# My New to me Haying Tractor



## Orchard6 (Apr 30, 2014)

I picked up a nice IH 706 gas the other day to add to my small fleet of red tractors. 

It's a 1963 with about 1000 hrs on a major overhaul and 5810 hrs on the tractor itself. It'll be nice having live pto and a T/A for baling.


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## Thumbtack (Jun 18, 2012)

Nice tractor. Hope it serves you well. Not a lot of Red tractors in this part of the country anymore


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

I expect that will make a fine haying tractor whether small square or most round balers for that matter. 8 speeds in gears and 16 speeds with the TA should provide plenty of adequate speed selections and it has the good TA system that will not freewheel on hills in low like the smaller and older farmalls.

I would love to have something along the lines of a Farmall 706, Oliver 15??, Oliver 16??, Case 730 CK, or Case 830 CK in a gasser. Diesel would be better and more fuel efficient but I can fix pretty much anything on a gasser myself where one injector pump rebuild would obliterate my hobby budget for years so I prefer gassers for my piddle patch operation.


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## Orchard6 (Apr 30, 2014)

rankrank1 said:


> I expect that will make a fine haying tractor whether small square or most round balers for that matter. 8 speeds in gears and 16 speeds with the TA should provide plenty of adequate speed selections and it has the good TA system that will not freewheel on hills in low like the smaller and older farmalls.
> 
> I would love to have something along the lines of a Farmall 706, Oliver 15??, Oliver 16??, Case 730 CK, or Case 830 CK in a gasser. Diesel would be better and more fuel efficient but I can fix pretty much anything on a gasser myself where one injector pump rebuild would obliterate my hobby budget for years so I prefer gassers for my piddle patch operation.


Thanks! Your thinking and mine are about the same as far as diesel vs gas. I can rebuild a carb and distributer by myself a lot cheaper than I can pay someone to rebuild an injection pump.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

rankrank1 said:


> I expect that will make a fine haying tractor whether small square or most round balers for that matter. 8 speeds in gears and 16 speeds with the TA should provide plenty of adequate speed selections and it has the good TA system that will not freewheel on hills in low like the smaller and older farmalls.
> 
> I would love to have something along the lines of a Farmall 706, Oliver 15??, Oliver 16??, Case 730 CK, or Case 830 CK in a gasser. Diesel would be better and more fuel efficient but I can fix pretty much anything on a gasser myself where one injector pump rebuild would obliterate my hobby budget for years so I prefer gassers for my piddle patch operation.


We've run Ford diesels since about 72 and NEVER have rebuilt an injection pump... We had a 5200 row crop built in 72 we traded in for a 5610S in 1998 still had the original pump and injectors in it.

If a tractor hasn't been abused, if the pump hasn't been "turned up" and screwed with, and the filters changed regularly, decent quality fuel used in it, and so long as it doesn't have a bazillion hours on it (rest of the tractor will be falling apart), a diesel injection pump will last a long, LONG time...

The ONLY service I've had to do on any of our Ford's diesel injection pumps was replace the leaking O-rings in the shutoff lever housing on top of the pump on our 1983 Ford 2310 3 cylinder diesel... other than that, just change the filters...

Oh, and one 5610S had a bad fuel shutoff solenoid-- they screw into the top of the pump housing and work by a little metal plunger being held up off the seat by a magnet in the solenoid, allowing fuel into the pump... when you turn the key off, the rubber-tipped plunger drops down and stops up the hole allowing fuel into the pump, shutting the engine off... as it was an older one that still had the shutoff cable lever on the pump (for the tractors sold overseas that didn't have the electric shutoff wired to the key) I just took the plunger out, reinstalled the solenoid to allow fuel into the pump, and put a "kill cable" on it by installing a $5 universal "choke cable" kit from the auto parts store on it... problem solved!

Rebuilt a lot of carbs and distributors and crap on cotton pickers and combines back when we were row cropping-- I agree they're simple enough, but man... once you run a diesel that's running right and you take care of it, it's SO much better than those gassers... ESPECIALLY running this modern ABSOLUTE CRAP pump gas!!! Most of those older gas engines (any gas engine tractor WILL be an older one, since diesels pretty much took the market completely by the mid-late 70's at the latest, by and in large) were designed to run on LEADED gas, which was a completely different animal... this modern pump gas is UTTER SH!T by comparison!!! The leaded gas burned better and smoother and didn't attack the fuel system like this modern alcohol crap does... it also lubed the valve seats and top rings with the lead... a lot of those older gas engines will suffer valve seat regression and high wear on the rings and stuff running UNLEADED gas (all you can get now) unless you add special upper engine lubes to them... and that gets expensive too, just for the additives... unless you get it rebuilt and add hardened valve seats, and then you're talking about paying a head guy to mill the seats out and install the hardened inserts...

Gas is enough cheaper than diesel NOW that it probably isn't as much difference in cost per operating hour as it has been in years past... but that will probably change at some point... I know when we got our first diesel powered cotton picker, the fuel cost to harvest the crop dropped to like HALF what we were paying for gasoline for the older gas-powered picker, and it ran better, faster, and cooler to boot with MUCH more power! A friend of my brother's was still running butane/propane powered cotton pickers until a few years ago... they had a 150 gallon propane yard tank on wheels that they constantly towed behind the pickup, refilling those old cotton pickers with butane twice a day... we used to have butane powered Ford 8N's, Grandpa even had a butane JD 620, and after one particular day struggling with the difficulties and dangers of refueling with what is essentially a flammable pressurized refrigerant (propane/butane) I asked him WHY he ever switched to butane?? "Because at the time, butane was 3 cents a gallon and farm gas was 6 cents a gallon!"

Course, it takes a LOT more fuel, the less dense the fuel is... a guy explained it to me this way one time... the proportions aren't *exactly* right, but it's "close enough" to convey the idea--

"If it takes ONE gallon of diesel to do a given amount of work, it'll take TWO gallons of gasoline, or THREE gallons of butane/propane, or FOUR gallons of natural gas (methane)." Simply because the fuels get less and less dense, and contain less energy per unit of fuel...

There's a REASON "everybody" switched to diesel decades ago... if gas was just as good of a tractor fuel, they'd be cranking them out today, especially in comparison with the difficulties faced with meeting diesel emission requirements under Tier 4... Course stick with the old stuff, and you avoid all that complete stupidity and nonsense...

Later! OL JR


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

luke strawwalker said:


> ...There's a REASON "everybody" switched to diesel decades ago... if gas was just as good of a tractor fuel, they'd be cranking them out today...
> Later! OL JR


Oh I agree with you Luke, Diesel is far superior in many ways and If I was a real farmer then I would certainly go that route but I just a piddle patch hobbyist.

Most of my stuff is straight from the junkpile and stuff that is well abused and not in good condition at all but can be purchased real cheap. Purchase price usually in the scrap iron range or less. I can take an old cheap gasser and use it cause I can make it run good enough to do the job (and do the work myself). An old worn out diesel is not my cup of tea though and I can never find one for a song that does not need massive amounts of money pured into it.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Oh, ok... and I agree, I guess I should have clarified that I was speaking more "theoretically"...

That is a nice looking old 706 and there are a lot of those old gassers still around, and you're right, most can be had for a song, because none of the "big boys" want to run them because their either 1) too small for them and/or 2) they don't want to buy the gasoline for them. I'm like you, if it runs and you can get parts for it, and it's paid for, then it's "good enough!"

Heck I wouldn't buy a NEW truck or tractor if I won the lotto tomorrow... I'm sick and tired to the electronics and pollution BS on trucks, and now the new tractors are just as bad. My brother runs "new stuff" at his job with the county drainage district-- his new JD tractor has SIX computers on it... what a complete load of crap! Nothing but trouble... Basically tractors now are about where cars/trucks were in the early 80's-- they've got all this new-fangled computerized crap on them and pollution control equipment, but nobody has any idea how to actually design the stuff to work right, figure out how to fix it and KEEP it working right, and what to do with it when it craps out... Those early 80's cars and trucks were a friggin' NIGHTMARE until they FINALLY started figuring out how to design and build and repair the stuff in the late 80's and 90's... now that they're tightening up everything again and the designers are going nuts adding new electronic/computerized EVERYTHING onto vehicles, they're just rolling repair bills now...

Think my next truck is gonna be about a 78 Chevy or Ford.... something that I can fix myself without having to drop a grand at the local shop every time it has a hiccup, or needs a friggin state inspection sticker... No pollution crap (and it can be pulled off now that it's old enough), no computers and fuel injection, ignition problems, just drop in a new HEI and plug in two wires... alternator out, drop in a new one and hook up two wires, problem solved. I can rebuild one like a 'frame off" car-show type restoration for a HECK of a lot less than I can buy even a USED "new" truck... and not have all the maintenance headaches and crap to put up with like the new ones... And unlike most folks, I don't care about heated seats and steering wheels, electronic everything, etc... all I really care about on a vehicle is a good cruise control, cold air conditioner, and maybe an automatic transmission (preferably controlled by good old reliable HYDRAULICS, not these stupid electronic wonders like now).

Like you with the gasser tractors, yeah, they burn a lot more fuel than "modern" stuff, but then again, a guy can buy a LOT of fuel for the cost difference between the new junk and the old stuff... and that's BEFORE figuring in the additional cost of repairs and problems with all the electronic stuff...

Anyway, it's a good thing that there's guys like us around to keep the "old stuff" going and get its full life potential out of it... KUTGW!!!

Later! OL JR


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## Orchard6 (Apr 30, 2014)

Got a chance to try the 706 in a small field of first cutting native grass. It works excellent! Having the live pto and t/a as well as 75 hp (instead of 40 like in used to!) makes for a sweet baling tractor.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Nice looking rig there... and some nice hay!

Later! OL JR


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Nice looking tractor! Need some wider fronts on it to make it look tough


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