Ultimate Tractor

[RMCIII 838]

Just something to start a discussion. My Ultimate Tractor, and I am seeking 1, is a Steiger Panther IV, 360hp. While the practicality, of it's use, is limited to heavy agriculture use. It also can be used for residential. Just fit it with a 10' plow and you have a great looking, eye popping, jaw dropping winter Green Machine. The Steiger paved the way for the articulated tractor. While there were others before this model. The Steiger demonstrated cost savings, high HP, and versatility for the user. I choose the IV model, only because, I spent a better part of 2 years in the cab of 1. At first, I hated it. The A-B-C-D range was difficult to select when stopped. You had to shake, rattle and roll the levers into place. The 5 spd. trans. was difficult to select higher gears when on the road. < Man it was a pain to get into road range. D-5, was almost impossible to reach while shifting on-the-fly. Starting out in this gear was impossible. But as I grew to understand the unique characteristics of the tractor. I really began to enjoy spending time in the cab. Pulling a 12 bottom plow, or a 15 shank chisel plow was nothing for this brute monster. The "decelerator" pedal was truly an outstanding feature. The ability to swivel the seat, to the right, so you could see the implement better you were pulling was a thing of beauty then. No other articulated tractor, at that time, had the HP, versatility, or economical price tag/for the amount of HP you got. Basically, you could not buy a better tractor that was easy to keep up, high HP and did not break your bank when you took out the loan. Sooooo. The Steiger is my ultimate tractor...... What is yours???

 

Edited October 5, 2013 by RMCIII

[rmaynard 15,461]

Something RED!!!!

[RMCIII 838]

Something RED!!!!

 

That narrows it down! LOL.

[squonk 41,118]

Back when I had my A/C business I used to do mobile a/c repair at area farms. I had 1 older farmer that had all Farmall/IH tractors and did custom combining all over the north eastern part of our county. Great  guy and would always pay in cash what I wanted for any job with out quibbling. His son on the other hand thought he new everything and let everyone know about it. Anyway his son bought one of those Panthers. Father was pissed because it was green!  Dad called one day because the Panther's A/C quit. I came down spent about 4 hours there and when done told dad the total. He reaches in his pocket and gives me $50 more than I wanted and says the extra is because his son is paying and it's green!   Son comes into the store I worked at a couple of days later squawking about the cost. I say it's fixed, aint it? and he leaves.

 

Fast forward 6 month's. Son calls yelling that his A/C doesn't work. I go out there and just the dad's there. I start it up and the A/c is running but little air is coming out the vents. I ask if the filters have been checked lately and the dad said his son just changed every filter on it. I pull the cover on the smaller stack and the filter is plugged solid. Now air is flowing good without the filter, OOPS!! Son missed that one! The Dad ask's how much I needed and I say don't worry about it. He reaches into his pocket and hands me $50 and says it will be worth the look on his son's face when he gets home!

[RMCIII 838]

You are correct about the A/C filters....They were a dirt magnet. Course, in the field was nothing but dirt. But you did need to change them, or blow them out, more often than other tractors. They just plain "sucked" the dirt in. No pun intended. Daily you would grease all the shafts and knuckles in the pivot area. 12 in all. < If you did this alone, it could take you almost an hour to do. Not because of the zerts being difficult to get to, it was because you had to get the shafts rotated correctly to fill them. The other option, have someone you trust, WITH YOUR LIFE, in the cab and you guessed it. Make sure tractor is in A-1 and ever so gently ease the clutch out. You would walk with the tractor, at the pivot area, until the zert was in the correct position. < VERY VERY DANGEROUS I KNOW> But in those days safety was talked about but seldom practiced. Just like climbing under the head of a combine back then. Then did not have the braces, for the rams, they have today. You just crawled under it and hoped the hydraulics did not fail. Sorry, got off on another subject. Back to the A/C. Every other day you checked your filters. < Not really, but at least once a week you would need to check them.

[RMCIII 838]

Mike- forgot to mention. His dad can't be mad anymore..... Steiger is now RED>>>> But I am not a fan of the new one's... They are great tractors. But they lack the lines and hard corners the old ones had. Kinda like automobiles today. Given my choice, I'll take a 71 or 72 Formula or T/A. The Formula's are a much rarer bird...< HAHA>

[baerpath 517]

2470 Case before they got messed up with IH and Steiger.   Great pulling tactors and the crab steering was a major plus in the mud or soft ground.     Neighbor still has the old girl going strong when he really needs pulling power or when the other neighbor sticks his 2+2 lol

[squonk 41,118]

His dad had a IH combine that I had to stand on the running engine to work on the A/C! 

[RMCIII 838]

2470 Case before they got messed up with IH and Steiger.   Great pulling tactors and the crab steering was a major plus in the mud or soft ground.     Neighbor still has the old girl going strong when he really needs pulling power or when the other neighbor sticks his 2+2 lol

 

Another great choice.... Along the same line was the 4890 w/ the Scania v-8 diesel. The only problem with that engine in the case, the trans and rear ends suffered. The engine would create entirely too much HP/torque for the drivetrain. If you got past that issue, you could juice that little monster to over 400hp......

[RMCIII 838]

His dad had a IH combine that I had to stand on the running engine to work on the A/C! 

 

1400 series or 1600?

[squonk 41,118]

I don't remember. Old enough to be using R12. I do remember cleaning the pounds of chaff out of the condenser coil! 

[baerpath 517]

 

His dad had a IH combine that I had to stand on the running engine to work on the A/C! 

 

1400 series or 1600?

 

Could have been a 915  We had one of those traded it in on  a 1460.

[RMCIII 838]

Duane-True.

[6wheeler 603]

For me? An 8630 JD. That was the machine for me. We always had 2wd or front assist tractors from 3010's to 4640's with 2- 5020's in there too. All green and yellow til one day the dealer shows up with a 2470 on the trailer and takes my favorite 4320 away. I hated that tractor. Until the first time I used it  for chopping corn silage. It was a wet fall and it made chopping alot easier. Two years later it was traded for a new 4640 fwa. Excellent trade in my opinion because I never really did like the Case. My uncle used to pimp me out to all the neighbors when they needed help and the one I was loaned out to the most had an 8630. It took me awhile to get used to that articulated tractor, but once I got the hang of it? I fell in love. That animal could pull a continent. It was quiet, strong and just plain cool. To this day I want one. I don't know what I would use it for. But, I might find a reason some day.

[meadowfield 2,570]

If we are talking vintage then a Fordson Major or Dexta with a county 4wd conversion.

 

 

 

If we are talking newer then a Muir Hill 131 or a County 1184TW.

 

 

 

 

 

I like big wheels

[baerpath 517]

We also had an Oliver 2255 4x4 that thing was a pulling beast. That was before we went with the Cases  My uncle stuck his 1486 IH while chopping. My mother pulled him, the chopper and a 12 ton tandem wagon loaded out And he wasn't even in gear.

  Ours was the earlier version with the Cat 3208 but the kitty got stoked out to 370 pto hp Sadly the overdrive didn't survive the hired hands quick shifts

[SousaKerry 501]

IH 706 gas...

 

Yup gas!

 

Grew up diving and fixing that monster, it may have only been rated at 70HP but it could out pull any of the 125HP tractors the neighbors had.  My dad was an early convert to no-till and that was our big tractor.  Every drill we would borrow was rated for a 125HP tractor, that 706 would pull it all day.  We finally wound up buying our own 15' no-till JD drill and the neighbor borrowed it one year.  Dad told him we pulled it no problem with the 706 he brings down his JD whatever 125HP tractor pulls it away comes back couple of days later and says his tractor wouldn't pull it, and had to get his big 4x4 to pull it.  

 

You couldn't shift them things to save your life without grinding gears, it was loud, no cab, no radio, no creature comforts other then the springs in the seat.  But it would pull all day never heat up and get you home. 

 

http://www.usfarmer.com/fetch_file/?id=6651552

Edited October 7, 2013 by SousaKerry

[baerpath 517]

We had a 806 hooked to 5 18's it would plow all day.  I still like that body style best for the IH's

[6wheeler 603]

The 1 big IH we had was a 1206. The TA was out of it so it just ran an 3pt. mounted auger that had a feed end that was like a single stage snowblower and it fed into the main 12" auger that went out over the front of the tractor. It was 35 feet long. You backed it into the pile in our shed or corn bunkers and the trucks either pulled in sideways (if there was room) or backed under it. It was raised or lowered in the front via a hydraulic cylinder that was mounted on the auger frame. The auger ran between the seat and the left rear wheel. So, the fender was removed and the wheel moved out as far as it would go. That was a comical setup. But, strangely enough? It worked quite well. When we got big grain bins. It was sold to a local elevator and they still have it and use it every year. Oh yeah, the TA is still out of it. 

[SousaKerry 501]

Yeah those TA's were a problem early on, we rebuilt ours soon after we got it.  But when they worked they were great, Dad's farm is a mixture of about every type of soil known to man and when you hit a hard clay area you just pulled back on the TA and keep going.  Once you were through throw it forward and away you go.  Nothing like a 30% speed drop without having to hit the clutch and try to shift that big notchy tranny.  Of coarse this was a 1960's design before Hydro's and power shifts took over.

[RMCIII 838]

All great tractors. I consider myself blessed to having the privilege of being a farmer. I started out on a Ford 9n when I was just 5yrs. old. Graduated to an 806 at the age of 8. During my teens is when I spent 2yrs straight in the cab of the Steiger. I also spent many hours in many JD's, ranging from a 4020 all the way up to a 9750 STS Combine. Massy Ferguson, Case and New Holland were other tractors I spent hours in the seat. But nothing was like the Steiger Panther. Many nights I would take a nap in the cab. I'd idle it down, turn up the heat, take about a 40 minute nap and I was ready to run all night long. I remember several times working straight through the night. Was the first one in, fueled back up all 400 gallons and back in the field again. Had 24 lights total on the tractor. At night it looked like just 1 big bright blur in the distance. I am rambling.....

[papaglide 542]

You aren't rambling RMCIII! Those are great stories! Thanks to all of you for sharing!

[6wheeler 603]

I say ramble on. My favorite tractor we had was, as I mentioned the 4320 earlier. I thought that tractor was just an animal. My uncle was known as the JD fixit guy in our area and everyone brought their tractors to him. Anyway, knowing his way around them, the 4320 received an aftercooler, bigger turbo, and some pump work. Suddenly, it went from a good tractor to a great tractor, with the addition of 20.8x38's and 14L-16's on the front it just looked big. It would handle 6- 18"s all day and never argue. A 22' disc and a 24' digger were no match for it. And, it only drank about 7 or 8 gallons per hour. We took it to town so it could be put on the dyno an the dealer. Their dyno went up to 250hp at the time and they couldn't get an reading because it went to the limit. So we just called it 245+ hp. We took it to the county fair and pulled it in the 15,500lb, out of field class. It won 1st place. So being we owned a farm  in the next  county as well,  we entered it there as well. What a S@#t storm that started. Apparently there was one fellow that generally won every year in this county. He didn't like it and said" they are from Rice Co. and shouldn't be here". Well, somehow the officials agreed. Even though we had 150 acres with an address and a house that was rented out in that county. They said," You can't just be a land owner, you must live and farm in the county to be eligible. But, since you do farm and own land but, not live here, you can pull in the consolation pull". Well, this appeased the whiner because he approved. When it came to the consolation pull it was just us and him and 1 other guy. They upped this class to 17,500lb but it still had to be field ready. So here they were, a brand new(the whiners) 1468 IH. A 1185 Massey Ferguson, and The 4320 JD. The whiners 1468 finished "LAST" at 164' . The Massey went 182' and the 4320 was a full pull. The funny part is that the whiner should have settled for his first pull which would have at least given him second because it was 184'. Needless to say, we didn't pull there again. The tractor did have an Achilles heel though. The clutch. Way too small a setup for what we did to it. So changing clutches was a regular thing on it. I like these kinds of threads, interesting stories. RMClll, ramble on.

[RMCIII 838]

It's funny, how the tractors of today, just don't see to compare to the tractors of yesterday. I would say that it's a great example of a discussion that was talked about a while back in RS..... Horse Power...I've been in the new tractors producing some 450hp... But they just seemed to lack that extra punch when you would be going through packed clay or end rows that had been driven on by tractor trailers. Something to be said when you would hear the clatter and cackling of a 2 cycle Detroit Diesel under load. Rambling again...

[squonk 41,118]

Not a tractor but we just discontinued a Emergency Generator at work that was 2 2cycle 8 cyl turbocharged  Detroits bolted together. It was located in the basement and not outside. Made the lab above it vibrate so much that all the new fangled equipment in there almost useless when it's running.