How many hours?

[nate]

We bought this early 40 H on rear steel a few weeks ago.   Don’t have any history on it.  How many hours do you think it’s got on it??

[td9inidaho]

If you ask me, I see plenty of new paint, supports bent, yet painted like new, drawbar might, or might not be original, to be honest, no way in my book at saying anything more than a tractor that's been put together like most of ours out here 

Mark

[iowaboy1965]

I will never be able to find it....but I think it

1 hour ago, nate said:

How many hours

was an old hill street blues episode. The one guy is explaining a movie to his friend who got stood up at the alter. Native tribe in the movie had a unique way of counting. Everything was 1, 2, 3 anything over 3 was always 3 so in this case 3, more than 3. 

[MT Matt]

All of them plus however many the neighbor borrowed the tractor for…. 😂. All of the good has been used up on that drawbar!

[Sledgehammer]

I was going to say "all of them" but Matt beat me to it. I'm sure it's a bunch. 

[jeeper61]

My guess is a lot.

You can count on it was was never down for a rear flat 

[Ihfan4life]

May not be as many as you think if that was a tractor that lived on a baler…

[jeeper61]

 I am surprised how many hours they can rack up

One of mine had 7200 just mowing 5-6 hours a week during the season 

It's half the age of that tractor 

 

[560Dennis]

I try to look at clutch pedal and brake pedal diamonds wear. Whatcha think ? Draw bar is function of operation as mentioned  .

[Lazy WP]

We had a SC Case that had the drawbar welded up. Dad always said that it was because the original owner used a half inch pin instead of what actually fit in the drawbar. Remember, lots of equipment of that era had tiny hitch pins and just the loose jerk would wear out the hole. 

[Big Bud guy]

10 hours ago, nate said:

  How many hours do you think it’s got on it??

 

 

Judging by the wear on yours I’d say more then mine.

[Matt Kirsch]

By the looks of that drawbar hole... it's got ALL the hours on it, and I'm not alone in that assessment! 🤣

[dale560]

11 hours ago, nate said:

We bought this early 40 H on rear steel a few weeks ago.   Don’t have any history on it.  How many hours do you think it’s got on it??

Can you put a picture of entire tractor. I noticed it has the well for the seat mount so an early on for sure early pto to.

[53ihgarand]

My neighbor was hard on equipment. A few years ago, he rolled his hay tractor in the ditch. While we were standing there getting it out, he said it only had 100 hrs on it, looking at it twisted and beat up laying there I said "And it shows every one." He didn't think much of my comment. John Deere actually sent engineers out to see what he was doing because he had so many warranty claims on the loader frame cracking apart. 

So sometimes its not the hours, it's what it did during those hours.

[Lazy WP]

17 hours ago, nate said:

We bought this early 40 H on rear steel a few weeks ago.   Don’t have any history on it.  How many hours do you think it’s got on it??

Interesting that the hole is worn so badly but the rest of the drawbar doesn’t show much wear. Most of the time the u-bar is worn out to 

[snoshoe]

17 minutes ago, Lazy WP said:

Interesting that the hole is worn so badly but the rest of the drawbar doesn’t show much wear. Most of the time the u-bar is worn out to 

I was mystified by that myself until I zoomed in. Near the corners is a weld and a reinforcing plate under. That portion of the U has been replaced.

[snoshoe]

I would also note that on hard ground the lugs on those wheels will set up a motion that is hard on drawbar pins and transmission drive couplers. Our Juda service manager always told how his dad had an F20 on steel. It repeatedly took out the drive coupler until they put rubber tires on.

[Gearclash]

Sparks my curiosity that the pin hole is wore off to one side.  Either the drawbar was used offset or there was a really unequal load on the implement

[nate]

Here’s a few more pics of it.   I asked the hours just for conversation sake.  We have quite a few tractors and I usually look over any red one I come across.   My guess is 15000 or more. It has all the distillate items in place yet and the engine block serial number matches the tag

[Powered by IH]

Not too bad of a paint job and rear steels, I'd say that's a score!

On the flip side, I don't think the choke rod, the brazed magneto, or the grease zerk on the side of the clutch housing is original...😆 kind of fun to see the farmer modifications though.

[nate]

31 minutes ago, Powered by IH said:

Not too bad of a paint job and rear steels, I'd say that's a score!

On the flip side, I don't think the choke rod, the brazed magneto, or the grease zerk on the side of the clutch housing is original...😆 kind of fun to see the farmer modifications though.

The choke rod is messed up for sure,  the other items must be an illusion from my photo taking in a pitch black shed using my phone camera flash!

[jd560]

9 hours ago, Gearclash said:

Sparks my curiosity that the pin hole is wore off to one side.  Either the drawbar was used offset or there was a really unequal load on the implement

Only made right hand turns when pulling a load?

[cobfly]

That thing has more hours than my butt could tolerate.

[rustred]

On 1/3/2026 at 10:53 PM, nate said:

We bought this early 40 H on rear steel a few weeks ago.   Don’t have any history on it.  How many hours do you think it’s got on it??

must be plowing hrs. as the hole is not worn straight back. many times on a plow the drawbar will be slide over one hole to the left. could be 10,000 hrs. or more.

[Owen Aaland]

This tractor has reinforcing plates welded on both the U shaped piece and the swinging part. Both of those repair parts were available from IH and would fit either an H of an M.

The 1940 H (SN 40XXX) that my dad had (I still have it) is a bit newer than this one since it has the newer style rear frame cover. It was sold new with rubber tires but no electrical system. My dad bought it in the early 1950s after the original owner traded it on a new tractor. When my dad purchased it the dealer had overhauled the engine and had it painted. A new electrical system had been installed so the parts are the same as a Super H. The upper steering shaft had been replaced to get rid of the greaseable U-joint under the hood. The original hoods had two grease holes rather than just one. 

The radiator as been replaced on the tractor pictured here since it had a pressure system. Front hood is mounted with 5/16 fine thread bolts rather than the original Dsuz 1/4 turn fasteners. It still has the original rubber front engine mounts. I changed mine to the cast iron blocks after the rubber mounts failed and allowed the front of the engine to sag. The hand crank coupler would no longer line up with the crankshaft so it could not he hand cranked.

Since this H was my dad's main tractor I know the draw bar hole was repaired twice during the time it was being used. Local welding shop would cut the hole large enough to weld in a harder bushing build up the top surface back to original. The top sliding piece was replaces by a roller assembly that was also available though IH parts. In the 35 years that tractor served as main tillage tractor the engine was rebuilt three time. The last overhaul was in 1974 or 1975. It probably only has a couple hundred hours of use since then, mostly to cut fire wood with a front mounted buzz saw.