IH HC 460 Utility... What does HC Mean? Is it rare

Harold H

You don't have to be a politician to call it whatever you want. The IH books called it High Clear. Actually the word utility is not even in the official description although it may be written on the side of the tractor. It is a "460 International High Clear". (In some descriptions IHC wrote high clear and in other descriptions they wrote out high clearance). The previous model was different, being called a "350 International High Utility". When the 504 series came out it carried the same tradition as the 460 calling its high clear utility simpally a "International 504 High Clear". However, when the 544 came out the word high was dropped altogether and the 544 high clear utility was called the "544 International Row Crop". It is kind of like the IHC W series tractors. In our area we called them "wheel tractors". In your area I think you called them "standard tractors" and in some areas they call them "wheatland tractors". I'm sure in lots of areas the high clear tractors were called "high crop". Untill this forum came along, I had never hear a Farmall V series called a "vegetable tractor" which was apparrantly common in lots of areas. We always just considered that V meant high clear. Does this answer the question Hugh?

Yes we did refer to the W series tractors as standards. I had never heard the vegetable slant on the V series of tractors. These high clear tractors never came into my area so not very familiar with them other than I knew the letter series were V and I knew what it was. Actually we did see some AV and SAV. Am I right in assuming the numbered series Farmalls in this same configuration would have been called high crops or high clear?

It is a wonder we don't have more disputes of understanding on forum. When I started school 55 years ago we never talked with too many people more than a 10 mile radius. Here we are just a bit over a half century later discussing these old tractors around the globe. Even though we speak the same language in many cases, there have been wide variations in terminology.

Harold H