PAUL - I knew the F/H had the ability to float by just moving one pin, but for 90+% of the work we did we had it locked in solid. About the only time we set it to float was the two yrs we pulled the fully mounted IH F/H 4-14 plow. When we pulled the disk, a 12 ft Kewanee with 20" rippled blades the disk would move the transport wheels forward enough the back end of the disk would drop and with the F/H set to float the hitch would raise the drawbar and the rear gangs would "Disk" the crowned center of the road. Not good for the disk or the road, so we set the F/H solid and most times even dropped the drawbar when moving from farm to farm. The wheel tread on the disk was so wide, wheels clear out to the edge of the disk, that the wheels ran on the shoulders.
The ability to get down force with the F/H made adjusting rear tread width easy on the 450, just put a large wood block under the drawbar and adjust the wheels in or out. For running the 5 ft IH F/H rotary cutter you could have it either locked or float. That rotary cutter was a BEAST. It would tear up anything you could drive the tractor over. I think the spindle gearbox was rated about 70-80 HP. Really stout compared to the 6 ft Brillion that replaced it. The fully mounted mower was a whole lot easier to turn & maneuver in tight places compared to the pull-type Brillion.
Dad used the rear blade & 450 to make a "loafing mound" in the cattle yard one fall. It was dry that year and the Land-Lady said he could pour a couple loads of concrete so while digging out the dirt to pour concrete he mounded up a 5 ft tall mound about 20 ft X 40 ft that the cattle could sit or stand on where it was always dry. The ability to force the blade on the 450 to cut while still getting traction really made that job easier than Dad thought it would be. Turned out good, the cattle would spend their whole day loafing on that mound.
I put a L-O-T of hours on that 450. Seemed like from about '65 to '68 I was doing all the fieldwork except pulling the JD #30 combine cutting oats, and planting & picking corn. I was doing ALL the plowing, disking, cultivating, & hay work. One year we had real good farming weather during spring break and I did ALL the disking & plowing that week. I went through over 300 gallons of gas in that 450 in about 5-6 days. I'd burn most of a 21 gal tank by Noon, then a second tank by 5 PM, then the third tank would last me till 10 PM if I worked that late. Dad was never big on working real late at night. Meant you had to have working lights which he wasn't big on keeping them working. Seemed like it burned a lot of gas with the same sized tank as an M or Super M but it did a lot more work in an hour than an M/SM. Several people on the RPM forum actually think they were a stronger tractor than a 560 gas. The 450 actually had more CID than the 560, 281 vs 263, but ran 1450 RPM and the 560 ran 1800. When Dad jumped ship and bought the 4010, it really didn't pull our 4-row 4-bottom equipment that much faster with 90+ HP than the 450 did with only 55. And it burned almost as much diesel fuel per hour as the 450 burned gas. It just held more fuel, 34 gal instead of 21, but if you didn't top the tank off at noon you still needed fuel by dark.
