Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 8:07 am Post subject: Re: Serial number on'58 IH 350 Utility is 3044? I bought an H a year ago that was listed as a 1940. When I went to look at it, it didn't look correct for a 1940 and I figured the guy was wrong but he swore it was a 1940. Tractor-Specs.com database listing for the International Harvester 350 Everything you need to know. Used Values, Specs, Pictures and More.
IH Farmall Tractors
International Harvester (IH) began the decade of the 50s as the dominant tractor manufacturer in the world, and they continued to introduce new and better models through the '60s. But internal problems hurt their sales and IH slipped from number one in market share to number two behind John Deere by the end of the '60s.
The 1950s began with IH replacing their 'Letter Models' – the venerable Models A, B, C and F series – with the 'Number Series' models. With each new series between 1950 and 1969, the number of models increased and the horsepower of each increased as well.
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In 1951, the Farmall line had reached a milestone – the one-millionth tractor rolled off the production line. At that time, the factory was producing 306 tractors a day, and International Harvester was the number one tractor manufacturer in the world.
But that same year, the IH board of directors replaced CEO Fowler McCormick (a descendant of the founder Cyrus McCormick) with John McCaffrey. McCaffrey was a good engineer and pushed IH to increase its share of the construction equipment market. But he also decreased the company's spending on product testing.
In 1958, IH introduced the Farmall 460 and 560 with more horsepower than their predecessors. But the company didn't extensively test the transmissions for those models. Before long, farmers were coming back to dealers reporting that after around 300 hours of heavy usage, the drives on their tractors were failing.
IH engineers worked overtime to fix the problems, and the 460 and 560 tractors are among the most reliable vintage machines today. But a lot of damage had been done to the reputation of the leading manufacturer. By 1958, IH had been overtaken by John Deere as the leading tractor manufacturer in the world.
Brand loyalty is a strong theme for farmers. 'Dad was an International man,' says Terry Schrick. 'We had to have that red! We always said the John Deere's was so you could hide them in the ditch with the trees, you know.'
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Terry says that the increasing size of tractors and implements was the biggest technological change for farmers in the last half century, and his Dad saw it all. 'He lived to 96 and one day. So, he got to see a lot of changes, and that was special,' Terry says. But his Dad had his limits. When Terry's brother got a new, large tractor, Terry asked his Dad if he would drive it. 'He was getting up in age, and he said, 'No.' And that was not the last verse. He said, 'When the ground shakes underneath you, I'm not going to drive that thing.' Now, that's a small tractor compared to what we see today.'
Written by Bill Ganzel, the Ganzel Group. First published in 2006. A partial bibliography of sources is here.
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