At right is our 130.  Beauty is in the eye of the heholder.  This girl's got a blue ton of hours on her and is testimonial to IH engineering.

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The 130 is probably the best purchase in terms of bargains.  Dad found this sitting in a garage in Purity, Ohio in 1996.  Oddly enough, I was doing another electrical job at an elementary school just less than a couple of minutes from where he’d found it.  I agreed to meet him up there after work to see what this thing looked like.  The owner was not home, but Dad had contacted him earlier to arrange to have the garage unlocked.  Much to my surprise when I arrived, Dad had the trailer backed into the driveway with the ramps folded down.  He was always good for holding back information until the last minute!  It turns out that he was good friends with the owner for years, and they would hang out at a local drinking establishment from time to time.  I suppose after several interrogations Dad ended up buying the tractor sight unseen.  The owner really didn’t know what he had, and Dad wasn’t about to let him know either!  When I got out of my truck I asked, "What’s up with the trailer? Jumpin’ the gun a little, aren’t you?"  He didn’t say a word and headed into the garage.  The tractor sat in the very back under piles of typical garage contents.  Push mowers, weed eaters, chain saws, and a bicycle had to be moved to expose a relatively decent looking 130 with a 5’ Woods belly mower that was in even better shape.  All four tires were flat, but we found an air compressor in there and got the thing ready to roll out.  It was somewhat dark in that garage, and I assumed Dad wanted to roll it outside to get a better look at it.  "He said the thing hasn’t run in over four years and never ran quite right even before that," Dad finally said.  "I threw a chain in the back of my truck.  I figured we can pull it on the trailer with your truck." Well we weren’t here to mess around!  This thing was going home with us!  After little effort getting that thing loaded and strapped down, we were headed out with another piece of iron.

Back at the shop, we started the ritual of scraping, cleaning, investigating and number scrounging.  The serial number with the "J" suffix identified the tractor as a 1956 with a Rockford clutch. But why didn’t this thing have any hydraulics?  A little more research told us that it was an Industrial model.  We also found out that it originally belonged to a pipeline company that used it to mow their right-of-ways up in the New England area.  The right-hand fender had been replaced with a big toolbox welded from ¼" plate.  The toolbox served as a makeshift locker for the operators riding that thing for their 8-hour shifts.  We were told that they would mow to certain checkpoints where the next shift operator would be waiting to take over.  That seemed like a ton of hours piling up and sure enough, after getting it running, it did sound like a pile of hours was on it!  But I must say that we used that tractor to mow close to four acres a week during the summer months with little repairs.  Since buying it in ‘96 we’ve put one rear tire on it, new fan belts, a new deck belt, and one new spindle.  Not bad for spending only $400 on the tractor!  I’d like to see something purchased new today that will still be running strong 50 years from now!

However, this past summer the old gal indicated she is ready for a rebuild.  You can hear the pistons slapping the cylinder walls under a heavy pull, and the oil pressure is next to nothing.  The steering is worn out, and the front wheels wobble a bit. The transmission is still in great shape though, so for not too much money I can rebuild the motor, freshen up the front end, and she will be ready for the next 50 years or so!

The history of the 130 begins with the Farmall A.  The Farmall A was introduced in 1939 and featured "culti-vision", an offset design used to cultivate crops.  The engine and transmission sit to the left-hand side while the operator sits to the right-hand side with a clear view of the ground beneath them.  This mimicked the setup of horse-drawn cultivators where the operator had an unobstructed view of the ground passing beneath them.  The Farmall A eventually moved to the Super A, then the 100, and finally the 130.  The 130, manufactured only in 1956 and 1957, was replaced by the 140 in 1958.

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