road was and new dead articulated Deere, 46' cultivator with wings down, and parked diagnol to shape of field. During the day about 6 Deere service trucks came and went. Another big Deere came in and tilled around it, then a 16 row corn planter planted around it. It sat there for two days, before it was gone. Next morning there was a guy with a 3020, 3 point field cultivator, 3 point fertilizer spreader and 4 row planter, planting the close to 2 acres the dead Deere had occupied. Can you even imagine making the payments on that big beast, having it set there the two best days of planting season. If that had been me, you'd have heard me yelling at mother Deere all the way to KY. That is my point, we never had that happen 30-40 years ago, un heard of back then. In the past 5 years I've heard more stories about farmers being without their main horse power for days at a time in the busy season, all makes too. All I can think of, there must be one hoard of wimps farming today.
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Today's Featured Article - An AC Model M Crawler - by Anthony West. Neil Atkins is a man in his late thirties, a mild and patient character who talks fondly of his farming heritage. He farms around a hundred and fifty acres of arable land, in a village called Southam, located just outside Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. The soil is a rich dark brown and is well looked after. unlike some areas in the midlands it is also fairly flat, broken only by hedgerows and the occasional valley and brook. A copse of wildbreaking silver birch and oak trees surround the top si
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