Did IH make a radio box?

dieselmech86 · Jun 22, 2012

I recently saw an old radio box for sale on eBay with what looks like the IH red paint on it. I was wondering if IH made a radio add-on for their tractors. I didn"t see any IH logos on it and it didn"t even say if it was 12v or 6v. They have it listed for an A, B, C, and many others. It does have a panel on the back for switching between 6v and 12v, which I thought was purely a 6v thing. If I got this, it would sure look neat on a restored tractor. Not many of them at the shows I attend.

So did IH make a radio add-on and if so, is there any chance I could get the radio working? Thanks.
Ebay listing for radio

Jon Hagen · Jun 22, 2012

I remember and even owned a couple of those. They were a popular farm store radio, dont know if they ever sold them under the IH brand. All I remember had the red cabinet.

Under that little rear cover you will find two slide switches one for 6V-12V, the other for pos or neg ground.

dieselmech86 · Jun 22, 2012

Thanks for the info. You wouldn't happen to remember what farm store specifically do you? I can't find any brand name or anything in the pictures. There's a couple stickers on one side that are unreadable, but apart from that, I don't see any place where a brand name would have been short of a sticker on it somewhere. I'm kinda worried about the top of this box too as there's no picture showing it.

AG in IN · Jun 22, 2012

(quoted from post at 03:54:11 06/23/12) You wouldn't happen to remember what farm store specifically do you? I can't find any brand name or anything in the pictures. There's a couple stickers on one side that are unreadable, but apart from that, I don't see any place where a brand name would have been short of a sticker on it somewhere.

This looks like an Automatic Radio. Many were sold. Farm and/auto parts stores or mail order catalogs probably carried them. Many OE dealers had them on the shelves, and some companies like Case had some made for them with their name on them. Paint was available in most tractor colors. Some had "Automatic Radio" marked on the station indicator or on a strip above the indicator. This is not an IH radio or housing.

TSC sold Motorola and/or Realistic (they may have been the same, usually came only in white or black,) and maybe they sold Automatic Radios too.

AG

Brownie 450 · Jun 23, 2012

That's a very early Automatic what with the telescoping antenna on the side. You would do well to replace it with a modern one by drilling a hole in the side of the case.
There are 2 Merit 5 MFD capacitors in the chassis which always caused trouble They should be replaced.
To my knowledge, IH never made a radio. The 560 era tractors had "clamshell" radios available made by Bendix. The 86 series radios were made by Bowman out of California.

504 · Jun 23, 2012

WE had one on a Massy 180. The last one I bought I payed $5.00 at auction.

Kevin B from Illinois · Jun 23, 2012

We had that type of radio on #2 Super M tractors bought them at the local Sears outlet store in Woodstock IL been closed for at least 30 years now and the reason we bought them is you could use them on 6 or 12 volt.

GeneMO · Jun 25, 2012

We bought a new one in about 1968 for our 706. It had the IH logo ( sticker ) but I am not sure if IH made it. It was factory painted white though.

I still have it in the shop up on a shelf. The radio quite ages ago. It was AM only by the way.

Gene

Did IH make a radio box?

dieselmech86

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Jon Hagen

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dieselmech86

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AG in IN

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504

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