Re: Which was a better tractor

Posted by LenNH on November 15, 2007 at 08:19:21 from (75.69.99.42):

In Reply to: Which was a better tractor posted by Idaho Ron on November 14, 2007 at 19:43:40:

Some good advice in the other letters here. I agree with others--it boils down to what you need. Some years ago, I found a Ford 2N, somewhat bedraggled, but useable after a valve-job, and I bought it to work a 3-point mower to cut a huge "lawn" (that's another word for a hayfield that you want to use to extend the lawn next to the house). I had spent all my years on the farm with an IHC 10-20 on steel, a couple of F-20s, a Regular" Farmall, an F-12 on rubber and one on steel, an A borrowed from a neighbor whenever I had the nerve to ask (delightful tractor to drive), an enormous and very clumsy 1930 Oliver Hart-Parr Row-Crop belonging to my grandfather, and finally a couple of Hs and a Super M. The Ford, as old as it was, was a revelation. Low (great under tree limbs), short and agile (great for zooming up to a fence and whipping around in a circle for the backswath), easy to get on and off of, and so on.
Didn't care much for the left brake pedal being outside the clutch--how do you use a brake pedal to make a tight turn somewhere when you also need to "inch" along with the clutch pedal? Engineers probably don't use some of the stuff they design, I guess.
The 3-point hitch was my first experience with that wonder, too, as was the hydraulic system that allowed complete control in either direction, instead of just "up" or "down" as with most of the power lifts from the 30s that I'd had experience with.
Moved around, sold the Ford. Recently, needed something to mow a large "lawn" (there's that hayfield again) where I now live, and found a tiny Ford 1100 (ONLY 35 years old! And it's not RED), and am having the same delight with the compact design, low to the ground, agile, great lift system, 3-point hitch, etc., etc.
One of the things I had never experienced was having 10 (count 'em!) gears, which give you an incredible range of speeds for work requiring the PTO to be up to speed (mowing, bush-hogging, etc.). One of the drawbacks of the A, B, C series was that they had only 4 speeds, with just 1-2-3 available for work. A Cub is not only not very powerful, but has only THREE speeds. Usually 1st gear in any of these tractors is slow enough for mowing or bush-hogging, but not always. I've done a lot of bush-hogging with an H in meadows dotted with "hassocks," and I thought that even first gear was too fast when the going got rough. My "new" Ford will go slower than a person can walk comfortably, and still keep the engine/PTO speed up. I can't say this little compact is as exciting as one of those beautiful, sleek Farmalls--LOVED looking down the hood of that Super M and listening to the throaty roar of the exhaust--but for my purposes, it works. When I get more money, if ever, and I can convince my wife that I need more tractors, I'll get me an H, a Super M, an A, a Cub, a six-speed John Deere A, an Oliver 77, a Titan 10-20 (now there's a dinosaur),
and......let me think. Just kidding. Or am I?

I've spent a lot of time talking about the compact quality of the Fords. The tall tractors don't work very well under trees, and if they are of the larger variety, H and bigger, they can be clumsy in tight quarters. Of course, by sometime in the fifties, many manufacturers were making tractors similar to Ford, Ferguson, Massey-Ferguson. I don't remember much about IH efforts in this area, but I believe they eventually had something low and compact, with some form of "fast hitch," if not the 3-point. If you have ever attached equipment the old way (with numerous bolts used to attach cultivators or the false-drawbar that carried the IHC sickle-bar mowers of the 30s and 40s), you appreciate the wonderful 3-point hitch and hydraulic system that Harry Ferguson brought to Henry Ford.
Ah, some people really like to ramble, don't they? Well, you are very patient. My wife's eyes glaze over by the time I reach the second sentence when I am talking about tractors.

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