International harvester 434 Narrow/Vineyard

[Tommo3]

Hi folks
Wondering if anyone has any pictures of the IH434 Narrow on farm. Trying to find a picture of the protective screen it was provided with. The only ones I can find online are from the sales brochure and the operator's manual. Unsure on what these screens were made of (possibly fibreglass?)but most probably ended up chucked out as they had to be removed to attach the battery.
Thanks.

 

[Kidds]

Hi folks
Wondering if anyone has any pictures of the IH434 Narrow on farm. Trying to find a picture of the protective screen it was provided with. The only ones I can find online are from the sales brochure and the operator's manual. Unsure on what these screens were made of (possibly fibreglass?)but most probably ended up chucked out as they had to be removed to attach the battery.
Thanks.

We had one from new, never had a screen as far as I recall.

 

[Tommo3]

We had one from new, never had a screen as far as I recall.

Now that is interesting. There were three sold near to me and all had the screen from new. They secured into 4 holes in the bonnet. All three still exist but have long since lost the screens. Though they all still have their hubcaps on the front wheels.

 

[Kidds]

Never had hubcaps either.
Tractor still exists as far as i know, sold it about 4 years ago but was used until then.
Was definitely narrow, hardly any room on footplate for your feet. Had a handbrake affair which was a serrated crescent and lever on foot pedal that latched onto it.
Had a standard 434 from new too so did know the differences. Maybe the shield and hubcaps were optional extras. Didn't have an underslung exhaust either, don't know if that was a thing on IH.

 

[Tommo3]

Never had hubcaps either.
Tractor still exists as far as i know, sold it about 4 years ago but was used until then.
Was definitely narrow, hardly any room on footplate for your feet. Had a handbrake affair which was a serrated crescent and lever on foot pedal that latched onto it.
Had a standard 434 from new too so did know the differences. Maybe the shield and hubcaps were optional extras. Didn't have an underslung exhaust either, don't know if that was a thing on IH.

Very interesting. My understanding was that all narrows had an underslung exhaust but there's so little information about these that I suppose it could've been specified in an order. The three I know of all had underslung exhausts, screens and hubcaps. I suppose the only way to know for sure is to speak to someone who sold the tractors new from the dealer.
Yes I have seen how little room there was on them. I bet they were a pain for someone with big feet.

 

[Kidds]

My cousin was 6'6", he wasn't keen on it but he did drive it a lot.
When it got retired from orchard spraying it was used to lift rhubarb sets, the wheels could be set to fit down 40" row centres. I have seen tyres today that wouldn't fit down that!
The disadvantage was it was prone to toppling over with a sprayer on the 3pl, no real option to fit a roll bar either in an orchard. Think that may be why we ended up with our first trailed sprayer though the fan part was still on the 3pl.

 

[glasshouse]

My cousin was 6'6", he wasn't keen on it but he did drive it a lot.
When it got retired from orchard spraying it was used to lift rhubarb sets, the wheels could be set to fit down 40" row centres. I have seen tyres today that wouldn't fit down that!
The disadvantage was it was prone to toppling over with a sprayer on the 3pl, no real option to fit a roll bar either in an orchard. Think that may be why we ended up with our first trailed sprayer though the fan part was still on the 3pl.

Would have been really handy feeding cattle down a narrow passage

 

[glasshouse]

For years we had the problem of soft seedbeds between the drill tractor wheels.
We should have used a vineyard tractor on duals or those tricycle tractors

 

[Tommo3]

Here are the only 2 images I can find of the screen.

 

[Kidds]

They are also pretty much the only images of them with underslung exhausts, all the other pics I can see they have a normal exhaust.
I'm wondering if the screen versions were either for countries other than the UK or for use in very specific crops because if you have branches where you might need a screen you have definitely not pruned your trees properly. How exactly are you planning to harvest if the tree rows cross over that much? They cross over even more when the weight of fruit brings those branches down nearer to harvest time.
Another feature of them is they had cranked lower arms where the standard ones were straight.

 

[GlennW]

There was a feature about these tractors in (I think) the Nov 23 edition of Tractor and Machinery magazine

 

[Tommo3]

This picture shows a narrow with an underslung exhaust. Also, note the hole on the side of the bonnet by the battery access hatch. Its a bit hard to see. This was a hole used to fit the screen. Another was located on the other side and two more on the top of the bonnet.

 

[Kidds]

Ours had bigger wheels than the one in your pic.

 

[Tommo3]

Ours had bigger wheels than the one in your pic.

View attachment 1168503

Yeah i dont know why that one has such small back wheels.
Your tractor has the holes to fit the screen so it must've been sold as an extra or something.