Farmall Tractor Sizes

[Matt Kirsch]

The Super Hs and Super Ms did have live hydraulics. It was optional, but there are tractors out there equipped with them. Case in point, my Super H. It's a Stage II, and is equipped with the live hydraulic option.

These are commonly called "Stage II" Supers, and they're distinguished by the battery box being relocated to underneath the seat. Again, these could come with distributor-drive ("live") hydraulics, or standard belly-pump hydraulics, or no hydraulics at all.

Stage I Supers were essentially the same as their non-Super counterparts, except for more horsepower, disk brakes, and faster gearing.

Stage III Supers... Well, there's only one, the Super MTA. It's the only Stage III that made it into production, and was produced for roughly one year (both Super Ms and 400s were produced in 1954 as well). There is no such thing as a production Super HTA, though some people are building clones out of Super H and 300 parts, much to the chagrin of tractor purists, who throw hissy fits whenever the Super HTA is mentioned. There was at least one prototype Super HTA, but it was developed into the 300, and the original was scrapped.

 

[George Willer]

Live hydraulics became an OPTION on the Super M, and possibly on the Super H but I have never seen one equipped with it. Biggest differance between the Supers and the "nonsupers" in these models is an additional bump in power, otherwise they are very similar.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since these tractors were built, so many of them have been retrofitted with later options. That's the case with the live hydraulics on my '51 M that make the 3 pt work well. Some day it may even be made pretty!

 

[dhermesc]

The Super Hs and Super Ms did have live hydraulics. It was optional, but there are tractors out there equipped with them. Case in point, my Super H. It's a Stage II, and is equipped with the live hydraulic option.

The live hydraulic option for the Super Hs didn't seem to make it into Kansas too often. As I said I've never seen one with a "factory" setup, although I've seen several with an add on unit like Willer has on his "M", mainly with units that have a three point added. But it must be a regional thing, like wide front ends. Most Hs and Ms (up to a LOT of 656s) in this area came with narrow fronts for cultivating, almost all wide fronts are later after market add ons.

 

[Jim Becker]

There was at least one prototype Super HTA, but it was developed into the 300, and the original was scrapped.

There was one well documented H with a TA. IH built it long before the Super H came along. Nobody has found evidence IH ever built a prototype Super H with a TA. No doubt some prototype or preproduction 300s were built using Super H patrs.

 

[Matt Kirsch]

Okay, we're splitting hairs here. At that stage of the game, IH always had the next generation tractor in preproduction, and the next generation after that in prototype. The H with TA "test mule" may have been mostly H, but the features being developed on that tractor were slated for the next evolution of the H design after the Super H. That should have been the Super HTA, so technically it could be called a prototype Super HTA.

 

[Anonymous]

I almost went the route of putting a TA in my H before I got the slow gears. At least for many years a lot of parts were similar enough to retrofit back and forth. The TA might have been nice but I was told the slow gears would be slower.