Farmall 826 GAS HYDRO

In my experience, low production numbers means nobody wanted them and the manufacturer wised up and stopped building them. I don't mean it as an insult, but some combinations work well and some don't. I suspect a gas hydro wouldn't exactly fly out of the showrooms. Decades down the road, these rare models sometimes become treasured gems and sometimes they are gratefully forgotten.

Sure they were hard to shift, but they also had enough torque you didn't have to be shifting all the time.

That group of demanding individuals succeeded, sure these modern day transmissions are nice, but look at the nightmare they must be to repair and maintain. I had a Deere power shift, always I dreaded the day that power shift had to go for it's rebuild. Luckily that task got left to a new owner at 13,000 hours.

When I was actively farming, in my area we had dealers with a piece of the pie for IH, Deere, Allis, MF, Ford and White. I used to make a practice of going around to all these dealers, for two reasons, one to see if anyone had a better idea and number two to see what was apart in their back shop. I could never believe the numbers of under 5 year old tractors with transmission rear end problems. Up to 1985, I had never seen an 06,26,56,66 or 86 series tractor apart from the engine on back. Today they're all doing it and to relatively new tractors. Very common to hear of a farmer being without his main power source tractor during seed time or harvest.

Now, I have to say that in all my years, I was never without one of my regular tractors during the busy season. Many times I had guys with other brands show up on my doorstep wanting to rent or borrow a tractor because their other make was down and they knew I had my crop done. I once loaned my 1066 about 7,000 hours on clock at the time, to a farmer who just had his new 4630 pack up. He used my 1066 for 3 days on his forage harvester, and when he returned the tractor, I asked him how it worked for him. His responce, " It makes that damn Deere look sick." Now I believe that 4630 was rated with a few more ponies than a 1066. I know my 1066 got one h@## of a workout those three days, he was behind when he started, and was all done when his Deere came home.

Lets face it that what it's all about, having your work all done when your DEAR gets home.

I didn't go to those other make dealers very often, but it seemed like every time I did there were big tractors apart.

Your contention that modern tractors in the past 20 years have improved is not true. Busy seasons to me were busy. My 1066 had 10,000 hours by the time it was 8 years old, 656 reached the 10,000 hour mark at 11 years. I never had a Farmall let me down in a busy season. That is not the case with new tractors in the past 20 years. Todays tractors are letting farmers down in busy seasons at alarming rates. I could give you 6 examples right off the cuff, but this post is long enough.