Just received my second issue of your magazine and find it very interesting. It brings back a lot of memories. I grew up the son of an International Harvester dealer and the second tractor that my dad had on our farm was one like the one on your cover.
It was a Farmall F-14 and the one in your photo looks just like it except for the fenders. In this photo the raised steering shaft with the flex joint at the steering gear tells me that it is a 14 and not an F-12 which had a steering shaft level with the hood.
The first tractor that I ever drove was a Farmall ‘Regular’ that we used to pull a five disk tiller plow and then finished with a disk harrow about six feet wide. That was about 60 years ago on the same farm that I live on now.
Keep up the good work with the Farm Collector magazine.
William Evans Crockett
North Waynesboro, GA
The tractor pictured on the cover of the July issue is an F-14 Farmall. The F-14 was manufactured only in 1938 and 1939. The F-14 is very much like the F-12 except the engine speed on the F-14 was 1,650 RPM. (The F-12 had 1,400 RPM). A total of 27,396 F-14 tractors were made altogether (15,609 were manufactured in 1938 and 11,787 were built in 1939). The F-14 was available in a wide or narrow front, on steel or rubber. Our 1938 F-14 has steel wheels on the back and rubber tires on the narrow front. The cost of a new F-14 ranged from $655 to $895.
Paul and Aria Wagner
Lansing, IA
Can’t resist getting my two cents in on the July 2001 cover photo, being a 43-year mechanic on McCormick Deering, International Harvester and etc. The chassis is of a McCormick Deering, Farmall F-14 due to the front steering joint and taller steering post, a distallite burner, and it has a shutter rod to the radiator. Possibly its last job was planting potatoes. The tall levers by the hoppers were for a two-row cultivator and also could be for covering potatoes. Now, the mystery part of the photo is why I am writing. The object on the left of the machine was a little tricky to identify. The draw bar complete with axle clamps and brackets placed between the wheels and rod, in the cover photograph, boggled the mind. After I figured out what I was looking at, it wasn’t tough at all. Quite possibly this unit could have been used to do its job with a tractor pulling it with an operator on it; these were very under-powered, as well as very slow. I had owned two F-12’s by the time I was 21 and drafted. The F-14 I could see no difference with, except the taller steering post got the steering wheel off your knees.
Jerry Moore
Moorhead, IA
The ‘retired iron’ that sits on the Richard Potter farm and was pictured on the front page of your July issue is a Farmall F-14. I’ve enclosed a picture of mine that we restored. My grandson is sitting on the tractor. These tractors were made for only two years, 1938 and 1939. My dad traded in a team of little mules for this one in 1938.
Dudley Johnson
Kanawha, IA
