farmall 504

I had one of these tractors very briefly, being bought with a farm. As I was planning to buy a much larger tractor either my 300 which probably had 16,000 hours on it at time or this 504 were being traded off on the larger tractor. I took these tractors to field one day and with a model No. 60- 3x16 plow tried them both. 504 had just been rebuilt and vendor suggested I not keep the 504 long. The 300 outplowed the 504 hands down. 504 was rated 6-8 more hp than 300. As the tractor I was keeping was going to be one of six and only used for pulling wagons, I kept the 300. Of course the 504 having 3 point hitch commanded a much better price on trade in. All these items became a factor in decission.

If you find a low hour 504 you only plan to use for light duty work, they are a nice tractor to operate and should be good for 10,000 hours. Put it this way on a low hour 504, if a home owner with 10-20 acres 200 hours per year, I would take it, however if a commercial farmer clocking the hours on, run the other way.

The 504 was my father's latest acquisition and is what I term a 'beater'--pretty rough cosmetically with lots of mechanical loose ends that needed tidying up. My youngest brother is gifted mechanically and is our in-house get-things-done-guy. He has fixed up the 504 mechanically and is quite smitten with it.

Some of his mindset regarding the 504 might be likened to someone adopting an ugly puppy and raising it to become your faithful companion. Another part of his thinking is that with all the hours of tinkering he's done with F series,H's, and M's, this 504 has power steering, a tachometer, a T/A that works, and decent hydraulics. These items are a quantum leap over what he's accustomed to.

My impression of the 504 is that it's somewhat wimpy. It has a Farmall H size engine (C-152) but derives its HP from a high RPM setting. The drive train castings look a little on the light side, but to be fair, the 460 castings will never be confused with 400/450's.

We have an old 10' JD transport disk that can be a bit of a bear to pull on some of our hilly ground. In places it will make the 460 growl. My brother says the 504 will eat that disk's lunch. I don't believe he's ever used the 504 to do any real disking. How can the 504 giving up 69 cubic inches to the 460 plus making its HP at 2200 RPM vs the 460's 1800 out perform the 460? I have very little seat time on the 504, but it sure seems like it sweats harder than the 460 pulling our 7' rotay mower.

My brother may be coming around: I heard that he pulled the front wheels off the 504 to change out wheel bearings and was a bit shocked to see the wussy-sized front spindles. Now he's fearful of putting the loader back on the 504 for fear of tearing something up.

I would not make a 504 a farm's lead tractor. For utility work like raking, planting, and towing around hay wagons--I think that was the intended use IHC had for this unit.