WALKING TALL
A FWD tractor is a full-time unit. Unlike a full-time road vehicle, it doesn’t have a center differential. It doesn’t really need one because it operates mostly on dirt. Also, the FWD tractor has the same size tires front and rear and is usually an articulated tractor that pivots in the center to steer rather than have steerable axles. There are, and have been, four-wheel-steer FWD tractors, with steerable axles at both ends but articulated has become the norm.
When the 806 was supplanted as the top dog red tractor in 1966 by the turbocharged 112hp 1206, the Coleman FWA was an option there as well. Ditto for the successors to the 06 line, the 56 series units. FWA went on to be an increasingly common part of the farming landscape. Coleman maintained supplying IH with axles into the 86 Series for 1977. Coleman was already fading at that point and would close its doors in 1986, but IH would source axles and other parts from various manufacturers as the demand for FWA became greater.
Today, early FWA tractors are extremely collectible. Parts for the Coleman axles have become difficult to obtain, as the owner of our stellar example here, Hugh Forbes, would probably attest. We saw this rig at the 2016 Red Power event in Wisconsin but were never able to make contact with Hugh.
If IH, Case and Case IH 4wd and FWA tractors are of interest, a new book is out by Octane Press called Red 4wd Tractors, by Lee Klancher, that will keep you transfixed for hours.