IH Tractors

Hi guys I was wondering if anyone can explain why
the 70-80 vintage tractors made by IH are generally
cheaper to buy than similar Ford or JD models. They
are good long lasting tractors too aren't they?

70s tractors aregreat tractors!early 80s OK.In 85 Case bought out IH.After that,CaseIH tractors went to $h1+.

No way! It is the same here in UK. 70-80 vintage IH just don"t have the reputation as similar aged MF and Ford tractors really. Looking at this forum I get the impression that during the late 70' and 80' Doncaster exported all the good tractors to North America and left the dodgy ones here ( Haha ). During those years Internationals sold like hot cakes around me then they disappeared just as quickly again because of reliability issues. ( Apart from The German built 6 cylinder ones which seemed to be bomb proof! )A guy I know drives tractors for Doncaster Council, doing jobs like mowing and highway maintenance and they were encouraged to buy IH cos that is where the IH factory was. But he always said the Fords they had suffered a lot less downtime than the "Inters". The last IH we had , a 674 bought new in 1977 had several trips to the dealers, whereas the other (Older) Masseys we just kept going. After only 1 week from new it was leaking oil out of the rear engine seal and when the truck driver came to take it in to be repaired he said that day he had taken 3 others back to the dealers with the same problem. A month later it had to go back again for a yet another new seal. One day when I was plowing with it caught fire for no apparent reason and I managed to put it out before any real damge was done but on reflection I should of let it burn. I remember when the XL range came out in the 80's the joke was all they "excel" at was going wrong. Even the local IH dealer got frustrated with them to finish up.
Do I dislike International tractors? Well we bought a B.450 new in 1959, we kept it for 18 years, it pulled like a train and all it ever had in all that time was a new water pump and a hydraulic pump . It was a great tractor.

During the 70's, & 80's most people grew up on the farm with John Deere. Those people turned around & bought, & continue to buy what dad's, & Uncles, etc bought.

Farmall, & IH in the 40's & 50's turned out double the number of Deere's. Then in the 60's developed tractors that were a disaster for service shops. International had 100+ farmers calling in a day with transmission problems on tractors with only 100 hours on them in some cases, & then didnt want to honor the warranties.

John Deere in turn offered to take - in Farmalls defective tractors for "New Generation Tractors" like 3020's, & 4020's! While Deere sales doubled, Farmall / IH suffered heavy losses in which they never recovered.

So fewer IH's on the farms then, means fewer people want them today; Even though the tractors of the 70's were corrected. My Dad bought a 666 gas new in Dec. 74, & he still owns it today. He's not sorry for it, never had a major mechanical breakdown. But the 460, & 560 Farmalls; NO SUCH LUCK!

I own a 1995 Case-IH 7220 & wish now I would have kept it. No major problems with 5,000 hours on it, bought it new. If Farmalls $'s bother You; then You havent looked at Allis Chalmers of the late 70's, & early 80's. I needed to buy a another last year, & wanted a 7020 Allis. Needed to finance; found one with 2500 original hours looked almost brand new the owner wanted $17,500 for it. Loan Value... was around $3,650. I bought a 1992 JD 3055 for $22,500, & $3000 down instead!!! I would have rather had the Allis; But no loan company, or dealer fincaning would touch it!

Scotty

Don't know bout that. Around here the JD's are more expensive but on full sized tractors the next in line are the IH for price. Cheapest is AC. Ford falls in the mid range for the bigger ones.

On utility sized tractors it's Deer then Ford followed by MF. IH is way down by the bottom but have a reputation as a poor tractor.

BIL and his father had 3 560's. They worked em hard. About the only problem they had with em was the crank shaft breaking if they were idled too much.

Rick

Yet for some reason IH out sold Deere in the 1960s in nearly all HP ranges.

My take is a lot of guys prefer the Sound Guard cab of the Deeres versus the cabs on the IH's especially on the 66 series. The transmissions especially on the 40 series row crops were more durable and had more operator friendly qualities to them. In general other than raw power a 4440 Deere has got it over a 1086. And I say this as a person who is most likely to acquire a 1086 over a 4440 due to the price difference.
In the 1980's Deere released the 50 series tractors which had a 15 speed full range powershift (as an option for the row-crops) and mechanical front wheel drive with caster-action which made for a tight turning radius. These features remained unmatched for several years by Deere's competitors.
Everybody's dealer relationship varies here but a lot of IH guys were soured by the merger with Case. Especially hard to take was a lot of farmer's favorite local IH dealer(s) were cancelled for a chain Case dealer. Deere had made a couple of missteps with dealers here in the early 1980's that were unpopular but soon found themselves in the driver's seat with the CaseIH merger.
In general I think the quality was there with the 66 and 86 series row crops but IH's competitors were starting to offer seriously modern tractors and in a lot of instances by 1980 more advanced tractors.
As I have said before with RRLund's threads about dealers that for me the John Deere dealers offer the most in terms of customer support. I disagree with those that say the engineering declined with the merger as I think the Magnums and the later rotary combines are fine products.