560 IH

On one of the other forums the other day a guy was asking about "worst models within a brand" and a few people mentioned the 560 IH as one of the worst models in the IH brand.
Not trying to stir the pot, just curious. I have no experience with them. There are a few around and they show up at auction fairly often. I thought they were pretty good just from their prevalance. Is there something I should know about just as a what if I ever think of getting one type question?

They were recalled by IH to fix the rear end. After that they were OK for their time period. IH had trouble living that down and lost customers thus JD became the top seller.

In general they were as CNKS describes. No more trouble than any tractor that old. Modern compared to a SMTA or 450, but comparable in basic technology, with more power. Jim

Didn't it take another 20 years before John Deere annual tractor sales were higher than IH?

The reason most people talk trash about them is they CAN be hard to start when its cold out. What they fail to tell you is that people who complain about them only have a few working glow plugs, or the batteries are weak or the have severly corroded cable ends. I have a 560 diesel and I have NEW cables on it, a group 31 12 volt battery with 950 cranking amps at 32* and 6 working glow plugs. I started it the other day when it was in the 40's with only about 30-35 second on the glow plugs. pops right off.


if you do the proper maintenance on them, they are a good machine

The 560 was not a bad tractor, at least in my case the main problem was that it had a really tough act to follow in the 400/450 models. Most of the people I knew that liked the 560 didn't have the Diesel, I had one for about a year, didn't like it much. Can remember having at least three of them, I still have an original-owner 560lp, it never was a "great" tractor.

I was just wondering how many of them actually failed before they were repaired?

I know IH recalled the entire production for a year (or was it two?) but in that time frame how many suffered a failure and how many had the new bearing installed for there was any issues.

Why the sudden interest in the 460/560 failures? Seems like there have been about a dozen threads on this as of late.

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but my understanding is that the first year JD sold more was 1957, and 1958 (1st year for 460, 560, 660) didn't help any. There may have been a few years that IH sold more tractors. IH held on to their old design too long.

In my case, hadn't heard of it before the past few weeks. Wondered if there was anything to it. Just wanted to know what models to stay away form if opportunity comes around (for example, it sounds like staying away form JD 3010's is a good idea due to how hard it is to get parts for the engine balancer)

Knew twins who got new 4010 and a 560 at the same time the 4010 was always clean and pretty and the 560 was always dirty could not tell it from the dirty feed lot. Which one do you think the used every day. Not the deer clean one!!!!!!

I have had 2 560 D's and had good luck. The tractors were worked hard.

(quoted from post at 11:21:17 12/02/13) I have had 2 560 D's and had good luck. The tractors were worked hard.

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Of course you did.

After the first year or so, ALL tractors came off the assembly line FIXED, and did NOT have problems!

The tractors that did have problems were fixed in the recall.

Your odds of coming across a "bad" 460 or 560 since about 1965 are near ZERO. The ones that didn't get fixed are either museum pieces, or have long since been scrapped.

What's wrong here is the same thing that was wrong in 1959: People don't get all the facts before forming an opinion! They see "560's had problems" and just keep perpetuating the myth that 560s are "junk" tractors. They never bother to finish reading the part where it says, "but they were all fixed."

It was this, not IH putting out bad product, that eventually ruined them. That one hiccup set the rumor mill into motion and it hasn't stopped in 54 years.

Have had a 560 gas from new in 1963 never a lick of problem with it or the rear end, pulled the hell out 4/16s for years and not a mounted plow either would not trade it for any jd, case, ac of that time, OH the tack quite working at around 10000 hrs now and that was a long time ago, just a chore tractor now and gets used for tractor rides once in a while.

John Deere passed them in the 1960's. The bigger problem with the 560 was the inferior technology versus the larger Deere New Generation tractors. Guys here can hate the 4010 all they want but the 4010 was more operator friendly in terms of steering, operator seat, and brakes. The 4010 had vastly superior hydraulics. Dual speed PTO and if a person took about 30 seconds to inspect the PTO hub they never created an issue though the 20 series PTO was an improvement. We have had a 4010 since new and not once have we had the PTO fail other than clutch wear. The 4010 had reverse synchronized as well as the forward gears. IH's internal problems in the 1950's and early 1960's prevented them from doing the development that would have had a competing tractor at the same time as Deere's New Generation tractors came out.

The rumor mill did not finish off IH. The first year of the 560's
hurt them but IH's competitors were building very competitive
products depending on the needs of the customer. I can't speak to
the rest of the country but I know of several instances locally where
diehard IH guys bought different color tractors from 1960 because
they thought the competition had something significant to offer.
Also, IH had very long term bad relations with the UAW which
brought on the strike in 1979 from which IH never recovered.

A lot of personal opinion goes into likes and dislikes of a particular model of tractor. I worked at a John Deere dealership for a while. I always heard how great the 4010 and 20 was. I never really had an opinion one way or the other. My job was to repair what ever machine my employer was paying me for. I found that I did not really care for the 4010. Lot of dumb ideas on it. Solid transmission and final drive but the other things, not so much. Like I said. Just my opinion.

Too much time and money went into bad ideas such as V alignment engines for the sake of being different. The draft control was a weakness but I don't know if other manufacturers' patents were an issue in regards to a different design. Mechanical front wheel drive was not a consideration in North America during the 1950's so I can not be too critical there. Maybe a device similar the TA could have been developed for it if the resources were better utilized. The short duration of the 4010 and the intro of the 4020 with an optional power shift transmission minimized that short coming.

The 560 fiasco was one of the signs IH was in trouble, they had expanded into many lines (construction, refrigeration, appliances) and got a little overwhelmed. They also made a crawler tractor that didn't have a very good reputation. One of my Ag engineering professors lived the 560 fiasco when he was in High School, they always had red tractors, since their first a F- something on steel. They bought new tractors regularly, they bought a new 560, the rear end went out during plowing, the dealer didn't have any idea how to fix it (it was early, IH hadn't figure out the fix yet)He says his dad and grandad got so upset they took one of the other red tractors into town and traded it and the 560 off on 2 John Deeres, I think he said a 730 and a 630. He said he was real proud of the John Deeres, but he didn't grow up with the hand clutches and had an accident, but he said after a week or so his grandad's car was back from the body shop and he was forgiven. The 560 wasn't a bad tractor after they got it fixed, but it was dated and didn't stack up against the New Generation John Deeres. The major problem with the 560 is IH should of been coming out with the 806 and 706 at that time, instead we got the 560. IH was the leader for a long while due to some innovations like row crop tractors and PTO, they got lazy and lost their innovative spirit, they were the last major manufacturer to come out with live/independent PTO and stuck with the gas start diesels for too long. The T/A was about the only innovation they had in the 50's.

I grew up red Dad worked in the IH dealership for 25 years before it closed and Grandpa always farmed with red. I worked in the Ford Newholland dealership for 10 years.And have farmed the last 10 years with green. So, They all made good stuff they all made JUNK!!!!!!!!!!! It all comes down to your personal preferances. I also collect old iron, got 3 red 2 flambeu red and 1 orange, so idont show any prejiduce... Kenny

You know, sort of on this topic, I wish IH had put the Fast Hitch out as an open patent. Though there are certain limitations, I still prefer a fast hitch over 3pt. Neither here nor there, but it"s so much more convenient. there"s the 3pt quick hitches, but they certainly aren"t inexpensive.

But companies were in different modes back then. Greed did-in more than a few companies.

It is my belief we will see another slew of those issues soon with other companies. (and already have)