I ’ve long been a advocate of maintain vintage tractor in usage around farm . Even at ~70 years honest-to-god , my John Deere Model 40 is reliable as can beand does great work raking hay and pulling black Maria . My Massey Ferguson 135 is more than half a C oldbut contract fields and bales hay just fine .
But some tractor … well , they ’re a littletoovintage , even for me . It ’s amazinghow far tractor have progressed during the last century .
I recently saw an oldFordson tractoron exhibit and had to wonder at both the similarity and difference compare to modern tractors . A house state the tractor was from 1926 , which — as about as I can tell — would make it a Fordson F with a 20 - HP railway locomotive .
Even though it ’s approaching 100 years old , there was no mistaking the Fordson F as a tractor . Two large drive cycle in the back , two smaller wheel in the front , the locomotive engine mount in front of the guidance bike … . Truthfully , the Fordson F looked a fate like the John Deere Model 40 and the Massey Ferguson 135 .
Some Key Differences
But the differences were striking . Rubber tires were nowhere to be find . Instead , the Fordson F had steel wheels with large lugs for generate traction . I ’m indisputable it would have been a bumpy ride on hard ground , though the wheels seem ready to dig deeply for adhesive friction . Indeed a bit of reading and research suggest the traction of these old steel wheels can be very good . peradventure eventoogood , since the slippage of arctic tires can be beneficial in some fortune .
Another notable difference was the handwriting crosspatch on the front of the political machine to ease starting the locomotive engine . There was no bombardment , because there was no electric starter . muscleman power was used to start the engine , and I understand that execute the hand crank could be a difficult and even grievous endeavor .
Then there was the power take - off ( PTO ) , and I ’m call it a PTO only because it provide power to other implements . The PTO on the Fordson F was n’t the splined light beam chance on the backs of modern tractor and even more recent vintage tractors like the John Deere Model 40 or the Massey Ferguson 135 . This PTO was located on the side of the tractor in the course of a spinning piston chamber ( call a pulley block , or belt pulley block ) to which a swath could be attached to reassign rotational mightiness to an implement .
Historical Value
I ’m grip by the Fordson F from a tractor history stand , but I would n’t need to apply one for farming . I ’m grateful that technological advancements have generate us rubber tires , galvanic starters and splined power takeoff .
I suppose it has something to do with what seems “ normal ” to me . Maybe farmers who have only ever used modern tractor with hydrostatic transmissions would finger the same skepticism about the geared transmission of the John Deere Model 40 and Massey Ferguson 135 .
But in any case , I reckon we can all be beaming at how much progress tractor have made over the last century . And with that in mind , who knows what the next century will bring ? mayhap electric tractors will rise to the forefront and farmers of the hereafter will look back on our gasolene and diesel engines and marvel how we ever get along with oil changes and fuel filter .
