[AT] Old tractor question

[Aaron Dickinson]

       I’m with Jason on this one. Mid-Michigan has/had a large majority of tractors in the narrow front configuration. Cultivation and corn picking easier with tricycle tractors, tighter turning radius at headlands with planters and cultivators. Early manure loaders were narrower than full width of tractor but wider then tricycle front end, making a tricycle easier to get into smaller pens. I also like the cornering of a tricycle tractor with rear mounted sickle mower. But corn pickers where replaced with combines and  two and four row cultivators replaced by larger units and then chemical herbicides. Hydraulic system improvements allowed larger loaders with wider buckets.
	My family’s tractor history: My grandfather farmed with tricycle John Deeres (B’s, 60). My other grandfather had Fergusons, Fords, and David Brown, all adjustable front ends. My great uncles had tricycle Allis Chalmers (WD, WD45), Farmalls (H,M), Massey Harris, and Cockshutt (50). Loaders on JD B and 60, David Brown (one arm), and AC WD45. Mounted Cultivators on JD B and 60, AC WD and WD45, Massey Harris, and Farmall H. No mounted pickers. 
	I have my great uncles Farmall H and a Farmall M both tricycle (manure loader, mounted cultivators, rear and mid mount sickle mowers that fit either one). Two John Deere B’s both tricycle (mounted cultivators, rear mount sickle mowers that fit both). Wide front Farmall 300 with fast hitch plow. Farmall A wide front of course (mounted cultivators, undermount woods mower). Fergusons TEA-20 and TO-30 adjustable wide fronts (manure loader, rear mounted sickle mowers, and numerous three point implements)  
	The Farmall A is a 1940, the Fergusons 1952 and 1953, the Farmall 300 1956. My tricycles 1939-1952.
	I have had much success with my Farmall H and 31 Power loader combination. Wish I had power steering on it, but that is a wish of any loader tractor. I have not encountered any stability issues, but I use some common sense keeping loads low and avoiding steep side slopes, and understand the limits of it being a manure loader even with a tine cover (making it a bucket). It still amazes me the capacity of the loader, I use it to load logs onto my sawmill. When loading the logs I try to limit how much turning I need to do, try to get the logs skidded to where I just pick them up and move them forward onto the mill. All that being said, it is so much nicer to load the logs with my cousin’s MF2670 loader tractor, which is a wide front with power steering and front wheel assist.  

Aaron Dickinson
Mason, Michigan

From: Jason
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2019 9:27 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Old tractor question

In the early days of farm tractors the narrow front tractor could do all jobs on the farm.  So much so that IH branded them Farmalls. And for many farmers they needed that first tractor to do it all.

It those days cultivating either by check or row was the primary method of weed control. 

Perhaps the biggest reason for narrow fronts tractors was probably it being a lower cost option over a wide front.

I don't mind narrow front tractors having grown up with them.  I wouldn't care for a narrow front on a tractor over say 70 some horse though. 

With the decline of cultivation and picking corn the narrow front was pretty much done.

Jason

 

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