5088

[Jacka]

Question for the owners of a 5088.One coming up at auction this week. CAH,was wondering if they were good or not and would you own another. I had a 3088 for a while,liked it but was open station.I don't need another tractor but I would like a nice cab tractor.Thanks.

 

[Brent1086]

I have had two. I would buy another tomorrow.

[searcyfarms]

i dont have a bad word to say about ours other than wish it had space for a buddy seat!!!

[brahamfireman]

Ours has 8700 hours,  been a good machine, only real complaints are it's a 2 wheel drive, and the cab is a bit short for my long legs.

Keep the lower radiator cleaned out so the AC works. Make sure you've got a good fan shaft bearing. 

[ihrondiesel]

11 minutes ago, brahamfireman said:

 

Keep the lower radiator cleaned out so the AC works. Make sure you've got a good fan shaft bearing. 

Along those lines, make sure the lower part of the air box is sealed up TIGHT, especially if you do any baling with it. The fan will suck a lot of material into that area if it’s not sealed. 

[rancher_]

I don't have one, but make sure the rear end has been updated.  Usually a punch mark by the serial number if it's done.

[Jacka]

Thanks to all will take a closer look at it.

[hippy5488]

have a 5088 that has 12000 hrs never had any updates done. only injectors and pump done. the motor is a little tired but still feeds cows every day. 

[TP from Central PA]

I don't have a 50, but a 52...................About the only bad part of it is it makes me wish I had bought a few more when they were cheap.  

[DaveinSD]

I have a 5088 and it’s been a great tractor. If I run across another 5x88 for a decent price in good shape I would not hesitate to buy it.

[Brian W]

Also have a 5088, 6500 hours. Absolutely love it. I like it so much I just bought a 5488. I think the 50 series are good buys, I know they have their detractors but bang for the buck I think they can’t be beat. Just make sure it has a working Sentry and does what it’s supposed to do. As in anything that is almost 40 years old it will break but it’s all fixable. My two cents. 

[TroyDairy]

I had one.  2nd owner 5000 oem hrs.  Sold to scrapper 20 years ago with 7500 since there was 0 interest in it and i just couldn't take it anymore.  Never ending electrical issues, 2 hydro and a charge pump in 10 months, stupid hard as rock hydro seat, slippery steps, hideous paint, marginal A/C.  It ran fine, rode better than a 86 series (but the solid seat) and shifted fine but was just unreliable.  Every summer something.  Sold to scrapper and used cash for used mx170.  It now has 15000 hr and is maybe thee most reliabe machine I've ever owned.

Sorry guys...besides looks i dont get the blind love for 88s

[brahamfireman]

23 hours ago, TroyDairy said:

I had one.  2nd owner 5000 oem hrs.  Sold to scrapper 20 years ago with 7500 since there was 0 interest in it and i just couldn't take it anymore.  Never ending electrical issues, 2 hydro and a charge pump in 10 months, stupid hard as rock hydro seat, slippery steps, hideous paint, marginal A/C.  It ran fine, rode better than a 86 series (but the solid seat) and shifted fine but was just unreliable.  Every summer something.  Sold to scrapper and used cash for used mx170.  It now has 15000 hr and is maybe thee most reliabe machine I've ever owned.

Sorry guys...besides looks i dont get the blind love for 88s

You must have got the only lemon made.

What were the "never ending electrical" issues? There's almost no electronics in them other than dash and radio. 

Same hydro seat of the 86's. Yea the AC does kinda suck but there's ways to make it better now.

I assume by Hydro you mean main hydraulic pump? You must have got a bad replacement, I've seen many that have never has the original off.

[TP from Central PA]

3 minutes ago, brahamfireman said:

You must have got the only lemon made.

What were the "never ending electrical" issues? There's almost no electronics in them other than dash and radio. 

Same hydro seat of the 86's. Yea the AC does kinda suck but there's ways to make it better now.

I assume by Hydro you mean main hydraulic pump? You must have got a bad replacement, I've seen many that have never has the original off.

Local to the north west bought a 50 that was taken around as a demo by the dealer everyone dealt with, they started having issues with it................they told me it took a GOOD mechanical from the dealership to finally do more than swap pressure switches out and actually work the problem.  Ended up the sentry had an internal issue of some sort and would randomly act up from what they assumed was vibration................Put in a new one and they never had anymore issues and put 1000's of hours on it.  They don't spit and polish either so it was used.  

[jworley]

We had one, it came from a tater farm near St Augustine Florida, a square front axle model with around 2500 hours in 1991. We ran it hard six years and the only thing we did to it was a water pump and fan shaft bearing. It had the usual faded paint but, it was all straight, nice western interior and the AC would freeze you out it even in the Georgia heat and humidity. Late in the afternoon on really humid days it would get condensation on the windows.

[farmer john 8910]

My main 88 series problem was the priority valve under the cab floor other than that I had good luck. A magnum seat and updated AC does help a lot though

[5288IH]

Make sure it has a sentry in it for transmission not test harness

[TroyDairy]

7 hours ago, brahamfireman said:

You must have got the only lemon made.

What were the "never ending electrical" issues? There's almost no electronics in them other than dash and radio. 

Same hydro seat of the 86's. Yea the AC does kinda suck but there's ways to make it better now.

I assume by Hydro you mean main hydraulic pump? You must have got a bad replacement, I've seen many that have never has the original off.

Here not many were sold.  And they had 0 repeat buyers.  They made alot of guys go green frankly.  Too little too late.  No PS in 1984...same cab as 1976..just behind.  And the solid seat... why they felt that made sense?

Lights and cab wiring was either crap connections or such brittle wire it had cracks causing burnt ends and blown fuses.  Several key switches and light switches.  And the blowby for such low hrs was pathetic.  Why it sucked for a DT engine is beyond me?  My 186 has 17000 and never been opened up.   The 5088 Lost main pump, then charge, then main, then 6 months later another priority or ? I forget  issue.  We were against a wall.  0 buyers or traders since they had such a bad rep. here.  Until 7 10 years ago they obviously were not well love.  They were cheap.  Now they ahve went up in resale but nothing like their other color family.  86 have always kinda been the same resale.  Pretty good but not amazing.  Love hate.  No one kinda likes either.

 

  Like I say, we are 100% red but that 88 almost switched us.  Thank goodness for mx n magnum to bring us back to the light.  Honestly in full disclosure i stumbled onto a 5288 last week.  1 owner low low hr barn find. Waiting for some more info.... if cheap enough ot would be good mixer tractor.  I will be surprised if i cant buy it for 10ish.  

[brahamfireman]

7 hours ago, TroyDairy said:

Here not many were sold.  And they had 0 repeat buyers.  They made alot of guys go green frankly.  Too little too late.  No PS in 1984...same cab as 1976..just behind.  And the solid seat... why they felt that made sense?

Lights and cab wiring was either crap connections or such brittle wire it had cracks causing burnt ends and blown fuses.  Several key switches and light switches.  And the blowby for such low hrs was pathetic.  Why it sucked for a DT engine is beyond me?  My 186 has 17000 and never been opened up.   The 5088 Lost main pump, then charge, then main, then 6 months later another priority or ? I forget  issue.  We were against a wall.  0 buyers or traders since they had such a bad rep. here.  Until 7 10 years ago they obviously were not well love.  They were cheap.  Now they ahve went up in resale but nothing like their other color family.  86 have always kinda been the same resale.  Pretty good but not amazing.  Love hate.  No one kinda likes either.

 

  Like I say, we are 100% red but that 88 almost switched us.  Thank goodness for mx n magnum to bring us back to the light.  Honestly in full disclosure i stumbled onto a 5288 last week.  1 owner low low hr barn find. Waiting for some more info.... if cheap enough ot would be good mixer tractor.  I will be surprised if i cant buy it for 10ish.  

That blow by was a weird deal, I think alot of guys got worried about it and needlessly rebuild motors or sold them. Thing is that's how IH designed them, our neighbor is an old IH engineer,  he has lots to say about that blow by issue and how it really wasn't an issue.

Either way it's too bad you got such a poor one. I thing 2000 era was the butter zone for scrapping them. Just old enough to be worthless, with no aftermarket support, just old enough that dealers didn't know they're quirks, and didn't want to waste techs time fixing them. But still new enough to not have every odd thing about them worked out and widely known across the country. Now a days most everything that can go wrong with them is easy to find on the internet. 

[5288IH]

On 3/17/2021 at 1:56 PM, TroyDairy said:

I had one.  2nd owner 5000 oem hrs.  Sold to scrapper 20 years ago with 7500 since there was 0 interest in it and i just couldn't take it anymore.  Never ending electrical issues, 2 hydro and a charge pump in 10 months, stupid hard as rock hydro seat, slippery steps, hideous paint, marginal A/C.  It ran fine, rode better than a 86 series (but the solid seat) and shifted fine but was just unreliable.  Every summer something.  Sold to scrapper and used cash for used mx170.  It now has 15000 hr and is maybe thee most reliabe machine I've ever owned.

Sorry guys...besides looks i dont get the blind love for 88s

That is not a bad thing, there was a car called the Falcon EA built in Australia, when I was working as a Ford mechanic it was a POS Motor leaked oil, gearbox was crap leaked water, suspension crap in the later years I use to tell people to by the car as everything was guaranteed to be replaced?. In the 80's there was a fad to cut back on electrical wiring.