ALL ABOUT TRACTORS BY PAUL WALLEN I was born lucky. Son of an Illinois dairy farmer, I’ve been around tractors all my life. Dad had a well-worn Farmall F-14 that I clearly remember sitting on. It had steel lug wheels. Of the eight tractor brands I’ve had experience with, the F-14 is the only one I never drove. Too young. I’ve had the opportunity to operate different models of these eight brands: International, Allis Chalmers, John Deere, Massey Harris, Case, Ford, Big Bud and Steiger. My favorite? I’ll save that for later. My first driving experience was on the Allis Chalmers WC that Dad replaced the F-14 with. I was about nine and started pulling loads of hay in from the field. Very slow. I think second gear was the fastest he would let me use. It was on rubber tires. About this same time, when I was in fourth grade our neighbor paid me 50 cents an hour to plow with his International 10-20. Compared to the Allis it was hard to drive. Steel wheels with lugs really rode rough. I wasn’t strong enough to crank it so he started it for me. I plowed two hours after school. At three miles an hour I could walk faster. However, I was a dollar richer every day for about a week. When I was old enough to plow corn, I found out about the misery of cross-cultivating. When I was 14 we got a new AC WD-45. I remember that it was a big improvement over the WC. You collectors that own both know the differences. It was surely more modern. Sometime later Dad rented more acres and added a second tractor, a John Deere G. I drove it very little because the Allis was our cultivating tractor and that was my job, By now we had given up check-row planting, so cross-cultivation was a thing of the past. Thankfully! I do remember a few times on hot days when I would doze off and plow out a few yards of corn till I got back on the row. My older brother ran the corn picker in the fall and always told Dad about the missing corn, He couldn’t leave it alone. Next the Deere G got replaced with a Massey Harris 44 6 cylinder. It was the quietest tractor we had ever owned, and nice to drive. I recall it had the best seat yet. By now I had started high school and joined FFA. I didn’t realize it at the time but that membership and the guidance of our great Vo-Ag instructor Walter Baysinger decided an ag career for me. 4-H membership was also a big influence on my teen years. One spring during high school years a neighbor needed help and I disced for him several days. I recall he had a Case SC, a nice tractor. (Little did I know that 35 years later I would become a CaseIH dealer.) I recall the logo on that Case, an eagle sitting on a world globe. As I wrote this I researched that image. In 1861 James Increase Case witnessed a hand-trained eagle appearing in a parade as the mascot of a Wisconsin army regiment. He was called Old Abe by the troops in honor of President Lincoln. Mr. Case chose to design his company logo around a symbol of Old Abe standing on a world globe. The logo first appeared on an 1865 Case Eclipse thresher, and appeared on the company products until 1969. A 104-year trademark! During my first year in college (Univ. of Il) I found out about the ag mechanization program within the College of Agriculture. It provided a major in farm equipment. I had always liked equipment (much more than dairy cows) and this became a perfect program for me. It led to a summer internship with International Harvester, and after that I spent 13 years with IH. Tractors became a big part of my life from that time on. During the early years with IH I attended their training school at Tifton, Georgia. For a week we operated Farmall and competitive brands in the field, (and tried to appreciate eating grits.) The Ford 6000 had just come on the market and their Select-O-Speed was impressive. Even though IH had experimented with hydrostatic in the HT-340 gas turbine, the hydro transmission was not marketed until 1967, a big step forward in tractor transmissions. In 1969 I purchased an IH dealership. We held field days to give customers a chance to drive new models. I always took time to drive them myself, and enjoyed that. During the 80’s we tried to market the 525 HP Big Bud. That tractor was a real driving experience. Pulling a 52 foot chisel plow for example. It was just too big for our market in Illinois. Big Bud closed their doors in 1990. One of our smartest moves at that time was to obtain a Steiger franchise. An extremely reliable tractor, it was the right size for our area. Today the CaseIH Steiger continues to be a major competitor. So there you have it. My experiences with eight tractor brands. My favorite? All of them. I just like tractors. Paul Wallem was raised on an Illinois dairy farm. He spent 13 years with corporate IH in domestic and foreign assignments. He resigned to own and operate two IH dealerships. He is the author of THE BREAKUP of IH and SUCCESSES AND INDUSTRY FIRSTS of IH. See all his books on www.PaulWallem.com |
