I was born in the mid-1960's and grew up on our family farm. I still spend quite a bit of time on the farm, particularly in the spring and the fall. We used to have pretty much all IH equipment on our farm until we hit the mid-1970's. Our 806 Farmall was the start of the change. It was a "lemon," which was mostly attributed to its gasoline powered engine, rather than the Torque Amplifier, which tends to come up rather often in criticism towards the products made by IH. When our local dealer had his IH dealership taken away, that cinched it. There were various product shortcomings/issues over the years, and some of these were raised by those who commented. There were management issues, which resulted in poor decisions being made which had long term and significant negative repercussions to the company. My father was involved in a product development survey group sometime in the 1970's, initiated by International Harvester. I tend to believe some of the outcome from that stemmed to the development and release of the 5X88 series, which I thought turned out to be a very good tractor, and basically served as the basis for the original Magnum tractor line. This tractor came out too late and during a time leading into the depths of the farm crisis. Had it come out earlier, particularly it being released rather than the 86 Series, it might have helped some, but probably would have stalled off what did happen for a few years. None of us really know for sure, but International Harvester struggled and ultimately failed. I tend to think of International Harvester and its failure in a similar light to our nation's domestic auto industry, particularly General Motors. At one time, General Motors was a powerhouse of a company, and I recalled reading that in its glory, GM was the single largest employer in this country. What we have today pales in comparison, and I believe Wal-Mart holds that distinction of single largest employer. Draw your own conclusions as to what I think about that analogy. There are certainly parallels between IH and GM. Both were "top dog" in their industry at one time. Both have had their struggles with unions. Both have had poor management during some critical times in history. Both had products rushed to production and sold to the consumer. Both have had resultant outcomes from all these difficulties/issues which led to problematic products sold to the customer. The loyalty of the ultimate purchaser is no longer what it once was. I cite this because I have had some "buyer's remorse" with the majority of my GM products, just like my father and grandfather had with their IH products they purchased in the 1960's and 1970's.
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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