Worst tractor you ever drove

[jwal10]

For me, it was an 86 series IH. I have a bad left hand and arm. Seemed like I needed 4 arms to run an 886 when I demo'd it. Controls right beside your left side, throttle on one side, TA on the other way up on the steering column. Or was the throttle and TA that way on the 66 series. I know the throttle, TA and shifters were a long way out of reach for me on the neighbors 1066. Also the controls were so heavy and awkward with a long throw, hyd levers too. I grew up on a DC Case and a Farmall H. Then a 400 Case, later a 706 IH, all before I lost part of the use of left hand and arm at 19. My first tractor was a Farmall B, then an M. 4020 JD and a new 4430 in 1973. I ran 30 series and 40 series until I had to quit farming in '92 because they were easiest to get in and out of and the controls were on the side console. I ran all powershift tractors. Last tractor I bought was a cabbed 2555 JD to mow the farms we rented out.

656 Farmall Hydro was tiring for me, as is the 544 I have now. Much easier running a side console 3020/4020. I had a 454 IH with left side shift and it worked OK for me as the throw was short, right in the right place. I had a lot of older small (er) tractors before my accident that didn't seem so bad, that changed after. Ford 5000, AC 180/185, Massey 275, 1085, 1105, 2745, Case 830, 770, 870. I really liked the 275 Massey. I still have a 2520 Powershift. I had a lot of Farmall M's as utility tractors to dump and jockey peppermint wagons, Got along OK, never farmed much with one after the injury. A lot made a difference in what you got use to, settled into.

I ran a neighbors' AC 7020 planting peppermint and it was tough for me to get use to. Didn't like getting in and out of cab either. The old AC's were not very comfortable. We had an AC M crawler on the farm, about the same as any other brand at the time....James

 

[J.Wondergem]

Allis Chalmers WC with hand brakes. Never want to day dream on one of those.

 

[dhermesc]

Massey 1130. Hard to shift with the dash shifter, extremely noisy cab, never understood how it could feel so unstable - the rocking motion in the cab was like running an old combine - only with a lot less visibility outside the cab.

 

[docmirror]

Oh, easy. JD 1010LP. First - it was underpowered, so JD offered the LP which made it even more underpowered. Being LP, hard to start when cold. The gear selector never worked right. If you got it into some gear, you left it there the whole day. PTO was independent and engaged by a big lever in back that was spring loaded snap-in. If the PTO load didn't spin up fast enough, it would shear the shaft coupling off. JD sold a LOT of those PTO coupling shafts. Power steering had zero feedback, it would wander all over the place. It would leak from the head gasket and require a new one every couple hundred hours. The only one good thing I can say is it had decent brakes.

 

[INCase]

What tractor did you hate the most? For me,it was a 1070 Case. Under powered,cumbersome,POS powershift trans,besides being beat to holy crap. Because of that tractor,I have hated those Case tractors.Drove another one later. Better tractor,but still a POS. So bad,it/they effected me for life.I ran and spent a lot of hours on a 2590 back in 2018. Pulled like locomotive,sipped fuel,started good(first piston up),had good brakes.Manuverable,easy to operate.
Acctually it was a pretty good tractor. Nothing wrong with it. But I hated it. Just because it was Case.All because of that 1070.

I spent alot of time on the neighbors 970 and i didn't think it was that bad for comfort.

worst i'd say is probably IH 886 we had at Gehl in the test shop. was a reasonably low hour machine but was a bear to shift and was noisy.

also spending alot of time plowing on a WD45 was a bit miserable as well.

 

[hd6gtom]

The worst tractors I ever ran were N ford's. The most gutless, useless pieces of crap that ever had 4 rubber tires put in them. The old Ford mechanic I got to know well told me that Henry Ford designed the brakes on those miserable pieces of crap to be just a little better than the brakes on a covered wagon. Neighbor had 3 of them and I got to run them all

 

[Farmerwright97]

Oliver oc3 with a loader, I'm 6'4" and its the most uncomfortable tractor I've ever been on, even after moving the seat 6" back. other then that its a fun little tractor, just cant imagine using it for a length of time

 

[gene bender]

the worst tractor to get on or off was an Allis B/C/CA OK once you got on. I really liked our Farmall H and M but no live power.

 

[gene bender]

the worst tractor to get on or off was an Allis B/C/CA OK once you got on. I really liked our Farmall H and M but no live power.