I had a FW-30 Ford with 903 only good thing about it was the motor.   Turbo with straight pipe.  Anyway my distant step cousin was working for us.  He told my wife that he needed shuffled at the end of the day so my wife told him to call when he crossed the highway.  He crossed 2.2 miles east and a mile north.   He called as he was waiting for a gap in traffic.  She said she was in the yard and could hear the tractor take off from the stop.  

It made the 7580 look like a Fendt.

Crude is an understatement shifted horribly, brakes were terrible and reliability wasn’t good. 

Mechanical 
As long as it started I didn’t care about electrical.   I hated driving it and the retired neighbor that drove for us at the time only ran in the daylight.  As far as instruments all that we monitored was oil pressure. 

No not a bad week life is good.   Probably was till about the Soundguard era till a cab worth having came out.  Yes I’d rather have no cab than a crappy one.  I feed cows nearly 365 days a year without a cab.   Only time I don’t is if we are away for home and I get an uncle to.  See not afraid of open station tractors. 

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If you were pulling a 21 ft disk with a 1456 in Hi 2nd you must have had it up on its wheels. My brother bought a 1456 in time for the 1978 crop. I drove it the first year we had it pulling a 20 ft. IH 475 disk. If I let it down Lo 4th was the best it would do. I could run in Hi 1st if I was just incorporating Treflan. It didn't pull that disk any better than the Ford 9000 we previously had in front of it. It also had a Hiniker cab on it. Had to really turn up the radio in order to hear it and the a/c didn't work more often than it did. It had a York compressor that was a genuine piece of junk. I hated that tractor so much that the next year I made a deal with my brother. If he would put it on the planter he could drive it and I would go back to the 9000 with just a canopy, no cab. After that the York compressor somehow disappeared and a GM compressor replaced it.

My brother talked to the previous owner (dairy guy) who told him, "It will tote the front wheels from one end to the other." The only time I ever saw the front wheels off the ground was when they were jacked up to fix a flat. Our ground was in Prentiss County Mississippi. Our "home ground" was mostly in Casey Creek bottom. Most of the rented ground was split between Dry Creek, Little Danville Creek, and Hatchie River bottoms in the corner of Prentiss, Alcorn, and Tippah counties. Almost all of that ground, except for the Hatchie portion, had a relatively high sand content. This was in the days of full tillage. Pulling that same disk with a JD 4630 you had to be careful or you would be pushing dirt in front of the gang axles. Didn't have to worry about that with the 1456. It wouldn't pull it with the gang axles dragging the ground.

Your mileage may vary. Maybe the one we had was a lemon.

1456 is when the axles went from 3.25 to 3.5".

We bought one of the earliest ones in fall of '65. This is it in the 1st photo below. Note plastic still on seat. Bought an IH 560 plow with it, 6-16s. Someone in this thread asked if 18.4 x 38 was built for the 1206. I have read that IH wanted the 38" tire for the 1206 power & had to wait a bit for the tire. I'm on the left, brother Larry on the right. Fall of 1965. Coveralls were mandatory uniform on Lukow farms back then. No questions. Actually, always looked forward to getting ready to pick corn because we'd get a new pair of coveralls for fall work.

Also, since ours was an early '65 model, the "1206" emblem is a flat stick-on decal. Later production had the raised emblems. Story that I've read is that someone didn't get the emblems ready in time & IH wanted to get the production cranking so they just printed some shiny foil decals. That's what we had. If you ever wondered about the proper paint scheme for front wheels/hubs/alternator/etc, just look at this photo. Nothing had been touched. It even had the silver painted straight pipe from IH.

We had the infamous IH "ice cream box" cab. No a/c or heat. Just a vent blower mounted on the ceiling. We bought an IH fender radio & mounted it to the inside of the cab, but you could hardly hear it. I found that if I could swing the plow in Hi-1st, TA back, throttled down a bit, I could finally hear WLS 890. But, if in Lo-4th, TA back, the transmission made to much whining & you had no chance with the radio. It was much quieter inside with the door/windows open. We also had jacked up the cab mounts from the axles & put cut outs from rubber tires in there & then bought foam & glued it to the ceilings & walls. Doing all that helped reduce noise about 1.2% Replaced a TA & some rear bearings a couple times.

Our 1206 was traded on a JD 4620 a few yrs later & a local farmer bought it. But, somehow it caught fire hauling wagons on the road & burned. Insurance co. totalled it. Might've been able to buy it back if we'd been up on things.

So, about 50 yrs later we decided we wanted a 1206 again. Found one somewhat restored in WI. We did a lot more to it after getting it home. It was also an early '65 by ser #. So, we had flat shiny decals made again (Maple) & keep it for parades & plow days. Also pull an occasional barnyard open class pull. That's the 1206 we have now in the photos taken @ Half Century & local Herscher parade.

Yes, most agree the aesthetics of the 1206 make it one of the prettiest tractors. 

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Something occurs to me Ron that I had never thought of all the times you've posted that photo, or that I've known of the early ones with that decal.  Never been a real 1206 here, just 7 and 8s, but- growing up I spent a lot of hours pushing around a 1/16 scale Ertl 1206.   Those had the white decal early '65.   For quite a while, before the interwebs and some of the other old IH trivia that became more common knowledge, I would see real 1206s with the emblems like all the other 06-26-56 series.   Pretty sure I had a driver's license the first time I saw an authentic, in original paint, tractor that way because I remember doing a double-take and turning around and parking on the side of the road to go look at it sitting in the field.   I think it took a little longer for the 100+ horsepower tractors to catch on here than in some other areas, so they were probably kind of a rarity at the very start.

IH 1206 brochure













These 1206 photos started as Polaroids that sat around aging for years, before scanning. So, quality isn't 100%. We should've saved that JD 110 also. Had factory "moon hubcaps". This was an early model also with fiberglass fenders

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I'd be more than happy to share....but I don't have one for the 806.

Here's a few I have converted to pdf on my photo site:

Link to product brochures

To my knowledge the 45 degree tires were the only ones available. 

We picked this tractor off the "showroom floor" in Kankakee IL. Whatever it has on there is the way it came from the factory. The only thing any different is the rear circle weights. I think the 1206 was the start of the IH split weights. We had quite a few of the IH circles that fit everything IH ever made. So, we bought it with no rear weights and bolted our own 145 # IH weights on. 

We bought it without duals because the salesman said with these BIG tires, duals weren't needed. A year later we added duals. Probably wishful thinking on his part. Later we also added the screened intake pre-cleaner to replace the IH "tophat". We only had one SCV circuit on it also, so only 1 stick in the cab along the seat.

Another big deal was breaking in the engine. When they delivered it the IH mechanic said to let it run all night in the shed & he'd be out the next day to pull the valve cover & reset the valves. So, that's what we did. 

Our fenders are not bent up. Flat as can be.

Many of the restorations have reproduction fenders. They have spot welds that stand out like a sore thumb. We took ours to a body shop & had every spot weld filled & sanded. 
Also, the 1206 did not have step entry from the right side, so the only fender hand-hold was on the left. Most re-pro fenders have handholds on both sides. We had the hand-hold on the RH side filled and sanded. Also, no step on RH side. It was our attempt at being "original".

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