maybe one more toy ,,got any stories?

larry@stinescorner · Feb 23, 2018

In real life,,I have never used,,or dont even know anyone that had a Massey Harris.Can anyone tell stories of them...where they a good old tractor?

RLA · Feb 23, 2018

We had a neighbor who had a 44, powerful tractor & he thought it was great. But in my opinion
on wet ground they were a little frt end heavy.. My father had to pull him out one time baling
hay , it was a wet year & he had a New Holland baler with it's own engine for power & I remember
the baler being HUGE.. Our neighbor never liked the John Deere's we had & always said you can't even
see the engine like you could in his 44.. Dad pulled his tractor & baler out backwards, neighbor
threw up his arm claiming that was far enough & my dad just kept going & didn't look back. Neighbor
was hollering & applying the Brakes & it didn't make much difference to the Cyclone John Deere A He
just kept pulling.. Neighbor never asked to get pulled out again..

stevob671 · Feb 23, 2018

Neighbor had one with front mount 2 row cultivator but thought it was a 33. Never took the cultivator off. Little noiser than his Farm-alls but first pass through corn with cultivator usually only puttering along anyways. Could always make out the sound of the Harris running. He also had Oliver 88 with new idea mounted picker also never took it off except for major maintenance on the tractor one time, Massey Ferguson with side mount mower only took off after haying was done. Farmall H with loader never came off, Oliver 1500 and 1850D, Another Farm-all that basically pulled wagons, ran elevator, etc.

JD Seller · Feb 23, 2018

There where several MH 44 around here. They had a lot of torque and worked well plowing. The trouble with them was the PTO set higher from the drawbar than standard. So they did not work on a lot of PTO equipment very well. Also there was only one dealer in the entire area that sold them. So very poor market penetration around here.

Deere Mark · Feb 23, 2018

Had a Massey Harris 44 as the main tractor on the farm until I left in 1964. It originally had a two-row mounted corn picker. Was used for everything including belt power to the hammer mill. Also pulled the New Holland model 76 baler. Several times I would spend a day on the tractor and come in sunburned and red as the Massey. Was eventually replaced by a MF 165 Diesel.
This is in south east PA and there has been a Massey dealer here for a long time.

rrlund · Feb 23, 2018

Used to be a dealer in Stanton,six miles north of here. A lot of 33s were sold. I believe Merle Ehle had a 44 if I remember right. His son and grandson collect them. I don't know how many they have,but it's a lot. Dad traded a John Deere A to another one of Merle's sons for a Pony with all the mounted implements when I was about 6. He bolted a wooden block to the clutch pedal so I could drive it and plow snow. The only one I ever owned myself was a 101JR. I didn't have that one very long.

Richard G. · Feb 23, 2018

Larry, I bought a 1946 Massey Harris 101SR Twin Power in 1977 to pull my sawmill I had just set up. Had the Continental 226 six cylinder engine. It pulled the heck out of my Turner mill with a 42 inch blade.
I rebuilt the engine before I started using it. Had lots of power and a good fast governor.
Used it to cut the lumber for our house.
Wish I still had the Massey as I am going to set up my sawmill again.
I may look for a Farmall M or a 77 or 88 Oliver to pull it.
Hope you are doing well. Spring is near.
Richard in NW SC

flying belgian · Feb 23, 2018

We had a neighbor who had about 6-7 Masseys and one Ford. 55, 44's, 101, something super.

Leroy · Feb 23, 2018

Never a 33, Mostly 44 with 44-6, then 30 and some older and smaller models. I would like to have a Mustang. Under stand Colt was same tractor but smaller engine. Same with the 101 senior and junior and Allis WC and the version I cannot think of model number now but had smaller B engine. Never could under stand putting a smaller engine in tractor designed for the larger one.

Traditional Farmer · Feb 23, 2018

I had a MH 55 for awhile pretty powerful old beast.

Mike M · Feb 23, 2018

Seems we all had a neighbor with one. LOL. Mine had one too. Back around the mid 1980's ? he put new tires on the rear of it. Said they were dry rotted ? They looked fine to me ? just a little tiny cracking in the sidewalls barely see it when inflated. I was in my late teens and was fixing up a 1946 JD A which I still have. I did some farm work for him in trade for those tires which are still on the JD A to this day ! They still look fine to me and period correct for the A too as they were the originals from on that MH 44.

rrlund · Feb 23, 2018

Allis RC. Dad had one for a little while. He used to go to Archbold every spring and buy a tractor,use in until late fall then sell it or trade it for something. The only one he always kept over the winter was his Oliver 66.

pcsaw · Feb 23, 2018

Dad bought a 333 when I was a kid would pull a 3 bottom 3 point plow I know the older boys made us younger ones plow with the John Deere A and 2 bottom plow I don?t think the engines where the best

jddrawbar · Feb 23, 2018

See a few 44's at tractor shows, most are pullers. Never used one personally, but did spend a couple weeks plowing with a MH 55D when I was a teenager. Farmer had 2 and they were his main tractors for yrs. They were good reliable old tractors....

tractorguy2 · Feb 23, 2018

The first diesel on our farm was a MH 44 special diesel. Dad said it was a pile of junk from day one.

My farm is one mile on the Nebraska side of the state line. In the 80's I went to a lot of farm auctions in Kansas. I don't think I ever went to a Kansas auction that did not have a MH 44standard. There was a very active dealer just over the state line.

There were four or five farmers that had MH tractors. Only one ever had anything good to say about them.

I wouldn't mind having a 333 or 444. I would have to his it from dad!

Bruce from Can. · Feb 23, 2018

The area was lousy with them when I was skid, but not too many were being used for serious farm work in the mid 60?s. there would be one at nearly every farm auction until the mid 80?s, now you mostly see them at shows. I had a old MH 101 Junior Twin Power , for a while, not a handy tractor, bought it in 1980 for $150.00 and sold it in 82 for the same $$. My brother has a 22 MH, and a MH loader for it

centash · Feb 23, 2018

Put hundreds of hours on 44s.....so much so, that one ear hears less than the other from plowing while half turned in the seat. Easily MH best and most popular tractor, around 100000 built from 1946 to 1958 if the 444 is included. For years, there was one on every farm in this area.....later, one abandoned in every fence row....now few and far between.
I have a 1956 44 Special bought from the original owner, shows 6700 hours not a dent or scratch on it. Does on call duty on the generator all winter long, and goes to the odd show or plow day in summer
Ben

jon f mn · Feb 23, 2018

Our neighbor had one, and later a 444 diesel. We had a summer party at our house and they were invited. Their adult son took something, likely illegal, and flipped out and ran off in the night. Every one there spent all night chasing him around the fields. I was very young and that's all I remember of that. They didn't get him caught til the morning. I remember dad was mad because he had to milk with not much sleep. I remember that they owned City Wide Lock Smithing in Minneapolis.

Thomasthetankengine · Feb 23, 2018

We also had a neighbor with 2 Massey Harris General Purpose 4 wheel drive tractors. One of which had cement filled wheels for ballast. He always claimed they were safer and wouldn?t tip over backwards like Fordsons.

Lyndon - AB · Feb 23, 2018

I grew up with a Massey 44 standard around. Tough as nails old tractor, only real downfalls were that it steered hard, and like JDSeller said, the PTO was too high on the tractor to be very friendly to PTO shafts on implements. It's been sitting in the shed for a few years now without running, but I could take gas and a battery out there and have it running by the third turn of the engine.

Philip d · Feb 23, 2018

We have a 333 diesel that works good. Used to be quite a few MH around here one time.

JMS/.MN · Feb 23, 2018

AC thought that they could sell the RC tractor a bit cheaper than the WC, by using the B engine, while still using the same mounted implements (had same frame). It didn"t sell...made 5500 of them, but most of them in 1939, year of introduction. I have 2 1939s, both under 4000 sn. WWII came along, production was stopped in 1941, and not re-started.

JMS/.MN · Feb 23, 2018

To compensate for the smaller engine, a different set of gears was in the WC differential, making for a slower speed. WC pullers like to find an RC just for those gears. They"ll butcher a good tractor for them.

maybe one more toy ,,got any stories?

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