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southwest in | i was visiting with my old neighbor, and we got started talking tractors
and he told me about his 1206 that he bought used in 1971 and how that was the best tractor he owned
he claimed it would outpull his 1086 he bought new in 1979
any 1206 stories out there? good or bad thanks |
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Western Ky. | Wasn't there a company who built a bigger turbo for a 1206? How much HP could you run a 1206 in the field? I have an 806 that has been a fantastic tractor. |
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West Central IA | When I was a kid, my neighbor had a 1206, It would pull a 6 bottom plow all day. My cousin ran it at night as they could go a gear faster at night. Cooling issue. I remember the neighbor was traveling and saw an 806 with the front wheel drive on a dealer lot and stopped and traded his wide front for the front wheel drive. He took his tractor to the dealer, made the trade and went back home. My cousin told me they couldn't understand why they could not pull the same loads they did before. Well the neighbor called the dealer and asked them what they did to his tractor. The mechanic finally fessed up he put it on the dyno and turned it down to 175 horse. Was way over 200 and scared him to send it out that way. |
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NW central IL | ALOT of them were running 150hp stock. we have one with a original solar turbo running 175hp running a vac, and it pulls a 41ft yetter rotary hoe when the rest of the tractors are planting, it just needs a ton of weight on the frt. pulls it h-3 with 20.8x42 tires....ive seen it well north of 200hp on the dyno, but id say 175hp is its usable field max...cooling issues
Edited by tj_farmer 2/22/2014 08:08
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Chebanse, IL..... | We bought one new in 1965. That was the first of them, had the paper "1206" decal vs the later stamped gold plate. The early ones were called the "white" 1206s. Ours came w/the factory IH cab w/ no heat, no air. We bolted a radio first in front of the steering wheel, but you couldn't hear it there @ full volume. So, we bolted it up in the upper RH rear corner of the cab. Then you could hear it sometimes w/full volume. Actually, it was quieter with the windows/door open vs closed. Unbelievable amount of transmission/diff whine. We had no pto in ours, but it was stock & I'm absolutely sure it didn't have too much hp. We pulled 6-16s (IH 560 plow) usually in H-1, low ta. Normally it wouldn't swing it in L-4 hi TA unless it was exceptionally fit conditions. I think the tractor, front weights (no duals) & plow was just under $10,000. The tractor had it's share of TA & rear end problems. It did stay in the neighborhood after we traded it on a JD 4620. But then, it caught fire going down a road when owned by another neighbor. I think it was sold for scrap....sadly. 1st photo below is myself & my brother & our 1206...then (1965). Note the plastic cover can still be seen on the backrest. I don't know why we didn't take that off right away, it just felt neat to have plastic on a new seat. 2nd photo is my brother having taken over the driving of the 1206 while I was in the Army. That was our 1st ever mounted field cult (Glencoe). The wings had cable winches in the photo, however when we first bought it, it came with NO winches. It was just a "Jack-Armstrong" lift mechanism. Same way with transporting our rotary hoe sections on a hay rack down the road. 3rd photo is a "2nd childhood" photo showing our newest 1206 driven by my son Kurt. This also happens to be a '65 model & is about ready to roll out of our restore shop. Kurt looked for a '65 for a long time & finally found this one. The tractor is an early '65 by s.n. It has the wrong plaque on the hood & wrong font for TURBO sticker, but that has since been remedied, along with quite a few other things. Kurt & Billy have spent much of the winter re-fabbing the 1206. It'll be going on the dyno the next time the weather allows, which might be a while. 
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La Grange, MO | The first tractor my dad ever bought was a 1206. Most of my child hood pictures were taken on that tractor. He traded it off when I was in college and regrets it every day. We used it on everything from 26ft disc to silage chopper. My dad swears it was running north of 200hp
and I don't doubt it. The best stories he tells are of his 806 that we still have and I planted corn with last year. My father was one of the first no tillers in the area. He pulled an 8 row kinze with 3 mounted liquid tanks for fertilizer and mounted two tanks on tractor for spray.
He custom planted God only knows how many acres with that rig. My grandfather once told me that my father was planting in the bottoms and the neighbor stopped because he thought something was on fire but it was just my father planting corn lol. Tractor left black smoke every pass across the field. My father still currently owns and uses a B, H, 450gas chores every morning with it, 606, 806, 1456 |
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mid minnesota | We bought our 1206 in 1977, pulled 7/16 plow for years. Still have it. moter,trans ,TA, rearend never been touched. yard tractor now |
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Soutwest Ks. | My first tractor was a 1206 with the factory cab. I purchased used and pulled a 11 yd. Hancock paddle scraper with it for awhile. I made the mistake of turning the fuel up slightly and from that time on I would constantly blow head gaskets. I think with the fuel turned up I was only pulling 160. I liked the tractor and still rather fond of that series but it was build very light in my opinion and always had a lot of niggling issues with it. My buddy had a 5020 JD on the same jobs and seldom if ever broke down. I eventually traded my 1206 for a power shift 4520. It was built a lot heavier but didn't have very good power. One of the first things I did with my 1206 was changed the TA ratio change making the low a lot slower. This enabled me in a good day to never have to clutch the tractor except when I started out in the morning. I could go through all the gears using a foot throttle and a delicate touch to the levers. Very cool! |
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NW central IL | what size rear firestones Ron? I see you got the same turbo sticker I have on mine, really pissed me off when I stepped back after installing it...... |
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| I'd love to hit the road on an 06, 56, or 66 with 42" rubber. Dad's 1066 flew with 38's. Dad had an 806 that he turboed. I hit the field with a 21' disc and straight pipe. Was back to the yard in 20 minuets putting the muffler back on. After the 3rd set of head gaskets it went down the road.
AaronSEIA |
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thumb of mi | This is one I rebuilt last winter. My son painted it last summer.
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Schlegel Farms, Hagerstown Indiana | I bought this one last summer and since then have a fixed a few leaks, brakes and a few other things....it is going to the paint shop here shortly.
I used it to haul in wagons this fall and it also did all the tillage (Plowed the garden) in the picture.
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Farmington IL | Dad bought a 1206 in 1976. We still have it. Still all original and looks very nice. The old solar tubo detonated about 1987. Never done anything to it other than rebuild the inj pump and fix the alternator once. It was never our big tractor. Did a lot of our planting but I do remeber it on a 6-16 710 plow a couple times. Its been retired for a long timw but will never leave here. To this day when I get on that tractor it just feels comfortable like a familiar pair of shoes. |
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SC Iowa | An old IH mechanic told me a story about a new 1206 they sold. The guy wanted it HOT so they put on a bigger turbo, bigger injectors, built an intercooler and several other things I don't remember. Anyway they spent $8000 on this new tractor and it dynoed 220 HP when it went out the door. The dealer took out a 4156 a few years later trying to trade with him, it would not keep up with the 1206 pulling a plow in gumbo. |
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SE PA | You may be thinking of King Brothers turbo, I believe there was a thread on read power awhile back. |
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NW central IL | that's saying something with the weight difference involved. remember a 1206 is at home at 12-14k lbs |
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| Pic is Dick Baird from Williamsfield, Knox County pulling an 8 - 16 plow on land and plowing down anhydrous ammonia. Had the King Bros turbo setup on it.
Edited by Harmon 2/22/2014 15:29
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NW Central Ohio | ...that's just crazy. My dad had an 806 with an M&W turbo set up on it. He pulled 6-16's with a packer in some NW Ohio clay. I think it only had 16.9-38's on it...and the lugs were so weak that a couple times in the furrow, he actually rolled the lugs over. The biggest problem with that tractor he said...was when he got to the end of a furrow with the plow, he didn't dare touch the throttle...or it would just blow water out the top of the raidiator. He eventually broke the spider cage on it...fixed it...and then went to a bigger tractor. |
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Chebanse, IL..... | Tony Our 1206 in 1965 had 18.4x38s. The 18.4x38 tire was created for the 1206 by request of IHC, so IH 1206 had the first 18.4x38 tire. When the salesman/friend/neighbor sold us the tractor, I remember him saying "you won't need duals, there's so much rubber on the ground duals won't help....". He was wrong. He also insisted we buy the 6-16s, it should've been 5-16s. I realize plowing is different everywhere. Even if we had 300 hp (it didn't, I know), you couldn't have got enough weight on a 1206 to pull more than 6-16s in our dirt. I realize many have tougher dirt, not claiming the toughest in any way though. But, 6-16s was a big load most of the time. The 1206 we bought in 2013 has 18.4x38s also. The stickers you see in the 1965 photo in my above reply are 100% correct....no argument or thinking necessary. That tractor had just come from the showroom of Harry Anderson International in Kankakee, IL. Andersons is long gone now. But anyway, part of our refurbishment of the "restored" 1206 was to put all the correct hardware, stickers, & signage on it. Very little "dress up". We did put a little chrome that wasn't factory. The factory straight pipes (that's how IH provided them) were painted silver from IH which rusted the next day. We opted for chrome, though it will still rust. The "bar-grill" was silver from IH....we made it chrome. Also, the batteries now have chrome covers. A little "show" yes, but not like Orange county choppers or anything. First photo below shows 1206 as we bought it in fall of 2013. Lots of "wrong" stuff. Kind of like "Where's Waldo" if you want to find wrong stuff in photo. It also has 11.00x16 tires on front where 1206 only had 10.00x16 in 1965. Second photo shows the CORRECT signage & repainted tinwork. Not the first ding or dimple anywhere now...not even in the OEM fenders which usually show spot weld pucker marks. It's all smooth as glass now. The correct decals come from Maple-Hunter decals, Indiana division. Third photo is Kurt & Billy installing a fresh-built 1000 rpm only pto in the 1206. The 1206 was factory with 1000 only. Farmers installed the dual pto later when they wanted to run augers & bush hog type pto implements needing 540. The 1206 is still in the corner of the shop & I'll get it out for "sunny photos" one of these days...if it's ever sunny & warm again. 
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NW central IL | that is very close to home.... |
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NW central IL | she looks good Ron, I guess I didn't realize the 1000 pto, a lot of them, including mine, has the dual pto. just assumed it was a factory or dealer installed option |
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NW central IL | they still have atleast one 1206, wonder what happened to it? might have to ask. even with 350hp I cant image the weight that needed to be on it to get it to the ground. I know it takes 385 pto hp and 35k lbs to pull 9x16's 5-5.5 mph in that area, if he was running a foot deep |
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SC Iowa | I remember him saying they put a weight bracket on the left frame rail with 10 weights. |
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| Doug told me he redid the engine and it drives a manure pump. Sleeve and piston set came from China and the engine under load had two cold cylinders, pistons were not correct. Nice to get crap like that, hard to determine what was the problem. Pic of myself side dressing. King Bros turbo, after all these years.
Edited by Harmon 2/22/2014 18:40
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NW central IL | doug can be known to be alittle "thrifty", so hard to say |
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| They spark a lot of interest in parades and tractor shows and tractor rides. We sure enjoy ours when we take it out in the summer!
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| We are getting leaks fixed and adjustments made so this one can go in the paint shop before summer. |
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Grandfield, Ok. | Friend has a 1206 wheatland that his dad bought new. I have tried to talk him out of it but no luck yet. |
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EC IL | Kinda sad, looks like that King Bros IH dealer in Arcola is barely running, the last few years. Im assuming those guys are the ones that supplied the turbos. Last time I stopped by the showroom, I thought one of the workers was complaining about CaseIH cutting them back. Anybody know much about that dealer? Hate to lose those small town dealers |
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Eastern North Carolina | Harmon - 2/22/2014 15:10
Pic is Dick Baird from Williamsfield, Knox County pulling an 8 - 16 plow on land and plowing down anhydrous ammonia. Had the King Bros turbo setup on it.
Is that one of those brackets that holds 20 weights..?
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farmall 1206
