A great tractor

[RichZ]

Jim, you sure know your TO-20's. It is a great tractor. Nothing not to like about it!

Rich

 

[Youare]

Jeff

I pitched the same line to my wife when I bought the Kubota. She asked me if I was going to trade the old Ford 8N in on the new one. I told her that I could get a better deal if I purchased the Kubota without a trade-in and put the Ford up for sale. She then made a statement that I didn't expect, she said if you got rid of your old tractor you would probably miss it. I quickly responded yes I would, so now I have both.

The Kubota is a nice machine and I plan on taking care of it so in 25 years it still is doing what I need it to.

Randy

 

[MJB]

It is a little known fact that the first tractors which were produced with the Ferguson three point hitch setup were actually made by David Brown, an English tractor maker, later bought out by Case. It is interesting that even the earliest versions of the 3ph were equipped with draft control. The Case connection is ironic because Case resisted the adoption of the system for many years because its president thought that the draft control scheme was "a cheatin' system, and phony as a two dollar bill". Even when Case finally did come out with its own version of the 3ph it did not have draft control. I don't know when position control was added to the system. I never read or heard anything about Ferguson approaching John Deere with the idea before Ford.

72% of all statistics are made up./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

Rich,
Nice looking tractor. I always loved the look of the old “N” Fords, and the early Fergies. It has that kind of art deco look to it. I had also herd about the gearing on the Fords being to high, are the Fergusons better? People have also told me to avoid the Fords because of the PTO. Something about live, or not live. Does the Fergusons have this problem? Around here, all the Fergusons tend to be a bit more money then the Fords, I always thought it was because there were a ton more Fords then the Fergusons.

 

[RoyJackson]

It is a little known fact that the first tractors which were produced with the Ferguson three point hitch setup were actually made by David Brown, an English tractor maker, later bought out by Case

I wonder if that is the same David Brown who built Aston Martin sports cars? They always had the reputation for being "built like a truck".

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...I wonder if that is the same David Brown...</font color=blue>

Because of his love of motor sports, tractor tycoon David Brown bought the company in 1947, to be honest the first DB was a bit of let down an underpowered 4-cylinder. However he quickly redeemed himself with the DB2, a powerful straight-six that could achieve 130mph and the build quality was superb, this car would set the pace for all subsequent Aston Martins.

In 1964 the DB5 became world famous, appearing in the James Bond film Goldfinger. Even today James Bond’s name is still synonymous with the marque, (the little BMW didn’t really suit him)

~~~from the Web~~~

 

[RichZ]

Paul, both the Fergusons and the Ford "N" series do not have live ptos. What that means is when you hit the clutch to change gears, the pto stops. Contrary to popular belief, it is really not much of a problem. All you have to do is install an over running clutch on your pto shaft. It just slips over your pto shaft, and you tighten it with one screw. Takes about 15 seconds to install. It allows the pto to spin in neutral while you have the clutch pressed in, and allows the implement to keep working while you have the clutch in. It also lets the implement keep spinning in neutral when you turn the engine off, so something with a lot of momentum like a rotary cutter won't keep your engine moving. The over running clutch costs about $25, and if you put it on, not having a live pto will not cause you any problems. That allows you to get a good working tractor very inexpensively, because the Fergusons are great tractors, and sure are cheap compared to new ones.

Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."

 

[s1120]

<font color=red>That allows you to get a good working tractor very inexpensively, because the Fergusons are great tractors, and sure are cheap compared to new ones.</font color=red>

Plus I think they are cool looking

 

[jinman]

Rich, I agree that the overrunning clutch is a "must have" for the Ford Ns and Fergusons. Its biggest advantage is to keep you from continuing to move after depressing the clutch (not good if you are heading toward a pond or your barn /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif). I actually like having the PTO engage as I let out on the clutch. I'm the "world's worst" at shearing off shear-bolts on my TC45 that has so much torque that if you engage the PTO too rapidly, you find yourself "going" for your spare shear-bolts very often. I carry two or three with me on the tractor all the time. On my Ford NAA, I sometimes get the PTO in a bind where I can't disengage the gearshift even when I depress the clutch. Because it has live hydraulics, I just raise the 3PH and that normally relieves the pressure. Not having live hydraulics on the TO-20 means you can't do that. It's not a big thing, but it is nice to be able to lift the 3PH with the clutch depressed. Having said all that, it ain't worth the $5k to $7k difference in price of a new tractor just to have live hydraulics./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

JimI