Schwartz Wide Front

[wonderingAl]

What are your thoughts on putting a Schwartz wide front (no welds/repairs) onto a Farmall M that has the narrow front now? Which is overall the better application for that tractor? What about if you might put a F11 loader onto the tractor? I read somewhere that someone thought the schwartz was too light???? Maybe for a heavy tractor??? 6500 pounds?

 

[sd pete]

I had the heavy duty schwartz on a 806 loader tractor and never wrecked it. In my opinion it was a better front end than the ihc.

 

[rustyfarmall]

There have been lots of Schwartz wide fronts installed on lots of different tractors over the years and the only ones I ever saw get torn up or broken were owned or used by folks that could also totally destroy a brand new wrecking bar in about 10 minutes of work. Just like anything else, if you show it a little respect, it will serve you well for many years to come.

 

[Steven f/AZ]

I have the heavy-duty Schwartz wide front on my H and in my opinion it looks heavier than the factory IH front end on our 544 or even maybe the 1256.

Just like anything, misuse/abuse will result in breakage.

 

[rich3]

We had a Schartz wide front on an Allis WD45 loader tractor, it was heavy duty, but eventually added power steering as it seemed the hub offset was greater than the factory set up would have been. So it steered hard with heavy loads. Maybe could have found different offset wheels to correct that, but the wheels never clogged with mud or such.
Just my observations.

 

[Anonymous-0]

How do you distinguish between heavy duty and "standard"?

 

[Steven f/AZ]

The heavy duty front end uses regular implement hubs with 6-bolt wheels.

The light duty has the cast hubs that the rims bolt on to with 3 bolts... at least that"s how it is with the IH front ends.

Here is a pic of an older heavy duty Schwartz on my H:

 

[Anonymous-0]

Obviously, the heavier the front end the better, but a loader is hard on row crop front ends...REGARDLESS. If you use the loader a lot, you can certainly expect high maintanence. In buying used tractors I avoid ones with loaders on the front as I do pickups with snowplows. Neither one was made for it.

Glenn F.

 

[wonderingAl]

Great information on the differrence between "light" and "heavy" schwartz wide front ends. Based on that I have a "light" front end that I can keep instead of the narrow front twin tire set-up. Would you keep the schwartz over the narrow front? Even if I might put a Farmhand F11 loader on later?????

 

[Steven f/AZ]

I have an H with the heavy Schwartz, and an H with a narrow front.

I"ll take any decent wide front over a narrow - especially with a loader!

The wide front will not sink/push mud like a narrow would. Wider is always better with a loader. Be sure to set your rear wheels out fairly wide as well to prevent tipping.

 

[wonderingAl]

More good insight. Like I would get from my Grandfather and Uncles...When changing out the front ends is it a matter of proper front support for the tractor and then a matter of undoing bolts??? and rebolting after the switch? Or is it a process a tractor repairman should do?

 

[DennyF]

My uncle switched his original M and his H to WFEs back in the late 50s and early 60s, primarily for better stability (most of his tillable land was hilly).

The H had an IH front end obtained from a parts tractor at the dealer, the M had a Central Tractor front end (Scwartz, most likely as that's what it looks like and uses standard implement wheels).

He thought the IH front end "handled better", but the one on the M was much sturdier. Just the opinions of an old farmer who ran those tractors for many years.

He also had another M with narrow front end, which is what he prefered to use to back loaded wagons onto the barn floor in haying season.

 

[Steven f/AZ]

As long as you have the right parts, it"s unbolt and bolt back up.

Make sure you properly support the tractor and block the rear wheels well so it doesn"t move/fall. SAFETY FIRST!

 

[Tim Shaw]

We've got 3 Farmall 460s all with Schwartz wide front ends. One of them is the heavy front end. It's got bigger spindles than the one Steven has pictured. The two lighter front end have the factory IH hubs on them (six bolt wheels). The heavy front end has heavier hubs that evidently came with the front end (they are the same Schwartz red as the rest of the front end).

http://www.aisalesrep.com/pdfretail\ag/schwartz.pdf

 

[Lee in Iowa]

My neighbor had a thing made for installing wide fronts that helped a lot. It was a T shaped bar that clamped on the back end of the wish bone on the back end of the wfe and was long enough to hold the wfe level and had two lawn mower wheels at the bottom. This way you could roll the wide front around to get it into position and get bolts started. Lee

 

[ih560]

The Heavy duty Schwartz has larger spindles. All the schwartz front ends, were made to work with the factory hubs. If you had the large cast centers you could reuse those on your front end, or if you had 6 lug hubs you used those on your front end. The hubs had nothing to do with whether it was Heavy duty or not. I just put a schwartz wfe on my 560 and you just take the hubs off the narrow front and put them on the wide front.

 

[Duanes]

I have two Schwartz one on a MTA and one on a 400. I would be happy to trade both for two of the newer IH widefronts with tie rods in back.

 

[Tim Shaw]

(quoted from post at 00:47:42 10/11/07) The Heavy duty Schwartz has larger spindles. All the schwartz front ends, were made to work with the factory hubs. If you had the large cast centers you could reuse those on your front end, or if you had 6 lug hubs you used those on your front end. The hubs had nothing to do with whether it was Heavy duty or not. I just put a schwartz wfe on my 560 and you just take the hubs off the narrow front and put them on the wide front.

The heavy schwartz front end does come with hubs. Look at the pdf file in the following link.

http://www.aisalesrep.com/pdfretail\ag/schwartz.pdf

 

[Tim Shaw]