Farmall 856 Tractor: A New Addition to the Farm?

hi I'm Pete and welcome to just few Acres Farm today we're going to go and look at a possible acquisition to add to the farm family we're going to look at here is a tractor it's a Farmall 856 custom I've been looking for an 856 for a while probably nine months here and there and then a friend contacted me the other night and said hey one just showed up on Facebook that's Marketplace that's not too far away so I called the guy and looks like it's in pretty good shape just gonna go and see what he's got I got to go through the city of Ithaca which never too much fun it's congested over Hillandale through the beautiful New York Countryside in the summer it's about an hour and a half Drive see it someplace in here see anything over there [Music] to say here place [Music] here's the 856 nice straight original I'd like to introduce you to Millard Gill the owner of this tractor Miller how old are you 80. 85 will be in September September yep own this tractor for how long well probably 40 years 40 years used it to make hay and spread manure yeah yeah that's it yeah and uh just don't have much of a use for it oh well I've just I sold all my equipment off and I kept it around to all manure and I don't get enough of an ornel to maybe make it or worry about it so I hasn't done anything in the last year or two yeah but boy you saw how it started right up didn't smoke on Stir It Up sounds strong the armor meter on it says 539 hours but he replaced this when he got it so we're not real sure about exactly how many hours and it wasn't exactly when I got it but right shortly yeah yep but it runs strong doesn't smoke doesn't act like the engine is you know tired on it and as I said there's a custom 856 and back in the day custom was more stripped down tractor that IH made off the original 856 to compete more with the John Deere 4000 which was a stripped down version of the 4020 I believe and the differences were usually single light flat top fenders uh fast hitch on the back instead of 3.1 hydraulic remote smaller fuel tank more like a 706 or fuel tank and I think that there's a difference there's some debate on what the exact differences are but this tractor has two hydraulic remotes three-point hitch two light flat top fenders I don't know about the fuel tank size so it looks like somebody added those things to it Miller said the mcv's been gone through it's got a uh hydraulic assist clutch on it new batteries tires are you know pretty good they got a lot of life left in them it's got 34s on it the truck tires on the front front weights inline coolant heater here's a serial number 26684 and they made about some place in the neighborhood of twenty five thousand eight fifty sixes and I don't know how many Customs they made out of that do all the usual checks um I'm sure it's fine I just wanna you know show people how to check things out a little bit yeah I've seen them when you pull the cover off you had oil yeah yeah I usually want to look for bubbles when it's running too yeah yeah look at the front end no welds on the nope front end just as tight as you can be yeah you always see these boogered up with weld nah those are splines under there on the knees I think foreign on my 656 has been all welded up yeah it's got a Rose Master pump on it you always got to lick the dipstick you know oh I should get the service that's so important well let's give her a try that clutch sure is nice yeah no kidding fuel gauge works with a little persuasion temperature gauge you set doesn't work you mounted one under here see how she does on the road try that foreign no smoke at all not supposed to do this but I'm gonna do it hold it right down brakes [Laughter] PA back brakes pulls it right down [Music] shifters are kind of what you'd expect he said he'd put a kid in it the temp plates in the transmission [Music] steering wheel spinner though that's a bonus power steering is great it's got a little play on the tie rod ends and that's no big deal that is strong of course no oil pressure gauge so you don't know you just don't know but I don't see anything that would indicate low oil pressure this got a 407 in it course lots of grunts I'll tell you what that hydraulic assist clutch sure is the bee's knees it is easy said this has got the improved kit in it like I put in the 756. this day's just started to move up 150 something like that I know these tie rod ends got movement in them and I'm wondering about the Yoke and it's in here radiator leaks injection pump leaks said he got one oil leak here where the attack Drive comes out but that's just an O-ring down in there that needs to be replaced MCV does not seem to be leaking all the sensors got or the wire's gone off the dump valve sensor regular seat suspension no hydraulic seat that's just fine with me it's got rings on it for duals 540 and thousand RPM PTO it's got Electric hookup on it remotes one Breakaway unmounted the pressure he said he had the hydraulic spools rebuilt too it's just O-rings yeah definitely tell it to make them fresher it looks clean I don't see any welds anywhere sheet metal straight mechanically it seems sound [Music] definitely got the improved Park lock on it you can tell by the linkage here that's been updated with the one that's got the spring inside on the pole so that it positively locks these hydraulic brakes usually leak a little bit that's um bubbles single element air cleaner is the other thing I didn't check this one but that was one of the other differences between the customs and the regular 856s you never know somebody may have swapped it out for a dual element cleaner the front end seemed loose when I was driving it down the road and I got to looking at it that was the source of the looseness you can Take a Little Rock and on this side we got the same deal the bolts have just loosened up that's all and the nuts missing off of that one a56 is about 100 horsepower although I've heard of examples turned up that make a lot more than 100 horsepower just in case there's any doubt in your mind I want to let you know that I bought that tractor me and my neighbor all haul at home the one that helped me haul the 756 home he's got a little boy trailer that we can put it on and so it'll be here sometime this week we'll go and get it I am a tractor collector so lots of times folks watch a challenge say geez do you need that many tractors and the answer is no I didn't need this one either I'm a collector it's my hobby and it's a hobby that happens to intersect with farming which is what I do it's just nice when you have a hobby where you can use the fruits of your labor at your vocation I feel the 56 series of IH tractors are hot right now they're they're what I think of as the muscle tractors they were made same times muscle cars the mid to late 60s into the early 70s horsepower was increasing rapidly and dramatically they're just great all-around tractors I I if I had a favorite these days it would be the 56s so I'm moving up the series 656 756 856. don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with these old letter series tractors it's just that in the in the hobby people tend to collect the things they remember growing up with and using as a kid on the farm the letter series are old enough now where most of the people that did that are gone and so the hobby keeps moving forward and now the 56 series seems like a hot area of the collection world it's also more challenging for me to do restoration work on them and I always like a good challenge because they're quite a bit more complex so that's the deal you'll be seeing the tractor on the channel I'll be sure to get it out and do some hang after it gets here and run it through its paces and I think it's in such a condition that probably I don't need to do very much mechanical work at all I'd like to replace the the temp plates and the transmission so it shifts more cleanly and do some cosmetic work and seat and you know that kind of little stuff and probably strip it down to powertrain and repaint it instead of tearing it all apart so it'll be a relatively easy restoration project and it sure would look good when I'm done I hope you enjoyed this video I'm excited to have a new member of the family on the farm I'll see you next time

Channel: Just a Few Acres Farm

Views: 80,745

Keywords: farm, farming, hobby farm, hobby farm guys, hobby farming for profit, homestead, how farms work, just a few acres farm, life on a farm, day on the farm, slow farming, busy day, farm day, small farm, life on small farm, a few acres farm, few acres farm, just a few acres farm youtube, pigs, dexter cattle, cattle, chickens, pasture, international harvester, farmall 856, farmall 856 custom, buying a tractor

Id: dpN-fu65IS4

Length: 15min 58sec (958 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023