[AT] Old tractor question

[Henry Miller]

For most things on old tractors wide and narrow was pros and cons with no clear winner. When farmers started putting loaded on the front of tractors wide became much better and so narrow fell out of favor quickly. For large horse power tractors front wheel assist is mandatory and so wide is required to get an axel between the wheel. For small horsepower tractors the loader is theoretically optional, but you would be hard pressed to buy on that way. Thus wide front is again needed. Of course most tractors, even small horsepower, are front assist which again needs the wide front. 

-- 
  Henry Miller
  hank at millerfarm.com

On Wed, Feb 13, 2019, at 4:23 PM, Greg Hass wrote:
> This is a question I have wondered about for years although it is not 
> world changing. The question is: why are some areas mostly wide front 
> and others narrow front tractors?  In our area of Michigan, as soon as 
> wide front became available almost 100% went with wide front. 
> Personally, I hate narrow front tractors with a passion. I would never 
> get a narrow front tractor except maybe an old 2 cylinder JD or 
> something like a Farmall F-12 where wide front either did not exist or 
> is extremely rare. I know that in some areas the larger tractors had 
> narrow front because of mounted corn pickers. From videos other areas 
> had narrow fronts. If you Google  ( tractors from the past, plowing in 
> 1962) you will find many tractors plowing but I didn't see a single wide 
> front even on a couple new generation JD's. I don't know where the video 
> was filmed but I suspect Indiana because of the fields and the way they 
> raised the plows to go over grassed waterways; something I still see  
> when we travel there to see our kids. I'm not sure, but I think the 4020 
> Farmer used to own had a narrow front. Also why does no one make narrow 
> front anymore? In the video, even the Ford disking has a narrow front, 
> something I have never seen in our area and in years past there were a 
> lot of Fords around us. Comments anyone.
>             Greg Hass
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> AT at lists.antique-tractor.com
> http://lists.antique-tractor.com/listinfo.cgi/at-antique-tractor.com
>