There seems to be an abundance of Cornbinders on this site lately. Is it harvest season? Well, I’m all for that, and would like to contribute further to that glut.
Now there are two things to consider as you read this article. The first is that tractors are a breed unto themselves. They are not just slow moving cars with big back tires.
The second is that there is no fool like an old fool. I’m going to prove that here. I think you might get a little enjoyment hearing something of my misadventures with a Cub. Hopefully, if you’re considering becoming a rookie with agricultural equipment (as I was) you might learn something, and avoid lightening your retirement account as I did. If not, just don’t snicker too loudly.
The International Cub was built for some thirty years, and is a bit of an icon. So let’s go through a little history before we visit one particular 1978 model. Probably some of you (Scoutdude?)know more about IHC than I do.
If you know anything about farm equipment you may have heard the names McCormick/Deering, Farmall, and International Harvester Corporation. IHC was the major player in that field during most of the last century. International Harvester Corporation had the right to use all those names.
After several years of trying to kill each other, JP Morgan managed to get the McCormick and Deering companies to merge with some smaller players into what became known as the International Harvester Corporation. You might find a McCormick dealer and a Deering dealer across the street from each other. In 1912 antitrust legislation forced IHC to reduce that to one dealer per town. McCormick and Deering became IHC model names. In the 1920’s Farmall joined them.
The original Farmall was built for row crop work, unlike the Fordson of the times. That is to say they were built with narrow front wheels and high ground clearance. They were built that way as part of the plan to replace horses and mules on farms.
To replace equines, it had to be cheap, dependable, and go just about anywhere. Internationals were all of that, and the manufacturing was said to be the equal of Ford’s Fordson and the John Deeres. They sold like hotcakes, and farmers bought into the mechanization idea. IHC, particularly with the Farmall, became the country’s largest seller of farm tractors.
What it didn’t do much for, however, was the guy who had one to five acres and one horse or mule. There had been some efforts at building small tractors, but for the most part, he had to wait until the business of WW2 was over.
The Cub:
Ever since the 1870’s, due to the increased use of mechanized equipment, farms have consistently become larger. More successful farmers bought smaller ones out. Corporation farms replaced many family farmers, especially in places like California. Tractors became ever larger, and today they may have eight or more wheels or rubber tracks, and an air conditioned cab.
For the really small farmer, however, things didn’t change all that much, and for them International developed the Cub. First built in 1947 with a whopping eight horsepower, it was marketed with the intent of taking the place of the horse on the one horse farm. In its life it has been called the Farmall Cub, McCormick/Deering Cub, and the International Harvester Cub. They used decals until they were gone so one might see any combination of those names.
Late 1940s Farmall Cub
They uniformly used Farmall red until the latter years as a means of not-so subtle advertising. The color changed to yellow as the emphasis shifted away from small-scale farming to industry and landscaping in 1960. There were over 245,000 Cubs sold from 1947 to 1981.
The EPA’s control over certain pesticides, along with the concept of sustainability with small farms helped sustain the long-term use of the Cub. I have a cousin in Kansas who owns more than one. Parts are available all over the internet. Enough history. Lets go to one particular 1978 International Harvester Cub.
#1 Son playing cowboy on Dad's new tractor
First of all, there is very little practical reason for me to own a tractor. I use the handle wstarvingteacher, but in reality I am now neither starving nor a teacher. I was a teacher but retired the summer before last. We bought the tractor because either my wife thought I needed a tractor badly as a retirement gift or because the yard (all five acres) looked like this.
Our lawn before tractor, donkeys, or llamas
We had a population explosion with our little herd of donkeys, and mama wanted and got two llamas. We should have waited. However, our yard was overgrown so we looked for tractors on ebay, and there it sat. It looked for all the world like a real farm tractor but smaller with a belly mounted brush hog. We had to have it.
We paid too much. The man delivered it in a large horse trailer and unloaded it. He did a demo for us before we paid and accepted delivery. We encountered major problems very quickly, but I bought it from an honest man. At least, he refunded $500 of the purchase price very quickly when I told him about some of the immediate bills.
The engine on the Cub is offset to the left. The driver is offset somewhat to the right. This allows for a lot better visibility and keeps you from running over chickens and/or grandkids. It was even given the a name “Culti-Vision” by International. Please note the epoxy bandaid on the water sump. You will hear more about that later.
The engine block is a flathead four. This tractor was made two and a half decades after Ford quit making flatheads for cars. It is approximately 60 cid, and the engine serves as an integral part of the frame. You can see that pretty clearly in the late 1940s model above.
I viewed this fact with a great deal of chagrin very early in our relationship. The pressure plate disintegrated and changing the clutch was fairly expensive. Who knew. I worked the adjustments but no go. I could put it in gear and start. It would immediately start out but you had to turn it off to stop it. It could be used in an emergency with planning. To split the frame and change the clutch cost about a thousand dollars. I was not happy;
The sump
There was no sign of a water pump. There is a sump directly under the radiator. This is a thermosyphon system. Shortly after the clutch blew up I experienced radiator problems. Do not listen to the cruel, sadistic, expletive deleted, idiots experts who advise you that you can put a pressurized cap on the system for improved performance.
The internet found the radiator in Kentucky and it was the first thing that I fixed. It gave rusty a whole new meaning in my mind.
With the clutch and radiator fixed, it worked pretty good. Loved the brush hog. Then I broke my leg. I guess because of sympathy pains, the cub decided to break again as well.
Despite it’s age-related infirmities, I can hardly describe how tough the Cub is. It takes a Timex-style licking and keeps on ticking. Somehow, in the process of doing too many things at the same time and recovering from that broken leg, the cooling system managed to explode. I don’t really know if it was a pressurized cap or if it just got caught in a freeze. Probably the latter. You become pretty inattentive to the great outdoors when you are on a couch with your leg in a cast.
When I was well enough to walk normally, I started up my tractor. I found water pouring out from under the hood when I tried to fill the radiator. When I opened the hood I found a large opening in the head. This is a cellphone picture but the crack is obvious
cracked flathead
Since there was no water in the oil or oil in the water I bought some JB weld. I cut up a landscape nail, shoved it in the wide parts of the crack and cemented it in with JB weld. Seems to work fine. I drilled a small hole in the radiator cap to relieve any pressure. If it quits, I’m stuck looking for another head. I think this rig will be working when I am dead and gone.
The precision engineered threadall is the lever that starts and stops the PTO. In my case it is permanently rigged to make the belly mounted brush hog operate. There are systems available to expand its capability. However, I am content with the brush hog and its ability to pull trailers. That PTO control is located directly to the right of the non-synchronized three speed transmission and to the left of the “one size fits all” battery box.
You are advised by the owner’s manual to pick a gear and stay in it. I may try Paul’s trick of double clutching and going up a gear if the trailer is too heavy to start in second or third.
The ingenious use of the vice grip is to immobilize the hydraulic actuating lever. One could very easily attach a blade and with this system manage the elevation. I have thought about how to do that, but, as the song goes: We don’t have white Christmases in Houston.
This thing has a short wheelbase. Although it’s good with a trailer, that’s just going forward. Backing up gives one with a spatial relationship problem the shivers. That would be me. However, going forward it turns on a dime, and if that were not enough, the brake pedals (brake the inside wheel) make it turn even sharper.
The carburetor is an updraft. I had not seen one of those in years and this one doesn’t seem to work very well. This carburetor may sell me on an LPG system. The fuel is gravity flow. I do not remember ever having an upflow carburetor. Did I mentioned that I am not impressed with the fuel system?
Since I was a young boy growing up in farming country, I have known that a trailer hitch was dangerous on a tractor. That’s why Ferguson invented the three point hitch. On the Cub, however, it is mounted low and directly attached to the hubs. I could be made to believe that the effective attachment was forward of that. For whatever reason, this thing is stable.
I don’t think I can easily get stuck in the mud but one must consider the luck I have had to this point. I have become conservative but this rig goes everywhere. I may as well keep it. I sure can’t sell it because I could never find a sucker as big as me.
I started out to tell you of an anachronism with a special niche. I hope you got a few laughs. I’m sure some of you have encountered situations where you were over your head from the start and somehow came through, even if it wasn’t a tractor.
Nice unit. Would love to have a big old property and a small tractor with a belly mounted brush hog. I would prefer a John Deere personally (although for an antique tractor my first choice would be an antique Deere with treads and a blade.) Although what always makes me laugh is that my John Deere salesman father would break down and buy a Fordson with a belly mower for the right price. 🙂
Great story, I don’t know too much about the agricultural side of the IHC products. So far I’ve been successful in not buying a tractor. I already have too many trucks and fear the slippery slope of the fact than IH’s tend to congregate when they find a willing soul. “I’ll get this one for parts” turns into “It’s too nice to part out, and should be saved too.”
I think the fact that IHC was formed from merging and acquiring other concerns was a large reason for their early dominance. Sure there might have been towns that had a McCormick or Deering dealer across the street from one another but I bet there were many cases where a town had 1 tractor dealer.
It is unfortunate that they had to sell off the agri-business to keep the company alive. The interesting thing is that Fiat has brought back the Farmall “letter series” line and they paint them a proper red. http://www.caseih.com/en_us/Products/Tractors/Pages/utility-tractors.aspx and the Cub Cadet name has returned for lawn tractors and other yard maintenance products though now owned by MTD but still painted in the later Cub Cadet yellow and white scheme.
Yup, the merger is what made it the big dog. The merger was actually of the five largest companies according to the collector article I read. The thing that made them prosper IMO was that the cuthroat methods stopped and they were the best game in town.
This cub is an anachronism that I enjoy very much. I am probably an anachronism myself. Who knows. Self analysis is normally not very clear.
This was the first thing I ever drove a Farmall Cub boat tractor the row crop height meant being able to launch and retrieve boats without getting the engine wet. That one was owned by a friends parents but us kids were allowed to play with it no brakes but it had a centre blade fitted dropping that into sand pulled it up pretty good. Where I went to high school they had a mixed farm for agriculture students and there was another Cub for some reason it had aeroplane tyres on it possibly it had been a mowing tractor pulling a gang reel setup and bar treads would have chewed up the grass but this one from memory had a 5 speed transmission and could be double clutched thru the gears it had a good turn of speed at full throttle in 5th but the front axle was at full spread and the rear rims reversed so it was stable. Old tractors are cool my friend with all the old Hillmans has several Fordsons and Fergussons under restoration and stationary engines its a great place to visit.
Take a look on google for Cub Loboy. They came with turf tires and were made for landscaping type work. You might see what you are talking about.
I doubt it in NZ, they are the masters of improvisation & would have used whatever was available!
It was a tall version just had DC3 tyres on.
I have about five acres too, and I sure could use a small tractor. However, I really need a brush hog to mow the pasture–and I don’t think a Cub has a PTO. How do you mow pasture with one of these?
With the brush hog mounted under the tractor. It does have a PTO. If you look at the picture of the hitch you will see the bottom of the PTO wheel and the two pulleys for the belt to the belly mounted hog. You could probably get a later asian diesel for much the same price or get a large lawn tractor and pull a small trailer. I don’t think I would trade you though.
Yes, I’d say Yanmar diesel is probably the best way to go nowadays. Especially with a front loader.
I have worked on my friend’s Ford graybelly for him on occasion and on some of his smaller tractors. And tractors are a whole world apart from cars. I learned that trying to pull a single bottom plow with a Jeep.
Great tractor. I have no experience with the IH Cub. The closest I came was a trip in the early 70s to visit my Mom’s relatives who owned a dairy farm in Minnesota. I got to drive a Farmall Super C. I remember it as fairly small, but I imagine that it was bigger than a Cub.
Most of my tractor seat time was in the two my Dad owned for general purposes in the country. He started with an early John Deere Model B given to him by an old farmer-inlaw. Not even an electric starter, you had to spin a big flywheel. He modernized with an early 60s vintage Oliver 550 that had a hydraulic bucket on the front.
The Oliver was featured in one of our best family stories. About 1970 or so, President Nixon was preparing to do a televised speech. The TV reception wasn’t very good, so Dad decided to get up on the roof to fix the antenna. He figured that the easiest way to do it was to have me drive the tractor and lift him up to the roof in the bucket.
The front wheels of the tractor hit a concrete patio slab, about 8 inches high. The tractor was maybe 8 feet too far from the roof. Dad told me to hop off and he would get us closer. I think the plan was to pop a little wheelie and hop up on the slab. His first try was a little aggressive and he ran the bucket through a huge picture window in the family room. His favorite part of the story was that by the time he finished attaching plastic to cover the broken window for the night, he came back in to hear Nixon say “Thank you, and goodnight.”
I was sure glad it wasn’t me.
Never ran a Cub – although I’ve had them recommended, when I owned a couple of rural acres outside Buffalo.
I did, however, work extensively with a 1949 and 1952 Ford 8Ns. I was a kid working on a golf course, and those two specimens were 26 and 29 years old. Weak as water; yet tougher than dirt.
It had many of the features of the IHC engine: flathead four; updraft carb gravity-fed from a top-mount fuel tank. Un-pressurized radiator…I knew it was getting low on water (no antifreeze for these; they were drained and stored in the winter)…when one would start oozing, and then blowing, steam on tough climbs with the gang mowers.
I’ve driven manual transmissions all my life – and the place I learned,was on a tractor seat. With a tall 4th gear on those Fords, I needed to know how to double-clutch.
My Deere 790 is a bit new to be a classic, but it’s more or less similar to the Farmall Cub. 24HP at the PTO, it has a loader and 4wd. The trans is sliding collar and I’ve not tried to shift on the fly. I’ve got a bit over 10 acres in grass (and thistle weeds) and timber, and it comes in handy for this. It can run a 5 foot brush hog on the 3 point hitch (loaders and belly mounts don’t play together on this one).
I have a ball hitch on the drawbar (a bit closer to the axle, maybe 12″ back from the center) and backing trailers is easy.I use a 5 x 8 utility trailer for general purposes. Probably it has more miles off road than on-road.
For those interested in the older tractors, the Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Association (EDGE/TA) is a great club. For Left Coast and western states buyers, the Iron Trader http://www.irontrader.com/ is a good place for classifieds. You have to buy the dead tree version for the most up to date ads, but the on-line version is kept a few months late. A lot of these don’t sell fast, so it’s worth a look if you want to drain that wallet. 🙂
I learned to drive on its big brother the B. Being that they are intended for row-crop they have an awesome turning radius, and are great for moving trailers around. The turning radius is so good you can make a turn around the inside tire, by holding a brake pedal and cranking the wheel.
That fuel system should work just fine. Their is only two things that really cause engine problems on those, weak spark and dirt in the fuel system. Our B used to start with half a crank of the hand crank, when it still had good compression. Also try using less choke, we usually use half choke when starting.
Haven’t seen a Cub that I can remember but I wonder how they compare to a Ferguson or Ford 9N? The grey Fergie, whether petrol (variation of the Standard or Triumph TR motor) or diesel, is the prototypical ‘hobby’ tractor out here these days, as an alternative to Kubota or newer Chinese tractors.
The Ford 9N/2N/8N is much larger.
More powerful, too – that engine has 25 hp. And there’s not a belly-mount brush-hog for it.
The 8N (not sure about the earlier ones) had a standard three-point hitch; which of course was the Ferguson patent at the time. What it means is, allowing for the small engine, you can drive any modern attachment on one.
We used to use a brush-hog with one of ours; it would run it but it couldn’t handle the dense stuff. Had to get a bigger, newer tractor to actually hog brush.
The original Ford-Ferguson tractor was the 9N, done in 1939. This was a partnership between the two (The famous(?) handshake agreement) to co-produce tractors with Fergy’s three-point hitch. An update was done in 1942, and the 2N had steel wheels (I gather a lot got rubber after the war).
In 1948, Ford broke off the agreement for the 8N, and the Ferguson tractors came out in, er, the early to mid-50s. Eventually, he combined with Massey-Harris (eventually losing the “H”). Lots of litigation from the breakup.
The 3-point hitch got to be public domain, once a judge decided that there was more benefit to the country at large to break Ferguson’s patent than to keep it. By the mid-50s, most tractors (if not all) had the hitch.
As best as I can recall, the Fords through the 8N and the Fergusons were in the 25 to 35 HP range. Around here, there are several brands of old tractors around, though for the big boys, John Deere green is popular. One or two ranches use Cat rubber-tread Challengers.
Ferguson TE20 tractors and immediate successors were built from 1946-56, the pic I found of the Ford 9N is amazingly similar looking. I don’t remember having seen a Ford 9N/2N/8N before, mind you it would take someone to tell you it wasn’t a Fergie. My grandfather had a grey Fiat tractor that looked similar to my eyes as a young kid at least, I thought it was a Fergie until I was told otherwise (& he had both plus a later model M-F 135), no idea what model it might actually have been.
The Fergy is bigger and more robust looking and of course has the Ferguson system of implement capability with the 3 point linkage over here they are plentiful so parts are no problem.
The first thing I ever drove was a Ford 8N – from the Minnesota farm we were visiting down the dirt road to the neighboring farm where the threshing was taking place. Virtually all my tractor experience is either with bulldozers or wheel tractors with loaders and backhoes. That was a long time ago, but I did learn not ever to buy one of these myself, never having had enough work for one. And to my way of thinking, you don’t have enough work for one unless you have enough paying work to keep up the payments on one, plus the truck and trailer you need to haul it to and from jobs.
Nice article Ed, and an interesting story on a tractor I hadn’t heard of. You may be interested to know that the last Farmall was built in my hometown, Rock Island, IL in 1985. That factory’s closing dealt a huge blow to the area that took years to recover from. The factory still stood until 2009, they have been slowly demolishing it in sections, since it is right next to an active rail line. The big John Deere combine plant in nearby East Moline is still in operation. If you’re ever in the area, the factory tour they have is a must see.
I Grew up in Western Neb, 1700 Acre’s corn wheat hay oat’s 400 or so Hog’s Maybe 60 Cow’s A Lot of Work Several Tractor’s running / And not. I prefer RED. 1940 W-9 McCormick- Deering Nebraska test tractor still there in the Quonset My favorite Super H Farmall , Also D Johnny popper 4020, 2510- G-1000 MM / MM Jet star My Late Father Collected, Welded Restored Bought /Sold too many Auction’s 1-Twin City on Lug’s , Gibson, Coop, Silver-King, Canada-Built Cockshott Combine’s / Pull-Type and Several Thershing Machine’s. I Have the Super H right here in a Garage Swaped part’s off a M . Head -Light’s other stuff The H Factory Wide Front I Flat out Refuse to Sell I have a Daughter she don’t want it My Nephew want’s it, and go Back home to a Farm He has 3 boy’s .
Tried Farming/ Brother’s didn’t work Both them still there plus 1900 more Acres, No Livestock, Wheat / Corn/ SoyBean’s / Hay and Rent out the Pasture That doe’s make Sense, and I Still have my THIRD, Thank God.