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As far as the name, it does get called a lot of things besides Select-O-Speed, and the S-O-S Police are right on em, as seen here at YT ;). We owned a ford tractor dealership late 60's-70's, and never recalled how many were a real problem, nor how many were sold vs the 8 spd with the thousand series, both were available. I can remember just a few in the shop, first 6000 I ever saw had one, thought it had 2 S-O-S shift levers, too young to remember all the details and the mechanics we had, 3 brothers have long since passed on, they were some great guys, did not matter what you brought into that shop, our old D7, trucks, tractors, they built the last tilt bed we owned, this was all good stuff as a kid, could not get enough of the place. Near the parts room and show room there were some exploded view posters hanging up, along with some other wall hangers I wish I still had, always like the one with the thousand series cutting hay. I can remember the giant parts books on the counter, and some diagrams on S-0-S's, looked way too complicated for a kid to understand. NYS thruway Authority had S-0-S's early 62-64 4000's for mowing along the highway, we owned a 64 4000 that was bought from a thruway authority auction, had it for many years, so you know it had some hours on it, was the first tractor I ever really operated. I can remember the jerky'ness of it, but it's been almost 30's years since I've been on one to comment on that, seemed certain gears would toss you more. We used this tractor for everything, lot of brushogging, but also mowing, raking and baling hay, snow plowing with a front blade, manure spreader, small tillage jobs, really not bad for a 45 hp gas powered utility tractor, it did everything. I was never sure why my father never grabbed one of those blue thousand series, we would occasionally use ones on the lot that were not new, like the 4000, 5000 and 8000, did not have acreage like the dairy farmers but 112 or so at that time, mostly hay in what was fields, the rest woods. The first one he had here was a wide front 2010 with a loader, figured once you have a loader, you'd not be without one, though none of the tractors on the lot had loaders, only backhoes had em. The 64 4000 with 1 set of remotes, power steering, independent pto and S-O-S trans., worked year after year without any trans problems, and it was darned fast in 10th going down the road, thinking back driving that thing down the road or being on the fender, checking the front end comes to mind now, thinking how fast it went. We baled with a 532 ford baler, it handled the job for a few thousand bales every year, and I did quite a bit of mowing with an old ford rotary cutter with it. Thinking of the use it got, the Select-O-Speed was respectable, even more so if you did the adjustments and maintenance, having some knowledge on them to do so, either ours was in top shape when we got it or who knows, I never saw much maintenance or repairs to it in those years.
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