[AT] 8N Ford

[Indiana Robinson]

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 7:29 AM, Mike Sloane <mikesloane at verizon.net> wrote:
> Maybe it is an "Indiana" thing. Around here (NJ) I don't see all that
> many Sherman's. The main reason for putting them on N's around here was
> to get better control in first, second, and reverse, which were too fast
>   for some folks. So the ones I have seen on 9N/2N's have been step
> down, while the few I have seen on 8N's were the Up-normal-Down type.
> Again, remember that both the Hupp and the Sherman were on the input
> shaft, so dropping or increasing the ground speed did the same thing to
> the transmission driven PTO. The Howard 2speed rear, on the other hand,
> dropped the ground speed while maintaining the PTO speed. You need that
> for things like rotary tillers, etc.
>
> As far as the grilles on the N's, they are not made out of especially
> heavy material and stick way out in front - it doesn't take much of a
> bump to bend them up. I was lucky with my 2N - it spent all of its
> working life with a snow plow frame in front, so the grille was still
> perfect.
> <http://public.fotki.com/mikesloane/1946_ford_2n/2n_at_home1.html> I
> wish I could have said the same for the rest of the tractor...
>
> Mike
>
> Indiana Robinson wrote:
>> Since I am still trying to stay off of my #$%& knee I am going to go
>> look at an 8N Ford Tuesday. Not been ran in a "couple of years". Has
>> very good rear rubber, Sherman hi-lo, pictures look pretty good, looks
>> like good old TSC super fading paint. Would not start, not stuck.
>> -
>> As I look at 9/2/8N's I have been struck by just how many of them have
>> the Sherman's in them. Most are just the step-up's especially in the
>> 9N's. I've seen mostly Hupps in the Fergies around here.
>> It is also amazing just how many of the N's have a mangled grill.
>> Maybe their brakes were not kept up good enough. :-)
>> I have seen a whole herd of F-20's with "road gears" Behlen I think.
>> Are there many other tractors where aftermarket overdrives were used?
>> I have often seen M&W gear sets for Farmall M series but they were to
>> improve 3rd and 4th gear but didn't change 5th.
>>
==================================================


Hi Mike:
Here the 4 speed N's gear ranges were very good for most conventional
farming so for tillage extra gears were not really needed for most
tillage but a gear between 3rd and 4th was handy for rotary-hoe use if
the ground was soft. Of course from just this side of the terminal
moraine (Brown County) about 30 miles south west of me on up over much
of the state going north is Prairie and pretty flat. Some farms were
good sized but composed of scattered plots of maybe 20 to 40 acres
sometimes several miles apart. A fast "road gear" was pretty
important. Moving quickly between fields was a lot like the way the
English farm. Anything that made road travel faster was a good thing.
Now down in the hilly parts a faster road gear could be just spooky.
:-)
When I was a kid a lot of small farmers didn't own a pickup and
tractors with small trailers were a common sight around town. Many
guys would drive as far as 6 or 8 miles to a mill (elevator) to have a
small trailer load of corn ground for feed for a cow or two. Again the
extra speed was important.
Today of course it is a lot different but I know a bunch of guys that
move big equipment as far as 30 miles between farms constantly, mostly
by driving it.


-- 
Have you hugged your horses today?

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com