Fard vs Farmall in the 40's

These tractors were sold to a similar audience, and yet couldn't be more different. I kind of like the Farmall Motor, the transmission, and the brake araingement. But the Fords seating position, safety features, hydraulics, hitch, and styling, must have been an eye-opener to JD, AC and IH back in the day. You can see why the 8N was such a big seller, as Ford fixed the two out of the three previously mentioned features, and that Flat-head wasn't exactly a slouch. Now obviously the N fit somewhere between an A,B,BN and the more powerful H, but for what they cost, and with the heavy demonstrations of the 3-point hitch, I am sure that must have been a confusing time to buy a tractor.

On the other hand, I think the 3-point isn't nearly as good as advertised for row-crop work. IH's fast hitch, and AC's snap coupler both seem like better setups, having used all three. I suppose Ford had the muscle with the ASME or whoever made the standards, and that was that.

But the bottom line is, you got to appreciate how far the evolution of farm machinery has come in 50 years....

anyway, enough rambling.

Take Care
Steve

On the N series tractors you take away the 3 point and what good were they. A Farmall A or SA would handle a wagon loaded with anything up hill or down better than any of the N series. In our neighbor hood we used to haul firewood off the hills behind the farms. We shared a common road with a neighbor who had an 8N Many times I have seen the Farmall A with wagon and 1 cord or the Farmall H with 3 cords. Three times in my life I remember our neighbor jack knifing his 8N with 1/2 cord of wood on same hill. The hitch pivot on the 8N just too far from tractor axle and not enough weight on rear axle. It is a wonder he wasn't killed. I have seen that 8N turn cross ways in front of wagon and wagon just shoved it down hill cross ways. The 8N did get along quite well with a 2 wheel trailer that put some weight on drawbar, but you could only take that one so far as well.

They all had their place in history, and all of them were best in some areas. I guess its a good thing tractors were a bit like people, good variety. In all my years around farm equipment, (I am 61) I have never seen what I call a perfect tractor and by the same sign, I've never seen a tractor from the mainline companies of the 50s that didn't have at least one feature that I liked.

I guess one could say John Deere has come as close to the perfect tractor as anyone. That is the beauty of having no better or perfect ideas of your own. You just use every body else's best ideas. Really that is technically what the new Deere is, but then so are a lot of the other brands. You said it all EVOLUTION.