HD-41

I only favor A-C because of my personal history with the brand and so many of my friends having family members that worked at the Springfield plant. Sure I worked there a couple of short stints in high school, but that wasn't enough to sway any kind of loyalty. However being a backyard mechanic "wannabe", I did take notice of the simple tools and setups being used to manufacture these tractors. Most of the hydraulic equipment, pushers and pullers were simply OTC tooling readily, and easily available from tool suppliers. I came to appreciate this even more years later when my wife started at Caterpillar in Peoria, IL as an accountant, (ultimately retiring there) and got to see some of the tooling costs associated with their equipment, and how specialized some of this was. Of course manufacturing is much different now than the mid 1970's, so that needs kept in perspective.

In my short stint, (grand scheme) of being a bulldozer repairman until forced out of the job through closure and elimination, most of the brand I was exposed to were I-H. I thought they built a good tractor also at the time. Pretty much anything was easy to get in those days to keep most any tractor operational with many times a two to four hour ride in a pickup truck involved for parts retrieval as somebody had what you needed. Ma Bell played a lot in those days as internet, and cell phones didn't exist, along with people knowing how to use paper catalogs as computers were not yet a part of normal operations. Parts guys actually knew what they were selling too.

So much simpler times in hindsight..... 

Can't say one brand is better than the other as they all competed for the same market segment and built machines to fit the need. I've not worked on much Caterpillar equipment myself, but do know they are the best for supported parts for older equipment. Never really much of a player for me as I'm so used to build up and repair/rebuild of existing parts, it's almost second nature to assume this is the path to take.