Top Tractor 2016: Case IH Farmall 95C

By: Jaiden Drought

Date: 19.09.2016

Jaiden Drought says the Case IH Farmall 95C tractor was easy to drive, nimble and had good visibility, delivering good bang for your buck for its price. Check out his review.

First a quick history lesson. In 1842, Jerome Increase Case founded the Racine Threshing Machine Works in Wisconsin, where he invented a thresher that separated the straw from the grain. In Chicago in 1847, Cyrus McCormick founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. This would later become International Harvester, which in 1919 invented the first commercial PTO unit on a production tractor.

The first Farmall was also born under this brand in 1923. This was the namesake of the tractor we are testing in this shootout under the Case IH brand (which was formed when the two companies amalgamated in 1985).

So there is plenty of heritage on offer here. But the Case IH Farmall 95C also benefits from some well-proven components and some nifty Italian styling to reinvent the past and provide the livestock farmer with a great all-round tractor.

Walkaround

Succeeding the JXU model tractor that proved very popular in the livestock sector, the Farmall 95C builds on this reputation using a new generation FPT Tier 4A-compliant four-cylinder 3.4-litre turbocharged and intercooled engine. The high-lift one-piece bonnet and fold-out radiator stack makes for easy daily servicing.

The key feature of this machine is the electronic high-pressure common-rail fuel injection system, which provides fuel efficiency and a great torque band between 1900 and 2300rpm.

Emissions are taken care of using a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC). The reason Case IH has gone with this option over SCR/AdBlue (on its larger models) is that DPF/ DOC is single fuel, which suits the livestock farmer.

It also suits this tractor class’s typically non-constant load cycles – something I tend to disagree with. In my experience, on tractors with DPF that are under constant load, the heat will burn the particle matter and doesn’t create any issues. Conversely, tractors using SCR that are under very little load use less AdBlue and can gain scores in fuel efficiency as a result.

Farmall -95C_3

Although the appearance is different thanks to the Italian design, JXU users will be familiar with the three-range, four-on-the-floor with a splitter and electro hydraulic shuttle, giving a 24x24, 40km/h transmission with a 40x40 creeper option.

The three-point linkage has a nice, easy singe dial system for simple position control, and the Cat. 2 hook ends have a lift capacity of 3.4 tonnes which, although not market leading, will prove ample for most users.

The 64-litres/min open-centre pump provides flow to the two standard rear remotes with float (third optional) and the two mid-mounted valves for the loader. An additional 37-litres/min dedicated steering pump kept the wheel feather light. With 600-hour engine and 1200-hour transmission service intervals and three-year/3000-hour warranty, the Farmall offers a very good package for this price bracket.

Two speed PTO is standard – our test tractor had 540/1000, although 540/540E is also an option when indent ordering.

In the cab

The cab on the Farmall appears to be quite small from the outside, probably due to the slim roofline. But once inside it doesn’t seem that bad at all, thanks to the curved top of the front windscreen, front mounted sunroof (which aids loader visibility), as well as the pushed back b-pillars and curved rear side windows. And in the air-suspended seat, it doesn’t feel like you are in the Jamaican bobsleigh team.

The new pivoting dash and steering column with foot-mounted control helps access, and the light background colour makes the dials easy to read. Under the steering wheel are rocker switches to hack into the performance monitor of the tractor, and although there’s no RTK guidance level technology, this does provide useful options in terms of ha meter, litres-per-ha and so on, which is enough for this buyer market.

The air-conditioner/heater has 10 vents, although the majority are mounted low because of the glass roof. But because the wind chill factor was about minus ten thousand degrees at our test location, I was never game enough to crank up the A/C. Besides, it would have taken up valuable horsepower when national pride is on the line.

The main gear lever is well-placed to the right, with the range lever mounted low down beside the seat. The integrated loader joystick was in a good location, although it was too easy to knock the dump action of the loader into float, which was a little niggly when working against the stopwatch.

On the job

I posted my personal best time on the tight turns of the course in the Case IH Farmall. Given that it was first cab off the rank, this says something about the manoeuvrability of the machine.

Having said that, it was also the tractor I came the closest to tipping over. This probably has a lot to do with the heavy mild-steel loader fitted, as the European designed loaders on many of the others tested were constructed using much lighter high-tensile steel, giving those tractors a much more planted feel.

Farmall -95C_2

Tom and I didn’t agree on much, but we did agree that the Farmall was the most unstable of the pack. In fairness, this had literally just come out of a container, so nobody had run their eye over tyre pressures or anything like that. In a working situation, performing the tasks we tested the machine on, either a rear counterweight, wheel weights or water ballast would have shored the tractor up in no time.

Visibility to the loader was good at height thanks to the sunroof and slim cab roofline, but the loader fitted to this tractor had the lowest lift height; nearly half a metre less than the best on similar profile tyres. I’ve had experience with these shuttle levers in the past, so I knew what to expect, although I still am not a fan. The shuttle is very conveniently placed, but always retreats to the middle position.

This is fine, but to select N (which is usually in the middle), you have to push a button on the end of the shuttle lever. I often forgot where you take your foot off the clutch, thinking you are in N and jerk forwards. You will get used to it, but personally I struggled with that the most. On a positive note, the shuttle does have three easy-to-adjust modulation settings for uptake aggression, depending on the task at hand.

The verdict

This tractor was easy to drive, nimble and had good visibility, which allowed my personal best lap time to be recorded.

On the flipside, it felt unstable and at times may or may not have been on two wheels. You could argue this was all for the sake of national pride, you could probably suggest it was pure recklessness too. Either way, some simple ballast will provide a quick fix.

Given the Farmall was $25,000 cheaper than the most expensive tractor we tested, has the longest service intervals and the most comprehensive three-year/3000-hour warranty of the pack, I do genuinely think it delivers on the bang-for-buck promise.