IH 856 turns 50 this year

[DieselDoctor]

Jon - you're right about overhauling a dry sleeve engine, there is a trick to it. Mack engines are dry sleeved and after going thru Mack training, it was drilled into us that fitting the liner properly was the key to engine longevity. If the liner is fit incorrectly, heat transfer is poor and hot spots develop on the cylinder walls, and catastrophic engine failure soon after. I've been into several DT466's but as you said, wet liners in that one. Still one hell of a good engine when installed in the right weight class of truck. I recently had opportunity to hang an injection pump on a D436 in a IH 986 that belongs to my wife's uncle. Pretty impressive tractor but prefer his 1586. That one's my favorite. He bought both new in 1978 and a IH 786 in 1980.

[zippy1]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

I hope he does restore it Todd. Get some pics if he does! I know you didn't want to sell it, but just like when granddad sold this one, I wanted it.... but what do I need a 100HP tractor for? It went cheap, and I was very happy when my cousin bought it. I told him if ever he wants to sell it, I want first choice.
OH, this guy will restore it. His shed if full of shiny red tractors.


I think I still have the pics in my email you sent me of yours. Holler if you can't find them. I knew yours had a ROPS on it, but didn't know if it was added later. Yours is the only 856 I've ever seen with one. They were pretty common on the 66 series, but not on the 56's.
No, ours came with the tractor.


On one more note, my cousins have a 1456 they bought used that is in better shape (less hours) than this 856. I'll have to grab a pic of it sometime. They have several tractors their family bought new, including a Farmall C, 300 utility, 826 gear drive, 784, 3588 2+2

All that's left at the farm, is the 1086, but it's powerful red, has turned pink from being outside. And the 5 bottom plow we used to pull with it. I'll getpictures of that as well, as I don't recall the number...

[john hall]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

Oh, John..... you have no idea then, lol!
In 1996 (or so) granddad decided to switch the farm to organic. He just didn't like chemical I guess. So, we went OLD SCHOOL farming. We plowed, rotary hoe'd beginning 3 days after planting, and hoe'd every 3-4 days until the crop was too big, then switched to cultivating. We had IH cultivators set up different ways, and a Lilliston rolling cultivator.

Wow, I thought Lilliston was a Southern thing--tobacco fields. Used to run them under Super A's (100.130,140), then everybody went to 2 row units behind 50hp tractors. I imagine now they are running up to 6 or 8 rows--I think the spacing is around 42" (wider than old school 38" corn) so the stuff gets pretty wide. By the time we went to the rolling cultivators we were moving pretty darn fast, had already moved about all the dirt we wanted up around the plant. To begin it was rather slow with "buzzard wings" designed to move dirt in a crop grown on raised rows. FWIW, we still have 2 Lilliston rotary mowers here. both 50-60 years old--fantastic equipment, think BushHog owns them now.

[J-Mech]

Lilliston's weren't very common here, but there were a few. We had to hunt to find one. Man I liked it though! Really sped things up! I want to build one for my garden.


While we are on the subject of cultivating, and since it's my thread, lol... here is another cultivator that is at least 50 years old. This is also a family heirloom. It was originally for a walking tractor. When my dad was in about Jr High, he adapted it for the 71 (Cub Cadet) and used it in the garden. When I was in Jr High, we dug it out of the weeds and I rebuilt it and again used it on the 71 in our garden. I latched onto it again years ago, and reworked it a bit again, and still use it now. Does an OK job, but I'd like to make some more mods. Won't do what I want it to. But, still works!

20180520_150124.jpg20180520_150106.jpg

[yettrbomb]

That’s an awesome story! Thanks for sharing. Even better that you know all the history of it!

[cooperino]

Cool tractor, cool story! Thanks for sharing.

[zippy1]

Oh, the memories on that tractor.

[SS5150]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

Lilliston's weren't very common here, but there were a few. We had to hunt to find one. Man I liked it though! Really sped things up! I want to build one for my garden.


While we are on the subject of cultivating, and since it's my thread, lol... here is another cultivator that is at least 50 years old. This is also a family heirloom. It was originally for a walking tractor. When my dad was in about Jr High, he adapted it for the 71 (Cub Cadet) and used it in the garden. When I was in Jr High, we dug it out of the weeds and I rebuilt it and again used it on the 71 in our garden. I latched onto it again years ago, and reworked it a bit again, and still use it now. Does an OK job, but I'd like to make some more mods. Won't do what I want it to. But, still works!

Attachment 93440Attachment 93441

What have you got planted there Jon? What is your row spacing? My garden is a variety of stuff, some things on 12" rows, other stuff on 18", some 24" rows. What spacing is needed to get the cultivator through? I know I screwed up doing 12" rows. They are way to tight.

[J-Mech]

Originally Posted by SS5150

What have you got planted there Jon? What is your row spacing? My garden is a variety of stuff, some things on 12" rows, other stuff on 18", some 24" rows. What spacing is needed to get the cultivator through? I know I screwed up doing 12" rows. They are way to tight.

In the pics I am cultivating sweet corn, and green beans are close by. I plant everything in 30" row width. I do that for two reasons. 1.) That is standard row spacing for farming, so if need be, I can run a big tractor through (like I did a few years back to cultivate). And 2.) 30" spacing is perfect for a Cub to straddle one row.

30" spacing is fine for harvesting the crop, and it allows good canopy once the crop is so big. Narrower the row, the better the canopy, but the harder to harvest. All the same reason 30" spacing became standard in farming.

The cultivator can probably fit a lot narrower area than the tractor. I wouldn't want any wider a row or it wouldn't reach the center well. That is part of what I want to modify. I don't like the shovel spacing.

I have potatoes, onions, tomatoes, 1 cabbage, raddishes, and 1 whole row of sunflowers planted this year. The sunflower row because my sweet little red head girl wanted a whole row, lmfao! She is so excited about her sunflowers! But the majority of the garden is sweet corn and green beans. I'll have to snap a pic of the whole garden now and post it.

[SS5150]

We've got carrots, beans, radishes, onions, leeks, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, 3 potatoes (I've never grown before, they are growing well so far), tomatoes, I think 5 varieties of peppers, cucumbers, 2 kinds of squash, 6 different gourds, and my wife surrounded it with alternating yellow and orange marigolds, and I threw in about 10-12 monster sunflowers on the edges. I don't know why I did 12" its too narrow to really walk through and weed (I was just going by what the little seed packets said). I'd like to set it up so I could just run a brinly cultivator through on my 86. I've got plenty of space to expand the rows/garden next year.

Years ago my grandparents had an old push type cultivator you would walk behind. It had 2 steel wheels, and wooden handles, would straddle the row, and had a left hand and right hand sweep that would slice just below the dirt surface and take out the weeds. It had to be turn of the century I think. Worked pretty good but I don't know what ever happened to it.