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New London, Wisconsin | I was at the new product announcement in Phoenix when they were first introduced to dealers. It really was ahead of it's time. The grill was unfortunately so far ahead, I think that is a big reason they didn't sell well. The reliability good one / bad one thing was actually supposed to have been dealt with in a silent recall the first year they were out. The front axles that had come from the payloader side of IH and had been bullet proof, were not in this application. There were a few other glitches as well. Probably the number one issue that caused the mechanical problems was they were not engineered to be dualed. The whole concept was to minimize compaction and tracking, and it did a remarkable job at that. The thing was EVERYONE dualed up tractors then, and that was no excuse not to do it to this too. The rear axles were sort of okay with it but not the fronts and trouble followed. There was by the way also a prohibition on saddle tanks, but that went ignored too, and why not with all that available frame space.
I never owned one but used to think I would, I got over that. By the time they got to the 63-65-6788's the nose was still too long, but they had things mechanically pretty well figured out. By then harvester's finances were in the toilet, they were lying to the dealers about the financial health of the company. We believing that BS followed along and unknowingly lied to our customers. It was not a happy time to be an IH dealer. I was just the machinery peddler. I have often been glad I didn't own the dealership during those times. The money side of things sealed it's fate, but sales would have anyway.
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is the IH 3588 the best tractor ever.
