IH 856 turns 50 this year

J-Mech · #1 06-09-2018, 08:30 PM

My great grandad bought this 856 new in 1968. Originally had a cab, and he bought it with 2pt hitch. Been in the "family" it's whole life. When my grandad quit farming, my distant cousin (the one I help farm) bought it. We did some work to it, and he put it back to work after it had been down for several years. It has about 13,000 hours on it now. I put the T/A and the the last.... probably the last 2..... clutches in it. I overhauled the motor in about 2000/2001. That was the second overhaul it had gotten. I've rebuilt a lot of other parts on it. I've nearly had the whole tractor apart at least once. It has been converted to 3 pt, and we took the cab off when I was probably 10 or 12. It's one of the first "big" tractors I learned to drive. I probably put about 3...maybe 4000 hours in the seat on that tractor. Still smells like it did when I was a kid. Really cool to see after 50 years it still running strong and working. Great grandad would be proud.

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darkminion_17 · #2 06-09-2018, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Mech

I probably put about 3...maybe 4000 hours in the seat on that tractor. Still smells like it did when I was a kid. Really cool to see after 50 years it still running strong and working. Great grandad would be proud.

So the seat still smells like truckers butt?

You took good care of it, nothing like a old skewl tractor.

DeltaCub · #3 06-09-2018, 08:55 PM

That, Jonathan is a real piece of Americana! It is so nice to know the history of a tractor especially when it has been in the same family since new. Modern equipment is very efficient and comfortable to operate but it does not have that same appeal as yesteryear's designs. You feel the bumps...you must steer and drive it....change gears with a clutch and a shifter....and raise and lower the implement by your own knowledge of the land. Beers to you

!

J-Mech · #4 06-09-2018, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeltaCub

That, Jonathan is a real piece of Americana! It is so nice to know the history of a tractor especially when it has been in the same family since new. Modern equipment is very efficient and comfortable to operate but it does not have that same appeal as yesteryear's designs. You feel the bumps...you must steer and drive it....change gears with a clutch and a shifter....and raise and lower the implement by your own knowledge of the land. Beers to you

!

Amen to all that! That tractor doesn't even have a hydraulic clutch on it. At 13 it was all I could do to press it in!!

I've disked, (moldboard) plowed, planted, drilled, sprayed, cultivated, rotary hoe'd..... and that's just some things I did in the seat of that tractor. I think it's cool too that I've been the only guy to work on it in the last 20 years too. Makes me proud to see it still going!

J-Mech · #5 06-09-2018, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkminion_17

So the seat still smells like truckers butt?

You took good care of it, nothing like a old skewl tractor.

My cousin was the last to sit on it, so it probably does, lmfao!

It does still look good. It's been repainted at least twice.

olds45512 · #6 06-09-2018, 09:00 PM

Looks great but would look better with a rops. That's cool that you guys are still using it after all these years.

J-Mech · #7 06-09-2018, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by olds45512

Looks great but would look better with a rops. That's cool that you guys are still using it after all these years.

Oh, you've never driven a tractor with a ROPS on it have you!!? On those old tractors, they rang like a bell! Besides, I'm not sure they had one in 68 yet. We had a 3 bow umbrella on it when grandad had it. (After the cab came off.) We had at least 2, maybe 3 different cabs on it over the years. The last one was a Year-Round. It wasn't bad at all, but the A/C quit. One year, a bearing in the bottom of the range transmission went out, and the cab had to come off. It never went back on. I never drove it with the cab, but I remember riding in it while dad was planting. It had saddle tanks on it for years too.

john hall · #8 06-09-2018, 09:41 PM

Well the tractor is nice, but that cultivator, well that's a bit much for the hills around here! Does it fold up for transport? Don't take long to cover an acre with that rig! I'd be scared to run it, we had a 4 row and you NEVER looked back--one small wiggle of the steering wheel and no more corn.