Help Identify

I ran across an old picture of me sitting on a tractor when I was little and was trying to figure out what model. It's red (of course) has farmall with IH logo in front of it, grill is red, two little headlights, narrow front, looks offset to the right making left side axle look longer, has little rear fenders and small rears. Silver muffler and little jar on the intake stack. I cant get the picture to scan. I'm thinking its a B but that's why I'm asking the pros. Thanks Jim

Sounds like a B. If you can't get the picture, we're not going to be much help to you. We can only guess.

If it's a narrow front IH and the seat is offset to the right side, that would make it a B or BN (essentially the same tractor, Bs were 8" wider acrosss the rear than the BN). The A had the seat offset, but was a wide-front.

What Scotty says.

A Farmall B would not have the IH logo on the front. It would have a "Farmall" emblem. How about a Farmall "100", "130", or "140"

Sorry I didn't specify IH logo is on the side, I can't see any logo or emblem on the grill, front or side. I wish I could get my scanner to work. Thanks Jim

Jim, if it's really important for you to know, take it to town to a Kinkos, or some sort of office place. Ask them to scan it. Even a photo place should be able to do it. Then once you have the file, all you have to do is upload it to a place like Image Shack, then post it here.

Does it look like this Farmall B? Hal

No question. It's a B. I spent some time on an A and a B in the 40s. I think the A came first, a one-row cultivator job that I never quite understood. IH and others had been making small two-row cultivating tractors (F-12, John Deere B, for example) for years. I know veggie growers love them, however, so maybe there is something I don't understand. Somebody explain why one is better than two? I am not sure of this, but I think the B came a long a little later, perhaps after farmers said they wanted something F-12/F-14 sized with two rows. I loved the A--wonderful vision, very nice ride, big platform, excellent control placement, good choice of speeds, easy steering, very pretty styling, nice and quiet with a muffler, and so on. I liked the B, too, but it always felt a little strange sitting on the side with nothing in front of you. The next step in the progression is, of course, the C, which has a lot of the internal machinery of the A and B (I THINK--not an expert on the details), but is built with large, adjustable wheels, like an H. Speaking of the A and B, I never did understand why IHC went "backwards" and built a tractor to replace the F-14 with a machine built
with the old solid dropped axles, like the Regular Farmall. The smaller tires didn't help traction much either, in my opinion. The F-12/F-14 had excellent traction with the big 40" tires.

The only thing a B could really do that an A couldn't was row crop work on 2 rows rather than 1. In general, 2 row equipment cost more than 1 (just to state the obvious). For limited row crop work, it wouldn't be worth the additional expense. A diversified 80 acre farm might have 20 acres of corn. IH data said 4 passes across the season would use 7 days, of which 3 could be saved with 2 row equipment.

Some areas where a B couldn't be used (or not as well as an A):
- cultivate potatoes or other wide bed crops (would require wide front).
- narrow gates and doorways
- service/chore areas in barns
- use in fruit crops like berries, grapes etc.
The narrower tractor also did better with a 1-bottom plow because of the reduced side draft.


The replacement for the F-14 was the H, not the B. The H was intended for 100 arce or so farms where tractors like the F-12, 14 and 20 were in use. The A/B were intended for farms under 100 acrers that typically had no tractor.