Best tractor series in the early 1980's (continued

I would have to agree with you on all of that

Who cares about gound speed sensing tech.   We are fairly in with tech and don't use ground speed sensing.  A matter of fact I have two grain trucks that have inacurate speedometers and could care less.   I our personal vehicles I can tell within 5 mph of how fast I'm going without looking at the speedometer.   I would rather have the AC 12 speed powershift than the post in the middle of the cab and that ackward door.  Deere had nothing that could compare with the 8000's till they came out with the 7400's and so forth.  The only down fall to the 8000's was the injector pump would have been nice to have the same as the 7060's and so forth.

The 8000 series were decent for their time, know of quite a few of them with tons of hours and no major problems.  Uncle has got an 8010MFWD with over 11,000 hours on it, and it wasn't overhauled until around 10,500, and its a powershift which has never given him any problems since he has owned it.

Didn't Case have the ground speed senser before deere?I spose that is yet another thing deere copied after someone else gets the bugs out.

AC was dabbling with some high tech for that time electronics in the 8000 series, and I think that if they'd a just had 1 more year, we'd of seen full electronic instrumentation from them. The 8000 series gets my vote for best tractor of the early 80's hands down. Darrel

In one of my past HI (heritage iron) magazines, it had a write up of the "flight of the fuel tank" and how tractors evolved over the years by the various changes and modernization to the machines. It was pretty nice to see the AC 8000 series compared to the JD 8000 series of today and how some of the similarities AC had already incorporated into the 8000's cab room, glass area, dual entry doors, improved heat/AC, setback rear axle, load sensing hydraulics, dual range trans, with powshift, electric switch engagement of FWA, swing out batteries, on ground re-fueling, etc. Kudos to the HI writer and editing to get the point across on how far ahead AC was ahead in the developing and engineering depts. If management spent more focus on where dollars were being spent, and if maybe AC had a few guys from the enemy in the advertising and marketing department from JD, that 25 years ago, come next week maybe the AG Division would have not met its fate. We have an 8070 PS, it runs circles around the neighbors 4760. I have heard from many in the farm dealership business, both AC and non AC alike, that if Deutz would not have pushed aside the 8000's what was next to come would clearly have given IH slated sooner to be CIH of that decade a run for its money, and that AC would have soon started nipping at the hoofs of that damn leaping deere, closer than it ever had before. As far as the technology not being there in the 8000's and the failed attempt with the agri-data system, given the engineering track record of AC Im sure that a REAL improve was waiting in the weeds, but now we may never know. There was still plenty of time though, I think worrying about true-grit technical applications really didn't hit the tractor industry until the late 80's/early 90's when everyone's products in that area were vastly improved, and it caught peoples attention.

Kcgrain wrote:   Fuel economy of the 466 vs the 426 never came close in real life operations, they might have gotten some kind of lo fuel rating at Nebraska but anyone that had one out in the field knows it was not fuel efficient, and the fuel tank must have been designed by a union man because at 8hr you better be looking for fuel.

All the tractors that got tested at Nebraska were checked and prepped carefully by their manufacturers.  Some companies down right cheated to obtain their numbers.  The AC tractors (and White/Oliver/Minneapolis) were certainly prepped, but none of the the tractors from those companies ever got thrown out of Nebraska for illegal or non-production parts.

 A couple years ago, a buddy had a 4755 and I had a 8070. Both were FWA. Both were PS. As far as comparing the 2. The cab was no comparison.AC. Ride JD, Pulling about the same. Hooking imp AC . Price AC. Fuel AC. PS JD. But like I always told him. The Deere was 7 years newer and twice as much. I will take the 2 8070s,and they can have there 4755. I am sure glad my Dad bought AC tractors and land through the 70s and 80s instead of having a bunch of JDs with great resale and no land.