International Harvester Collectors to Convene in Coralville

CORALVILLE - If someone says International Harvester today, it usually reminds people of tractors from days gone by or diesel trucks on the road today.

But, with roots as far back as 1834 when Cyrus McCormick patented his horse-drawn reaper, International Harvester (formed in 1902 with the merging of the McCormick and Deering companies) has meant a lot of things to a lot of people.

IH was tractors and farm equipment, milk coolers and refrigerators, garden tractors, pickup trucks and early SUVs.

"They're the best trucks and tractors ever built," says Dean Haase, 45, of rural Anamosa. "When I was growing up I always had a preference for red tractors."

As a kid raised near Oxford Junction, Dean's eyes grew wide when a neighbor came home with a new 12-row planter to pull behind his Farmall tractor. Dean was already very familiar with the name since his father pulled a 26-foot Airstream travel trailer with a 1965 IH Travelall.

"I'd love to find it," Dean says. "My eyes are always open."

It's that affection that hooked Dean, an operations supervisor at AEGON/Transamerica, into the International Harvester Collectors Club where for several years he's been writing the newsletter for Iowa Chapter No. 5 (the fifth chapter formed) that has 540 members. And it's why he's excited for another national winter convention, this one Thursday through Saturday at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Coralville.

Three years ago, when the national winter convention was held in Waterloo, more than 4,000 people attended, in part to see the main attraction, the 5 millionth International Harvester tractor produced (1974 at the Farmall plant in Rock Island, Ill.). That tractor is now in a Montana museum, but with 27 inside exhibits, some outside exhibits and vendors selling parts and memorabilia, this IH collectors convention promises nostalgic variety true to the IH tradition.

If you like old tractors, you can see eight very rare "IHC Regulars" from the years 1924 to 1932 owned by the Derwood Heine family of Waverly.

Garden tractors your thing? Check out the complete line of Cub Cadet tractors with Hydrostatic Drive transmission which were introduced 45 years ago. (Charlie Ricketts, the inventor of this continuously variable transmission, will talk at a seminar.)

IH trucks? Oh, yeah. From one built in 1915 owned by a family in Stanhope, Iowa, to models into the 1970s (IH quit making passenger vehicles in 1980), you'll see them here.

Dean will bring his red 1967 half-ton, a truck he bought years ago but didn't restore until 2009. He also owns a 1973 Travelette Crew Cab (four doors) truck that gets about 8.5 miles per gallon but holds 82 gallons of fuel and a 1974 Scout II that's been painted Dodge Plum Crazy purple.

As far as that 1965 Travelall Dean's father once owned? It was parked in the yard when a man came up and offered to buy it.

"He wasn't using it at the time," Dean says, shaking his head in dismay, "so he sold it."

FYI; INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COLLECTORS CONVENTION:

What: International Harvester Collectors winter convention

Where: Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville

When: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Admission: Free to general public which includes displays, seminars and an auction at 6 p.m. Friday. Club members pay $45 registration fee that includes the Saturday night banquet.

On the Web: See http://nationalihcollectors.com/for the national collectors site and http://www.ihccia.net/for the hosting Iowa chapter.