What would you buy?

Styling of 06 and 56 series is much more desirable than 66 series. 06 and 56 series tractor come second only to the letter series, on that, and I think that will play out in value and collectability someday.

I can think of two farms that have been in operation for well over 75 years. In both cases the Super M and 856 are still there. The 66 and 86 series tractors have long since been traded off on new CaseIH or Deere. Another factor to remember, 06 and 56 series tractors were for the most part paid for when the mid 80s downturn hit. Many of the 66 and 86 series tractors were run on bare bones maintainence, just for survival of the farm. The farmer that had them all paid off when that hit, was much more able to withstand the downturn, thus he looked after them well and hoped for the best. I've always said 56 series was the best IH ever built and it was downhill from there, but just maybe farm economy had more to do with this than tractor quality.

Dunno,

Allan

casey in SD

casey

The only collectable I can think of is maybe one of those "68" thingys. 1468 or 1568? The ones with the truck V8 in 'em?

For some reason, people go nuts over those silly things.

Allan

The 1206 is pretty good - except that so many where turned up to 150hp+ to run with the big dogs. The transmissions on those tractors just don't stand up that well to heavy feild work over a long duration. We owned one in the 70s and ran it up past 9000 hours before the trannie self destructed - but that could also have been due to the abuse it took with a dozer blade mounted on it.

As for the durability of the 66 & 86 series tractors, we bought one (1972/73?) 1466 new that was run up to 16,000 hours on a single overhaul before sold and one (1979) 1486 that is still in the field with 20,000+ hours with two overhauls. Neither of these tractors have (had) a major mechaincal failure. The 86 series cab is a huge leap in operator comfort over the 66 series cab.

Problem with the 1066 and 1086 tractors is the same as the 1206, most were turned up to run with the 14s and suffered as a result.

My brother has the only 1456 that I have spent any time on, an open station tractor with only 6000+ hours. I've only pulled an 18' disk and a few other lighter impliments behind it. It just doesn't seem to have the meat and bull power that the 1466 and 1486 series tractors have that I have run. But then the 1466 weighs almost 2000 pounds more then a 1456.