[AT] TMCOTKU tractor count is down by one.

Al Jones farmallsupera at earthlink.net
Mon Oct 19 08:26:16 PDT 2009


I don't know why I don't like the little Ford & Fergies.  Maybe it's because Henry Ford tried to convince the government to allow him and only him to build farm equipment during WWII.  Maybe it was something that happened to me in utero.  I don't know...they just seem so over-rated for what they are: small, slow, and crude. I'll gladly concede, for the time the ford/fergies were advanced.  Driving them might've been a half step above straddling a mule's back (again, no floorboards????) but the three point hitch was nice.  I guess my thing is, in today's market, one can get a newer (and not much newer, at  that, if you want something "old") tractor the same general size/shape as a N or TO whatever that will literally work circles around it. And you can get it for about the same price. Yes, if you want an old tractor, newness doesn't matter. But still, it seems like if you have a Ford/Ferg, you don't have much.  Case in point: My FIL's redbelly takes up just as much space in the shop as our 424 IH, yet the 424 will pull three bottoms with ease while the redbelly can't handle but two. FIL has a NICE 20 blade King disk he got from an estate.  I hooked the 424 to it and disked his garden one time, the '24 just bossed that disk around all over the place.  (It pulled the same size IH disk for us for years and years.)  Now with his Ford, he dropped the back gangs off it so it would pull it.  Plus, the 424 is old enough to be a "classic."  :)  

Then, there's the story my former IH salesman friend told me (and took great delight in telling) about his first years selling Farmalls....he stopped at a farmer's place to demo a Cub and plow, there was already a Ford N-whatever "making a mess" as he put it.  Said when he got in the field with the Cub and started plowing, it wasn't long before the Ford salesman loaded up and went back to town.....

FIL's tractor has been in his family since new.  I won't put anyone down who likes/uses the Ford/Ferg's. Bottom line it's one more old tractor being saved.  For me, it's like Ford/Chevy, Coke/Pepsi, Sports team/sports team. It's all what you like.

That said, I'll never have one of those @#(@#$ things under my shelter if I can help it!

Al
-----Original Message-----
>From: Herbert Metz <metz-h.b at mindspring.com>
>Sent: Oct 19, 2009 10:53 AM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: Re: [AT] TMCOTKU tractor count is down by one.
>
>Saturday at Calhoun, GA tractor show, while discussing various tractors, I
>mentioned that the ownerof the first Ford in our area sure took a ribbing
>about "now he did not have to walk the nearly two blocks to the mailbox
>each day" or "now he did not have to walk out in the pasture to get the
>milk cows". Three or four years later nearly every farmer around had a Ford.
>Herb
>
>> [Original Message]
>> From: Indiana Robinson <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> Date: 10/18/2009 10:59:52 PM
>> Subject: Re: [AT] TMCOTKU tractor count is down by one.
>>
>> I always was a little confused as to why the 9N didn't come standard
>> with step/running boards. My father put an after market set on his in
>> the mid 1940s or so. I have a book showing accessories for them and
>> they did have a "platform" kit available to sell. I don't know if they
>> ever had steps in later years as standard. I do know that I see after
>> market steps on most of them at shows. The TO-20's came with nice
>> steps as did the 8N and later. Everybody has their favorites as far as
>> tractors and some they don't really like. Some opinions may track back
>> to a bad experience or even to the fact that someone they didn't like
>> that owned a certain brand. I can't really say that there any brands I
>> don't like but there are several things about some of them I don't
>> like.
>> As far as mounting and dismounting in my mind the little John Deere L
>> and LA's are absolutely awful. My Allis C is poor without a step as is
>> my Farmall CUB. The 9N without a step is bad.
>> WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???
>> That Yanmar 1500 is about the worst I have owned for me including
>> operation. I am just too big for it and not flexible enough for it. I
>> could not turn around in the seat to look back without being locked in
>> place by the fenders against my knees. My body made all kinds of
>> crunching noises when I tried. I also found it nearly impossible to
>> reach the dual range shift lever and the brake lock was another tough
>> one. My size 13 work shoe just would not fit well between brake pedals
>> and the differential lock pedal. The thin, young new owner will not
>> have those problems.  :-)
>> I never liked the tight fit of my brake side foot on the Allis WD I
>> used to own. I had to pivot my foot to lift my heel first or my toe
>> would catch on the brake pedals. I also just didn't like that whole
>> sitting so far off on the right on it while the clutch was waaaay over
>> there on the left next to the left wheel. I sit to the right on my
>> Farmall CUB but the pedals are all right in front of me. I won't even
>> talk about the WC Allis tractors I owned once with hand brakes.
>> I find my 1948 John Deere A to be as comfortable to mount & dismount
>> as any tricycle row crop tractor I have used and I love the open
>> platform. Of course you are stuck with that pump handle sticking up
>> over on the right that always demands attention just when you need one
>> hand on the wheel and another on the hydraulic lever and another to
>> pull some rope or the other. Wait... Not enough hands. :-)
>> I like my Super M, Super MTA and 400 Farmall's but big battery box
>> between your feet is a PITA at times. My MM-R isn't bad but the
>> steering wheel seems to have wandered over to the left and what was
>> with putting both turning  brake pedals over under your left foot?
>> Like the Deere, just when you need to steer and grab the hydraulic
>> control you have to be grabbing that pump handle... Then there were
>> those Massey Harris tractors where the seat support pipe ran from
>> under your seat forward up in the way all of the way up to the
>> radiator or some place up front. :-)
>> I'm not sure why Al hates the little Ford's and Ferguson's so much but
>> I just love them and have spent enough hours on not only them but
>> about everything else out there to consider them one of the most
>> comfortable, useful, versatile and productive tractors in their size
>> class and believe that they were well ahead of about anything else
>> built at that time. It is kind of funny that such an awful tractor was
>> about the most copied thing around during the early 1950's...  ;-)
>> Everybody else was scrambling to slap a 3 point on something,
>> anything, so that they could sell against Ford and Ferguson. I agree
>> with Greg Haas that the three point may have not been the best
>> standard on bigger tractors but for farmers that had grown tired of
>> spending half a day changing some simple small implement like a plow
>> over to something else they needed it was a real blessing. In many
>> cases there just were not much in the way of useful implements to
>> mount on them. There really was a reason that they were buying those
>> "useless" little Ford's and Ferguson's like an elephant buying
>> peanuts.  :-) That is the reason that today they are still in very
>> high demand not just as collectibles but for daily users. Deny it all
>> you like but you know it is true... :-)
>> I wish they were not so popular so I could buy several at a lot lower
>> price and have one tractor per implement.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Have you hugged your horses today?
>>
>> Francis Robinson
>> aka "farmer"
>> Central Indiana USA
>> robinson46176 at gmail.com
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