Brought 57 cub home today

[5030]

We like ours and use it infrequently. Problem is, trucks to day (the ones I call soccer mom trucks), are incapable of hauling a TC. Bed is too short and suspension is under rated too. We much prefer ours and I put a trailer on the back and haul the SxS as well.

No AC in ours, could have but didn't because we have one of those retractable soft top ones and the entire upper section is all screened or has zip in windows if it rains. It's a Palomino Backpack Stupid name for anything. We live pretty close to the factory so I bought it direct and picked it up there as well.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

My grandfather bought a 1949 Cub new because his place bordered an International Harvester sales/service business. So many memories, they taught me how to use it when I was a kid. They're amazing for 10hp.

 

[Tpondel]

Damn. Thought we were talking Piper Cubs

 

[wolc123]

We like ours and use it infrequently. Problem is, trucks to day (the ones I call soccer mom trucks), are incapable of hauling a TC. Bed is too short and suspension is under rated too. We much prefer ours and I put a trailer on the back and haul the SxS as well.

No AC in ours, could have but didn't because we have one of those retractable soft top ones and the entire upper section is all screened or has zip in windows if it rains. It's a Palomino Backpack Stupid name for anything. We live pretty close to the factory so I bought it direct and picked it up there as well.

We usually only use ours a couple of times each year. My brother and sister have a small cottage up on the St Lawrence River and we always go there for a long weekend in the summer. Last summer it was pretty cool up there and we hardly needed the AC.

I’ll be needing it on the Fourth of July week this summer. Both of my wife’s brothers and her sister and their families are heading up to her parents place, on a private lake in the Adirondack mountains, and there’s not enough bedrooms for everyone in the house.

Usually, it’s just us and her parents up there that week, and there’s plenty of room in the house. It will be nice having our camper up there for the peace and quiet. Her brothers and sister like to stay up late partying. I prefer to go to bed early, so that I can get up before sunrise, and go fishing.

 

[Code54]

Restored a 1957 Cub Low boy this past year. Great little tractor (that I will never use), but it

will be fun at fairs and shows!

 

[DJ54]

wolc123, I thought of you Thursday, I went to my cousin's house to pick up a potato digger I agreed to buy from him. After visiting for a while with him and his brother they said come on, let's go for a ride, I had no idea where we were going, other than we were going to "Sam's" for a tour.

After a 5-6 mile ride we pulled into a driveway of a property with a well groomed lot with a very nice shop w/large pole barn attached. Outside was a fellow stripping paint from the hood of a Cub, and looking around I saw many parts, and attachments for Cubs. My cousin asked the fellow if Sam was around, and he pointed towards the shop. A gentleman in his what appeared to be early 70's appeared and we got introduced. My cousin asked if I could get the tour. He said Sure, come on in.

We walked in the shop which was roughly 60' wide and 40' deep. There sat numerous Cub's parked side by side. From '47 models, to '79 models, he had at least one from each year made, most in the higher versions, but many Lo-Boys too. One of the '79 models had every option offered by IH, and aftermarket on it. It is the crown jewel of his Cub collection. I asked how many Cub's he had, he had to ponder a second and said over 50 restored, and more in stage's of restoration.

After looking what was in the shop over, they said you need to see "the rest". We walked through to the storage area of the building, and there sat more Cub's, Super A Farmall's, Farmall 100's, 130's and 140's, most with Fast Hitch, and each tractor had an attachment. Numerous other attachments literally stacked around. Beyond that, a very nice restored IH 460 and 560. In the very center sat a pristine original IH 966 that has 1400 original hours, the Crown Jewel of his whole collection. It was really hard to absorb all I was seeing in the short time we were there. I was actually stunned at what I was looking at. He's a pretty private fellow, so thought it best not to take any pictures.

My cousin mentioned we'd better get going, and Sam told me come here, I want to show you something. We walked out among numerous attachments and came up on a single point 2-12" moldboard plow. I've been looking for one for 5-6 years. Sam looked at me and asked if I was interested, I told him maybe, how much..?? He spit out a price, and I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough. It has seen very little use, couldn't fell any noticeable wear on the moldboards, coulters the same. We had to rearrange how things would fit on my small trailer, but we made them fit for the 100+ mile trip home.

It just seems that a lot of my collection I just happen to come across. My cousin said that is the first time he's ever known Sam to sell anything. Apparently, the stars were aligned for me on Thursday, maybe I should have stopped and bought a lottery ticket...

The old power-driven potato digger which I believe is a IH No. 16, it definitely needs some TLC, but it will be a fun project, and the plow I hope to mount on the 140a do some plowing here in the next couple of weeks at the Smeck County Farm Park where they let us grow several crops for their Fall Harvest Days. The digger should make a good backup to the one we use now. Other than repairs needed I'll leave it in its original work clothes, people seem to be amazed this rusty old stuff still works. That's half the fun of it...

 

[wolc123]

I used the Cub on one of my 7 ft cultipackers for planting turnips at our place last week. It’s definitely my favorite tractor on that implement.

I have another 7 footer over at my parents place and I used my dad’s John Deere / Yanmar 770 on that one over there. The Cub is way nicer and fits me much better. The operators platform is a too small on the JD.

Dad’s got a nice little 6 ft Bissel disk over there that also works great on the Cub.

My favorite job with the Cub is still snowplowing though. I can’t wait for winter and I hope we get a little more snow than we did on the last one.

 

[lilranch2001]

I am perfectly satisfied with global warming, and the lack of snow that we’ve been getting for the last two or three years…..

I thank the Lord every day in the winter time regarding the new seasons

 

[wolc123]

I am perfectly satisfied with global warming, and the lack of snow that we’ve been getting for the last two or three years…..

I thank the Lord every day in the winter time regarding the new seasons

There’s no doubt that it does have some advantages for those of us up near the Northern border of the USA. Back in the prior millennium, it took a lot more firewood to heat a house thru the winter. Now, I can heat our 2000 sq ft house from fall until spring using less than 6 face cords.

It’s also nice to not need a four wheel drive vehicle to get back and forth to work most days in the winter. My little front wheel drive suv does just fine there, and I much prefer my rear wheel drive 3/4 ton pickup over my prior 4 wd, because it has a much less conplex drive train and less extra weight to haul around.

I do miss some things though, like ice fishing and skating on our farm pond. Here’s a picture that I took while open water fishing on that pond this past February 15, which had been the time of year when the ice use to be the thickest.

I was working in the back yard that day and found some earthworms under an old barn timber I was moving. I put them in a jar and walked back to the pond with a pole, hook and bobber.

The bluegills were hungry.

 

[wolc123]

My main job with the Cub in the summer is cultipacking, but I also use it to pull my boat around and move it back into the barn after I’ve been out fishing. After my last time out “pet shopping”, I used it to transport the pets (4 largemouth bass) to my pond. There’s a tricky culvert crossing on the way back there that I would never be able to navigate across when towing the boat with my extended cab long box pickup truck.


I noticed oil dripping down the side of the filter housing during that job. I checked the oil level and it needed a quart. I haven’t changed it since I had all the fluids changed after I bought it two years ago, but I’ve probably put less than 50 hours on it since then.

after I topped it off tonight, I removed the bolt and cover from the filter housing. The leak was coming from under the head of that bolt. I sanded down that contact area of the cover and put it back together with a little extra torque. It seems to be holding ok now.

I fixed it just in time because I hope to do some cultipacking with it this Saturday. I’ll be keeping a close eye on it because that’s likely to be my primary snowplowing tractor again this winter like it was thru the last one. I wouldn’t be real surprised if we never again get enough snow that I need more than that 10 hp Farmall Cub to clear it.

 

[DJ54]

Next time you change the filter remove the copper washer and take it along with you to a parts store where you get your filter and get a new copper crush washer. Normally I suggest checking Case/IH to compare prices vs. aftermarket/auto parts stores prices. Saved you the time and checked Case/IH, they want $22+ for it. NAPA and others should have one that size for about 1/10th that price. I believe Steiner was $4.50.

They normally seal well unless someone has over tightened at some point, and maybe put a gouge in the washer. The important thing is to know when to say when tightening and stripping the bolt, or threads in the base, that could get a lot more expensive.

Part # is 25352D if you want to check online.

 

[wolc123]

Next time you change the filter remove the copper washer and take it along with you to a parts store where you get your filter and get a new copper crush washer. Normally I suggest checking Case/IH to compare prices vs. aftermarket/auto parts stores prices. Saved you the time and checked Case/IH, they want $22+ for it. NAPA and others should have one that size for about 1/10th that price. I believe Steiner was $4.50.

They normally seal well unless someone has over tightened at some point, and maybe put a gouge in the washer. The important thing is to know when to say when tightening and stripping the bolt, or threads in the base, that could get a lot more expensive.

Part # is 25352D if you want to check online.

Will do, thanks for the advice. I’ll probably be changing the oil and filter next spring, if I use it a fair amount this winter. It’s got one fresh quart of 15W-50 Shell Rotella in it now, that I added to whatever my mechanic put in it, 50 or so operating hours ago.

Before I took it apart and sanded the cover, I tried just tightening up the bolt a little. That didn’t work, and it continued to drip. When I took it apart, the copper washer surface looked pretty good, but the cover top not so hot with some shallow ring grooves.

I sanded those flat, put it all back together, and it is holding good now. I’m probably going to hold off running it for a week or two now, because it looks like we are heading into a dry spell. I’m not going to plant my winter wheat / white clover mix until I see a little rain in the extended forecast.

Yesterday, they were calling for rain next Wednesday, here in upstate north western NY. Now they have taken that away and there is no rain at all in the extended forecast. Maybe I’ll use the Cub, instead of my field car (Dodge Durango), for my daily dinner sweetcorn harvest today, just to give that filter oil cover seal a little test.

My Kandy corn is just about perfect right now but I’m racing the deer to eat it.

 

[wolc123]

The Cub got a couple hours on it tonight, cultipacking a few acres of wheat and clover that I had just sown. The oil leak repair held up good. The lights worked well also. Good thing because I needed them to finish up 1/2 hour past sunset.

 

[wolc123]

I have not used the Cub much since spring (really just on my Cultipacker for planting turnips wheat and clover) a few times. I had taken a new 6 volt battery out of my “down and out” Ford 8n, before that usage. Since then, I’d noticed the amp gauge reading on the discharge side regularly when running.

Turns out that I messed up and installed the battery backwards (negative ground) while it should have been positive. As it’s gotten colder lately, it had been cranking slower. I really noticed that when I used the Cub to move my boat yesterday.

Today, I switched the terminals and its back to positive ground as it should have been all along. I probably operated it around 4 hours wired backwards. There doesn’t seem to be any harm done to the tractor or the new battery.

After this incident, I gained some new found respect for the now defunct International Harvestor corporation, when it comes to the durability of their products.

I’m thankful that I didn’t have three reverse and one forward gear, when I had the battery wired backwards. Apparently, none of the electronic parts cared too much about what direction the power was flowing.

 

[DJ54]

So it's now showing charge..?? I thought maybe you'd have to re-polarize the voltage regulator.

 

[wolc123]

So it's now showing charge..?? I thought maybe you'd have to re-polarize the voltage regulator.

Yes, it’s showing charge just like it should be. I was measuring positive 7 volts while running with my meter and 6 when it was not running after I swapped the terminals back the right way.

Like I said above, it does not seem like any harm was done.

 

[wolc123]

Now that the leaking oil filter and backwards wired battery are repaired, the Cub is ready for leaf and light snow duty. I put the snowplow back on it this afternoon. I use that to push the leaves into a pile after I dump a bunch of sweeper loads in the rough area behind our lawn.

I leave the big leaf pile back there thru the winter, then haul it out into the fields out back with my loader tractor, in the spring. We’ve got quite a few big maples in the yard that dump a ton of leaves and I’m all ready for them now:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

I used to use a back facing 3-point terracing blade on the loader tractor for pushing the leaf pile but the Cub front snowplow with pvc pipe on the cutting edge works way better.

 

[wolc123]

This is my cheap backup lawnmower that I use in the late fall after I remove the deck from my good one (It works much better on the sweeper with the mower deck removed). You can see one of the big maples in the back, still holding most of its leaves but almost ready to drop them. I can’t wait. With the right equipment, clearing leaves is almost as fun as plowing snow.

 

[wolc123]

I had to remove the pvc pipe from the plow blade cutting edge to make it work better on the leaves. It kept rolling over them with it on but worked great with it off.

The leaves are all down and in two big piles now, so I got to hammer that pvc pipe back on to get the Cub ready for the snow. The pvc pipe on the edge does a wonderful job of keeping the driveway stones out of the lawn before everything freezes up good.

With global warming ramping up now, it’s been about (3) years since the ground froze good up here near the Canadian border where we are, so the pvc will probably stay on the blade until next fall when I’ll drive it off for pushing the leaves again.

I had a big pile of 1” shedule 80 pvc, but I gave most of it to a buddy for running wire to his shop. Hopefully, I saved enough to get me thru a few more years of snow work with the Cub.

It all depends on how much snow we get. Each 4 ft piece of pvc lasts for 6-7 plowings of our two driveways and our neighbors on each side.

I’ll probably use the Cub on the first few plowing as no matter how deep the snow is, just to keep the stones off the yard. I’ve just got to get the rear ballast weight, that I broke off the drawbar, back on and the chains on the rear tires.

That little Cub will push mountains of snow with that added weight on the back and with chains on its loaded rear tires.

 

[2manyrocks]

What are some of your thoughts about how your 57 Cub operates compared to today's smaller compact tractors? It has that offset steering wheel for visibility for one thing. I've seen them all my life, but never operated one.