I use to keep it out at our property. I'd tarp it in the winter. However, some animal kept killing rabbits, dragging them up into the cab, and eating them on the seat. After we bought the PT, I had the IH hauled from our property to our house. It sat behind our garage for a year. I drove it into the garage 2 years ago, where it has sat ever since. That brown garage has 10' walls and 9' overhead door.
What I like about it is the fact that it is a low boy. Your feet stradle the tranny tunnel exactly like our PTs. From looking at the back of the IH, you can see it is quite low from a driver's point of view. You cannot see the seat through the rear window. The seat height is 42" off the ground. The rears are 48" high X 16 wide. There is 48" between the rear tires, so that outside measurement is 80". Just a wee bit more than our PT425's. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
I'm kind of at a cross roads with this tractor. I really don't need it anymore but would like to keep it just for fun because it is BIG! However, the wife says if I sell it, I should use the money to buy more attachments for the PT. OUCH! CHOICES!!! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. We had quotes to install our driveway for X $$$. We bought the IH for the same price and I put the driveway in myself, as well as other improvements. Plus I bought a $500 dollar brush hog and used it to mow between our tree rows from 1990 until 2001 as well as keep the field under control. We also have a 6' box blade for it and I built a counter weight out of a 55 gallon drum filled with concrete.
We have only about $200 dollars in repairs over the 10 years that we used it. So, if it vaporized right now, we'd be money ahead. I want to get it running again and see how much fluid leaks, see if the block is cracked or if the head gasket is just blown. If I can get it running decent without too much $$, I'll clean it up, paint most of it and replace any hoses that need it, etc... and see if I still want it more than I want PT attachments.
When it ran it was extremely powerful. I could push over 10" trees with little effort just by putting the bucket against them about 6 to 8 feet off the ground and driving forward. The hard part is popping out the roots of the locust trees. Those things could go 30' or more away from the stump. The tractor was weighed with the tires filled and it was approximately 8000 pounds and I was still able to lift the rears off the ground with the bucket stuck under those roots! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
The cab is nice for falling branches and the heater works great. In the summer, it is a pressure cooker. I have to drive with both doors and the rear window open, wear shorts and drink plenty of fluids. And that is with the heater hoses closed off at the engine block.
Parts for the engine are still easy to get as it was a fairly common IH industrial/agricultural engine. Tranny parts are much harder to find, but then again, I don't need to repair any of those.
The thing takes about 8-9 qts of oil in the engine and 18-20 gallons of HI-TRAN fluid in the tranny.
The bucket lifts about 10'... way over the cab. I think it is somewhere between 3/4 and 1 yard. I have the hood and battery cover for it, as well as the frame for the grill. I do not have any side covers for the engine or the grill. I think they are the same sheet metal as a couple of the farm tractors(I have the model numbers written down some where). I also have a full set of shop manuals for it that I purchased just after we bought it. We'll see how it ges this summer and I'll post pics as I go.
I pulled it out of the garage with my old chevy pickup(another dinosaur story there). My girls sat in the cab and held the hydraulic dump valve down while the old chevy pulled it out at an idle. Without the dump valve held down, it won't go anywhere(similar to our tram pump bypass for towing). I towed it out into the driveway because I did not want to attempt to start it in the garage in case it bursts into flames! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
I've had some oil in the cylinders for a few weeks. I'll pick up some new plugs this week and a big battery. After checking fluid levels, draining the old gas and cleaning the carb, I'll give it a few cranks with the distributor rotor removed to lube things up. Then I'll put the rotor back in and attempt to start it up with fire extinguishers at the ready. I'll be sure to take some movies of the smoke. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif It also needs a new exhaust stack and pipe.
Oh well, got to go. Have a good weekend.
DG
