Fast mowing on a 2N

RobertN · May 29, 2005

Wow! This thing is fast!

I took my rotary mower to my Dad's yesterday. He has a Ford 2N. He also has 8 acres of medium to real thick grass, that he waits too long to mow. We went out and got a overrunning clutch for it, mounted up the mower, and proceeded to mow.

That 2N has plenty of pto power, especially since my mower is smallish at 4'. It cranked through the thick stuff really well. It sure did it fast though! I had heard those old N series Fords had tall gears, and now I know it for sure! It was kind of a hold on tight for wild ride in the few bumpy area's on the property. I can understand why those underdrive splitter boxes came out for these tractors.

It did cut faster than my tractor; part of the reason for using it this time. My Kubota B8200 is the grandad to the B2910. It is the same size, but only a 19hp motor, with 16hp on the pto. With the 4' mower, and thick grass, I really have to crawl.

I had only driven the 2N up and down the drive before, and had not paid attention to the ground speed. I had noticed it went faster in low gear than my Farmall-A, but my A has a 4spd and final reduction drives.

Soundguy · May 29, 2005

The common sherman, and hupp pre trannies ( over drive, underdrive and combo ) aren't really great for mowing. the N's have a transmission driven pto.. if you use a pre-tranny to.. say use underdrive, and go half as fast. then your pto spnns half as fast... if you use overdrive to go faster.. it's too fast to mow.. so you throttle back.. then the pto may be at the right speed.. but you are at 1/2 throttle and not in the engines power range. .. Best to leave mowing to the straight gears.. 1st or 2nd., and 2/3 throttle.

Soundguy

JoeinTX · May 30, 2005

Never been around a 2N, but my little 8N realy surprised me with regard to the gear speeds. I had always been used to the Ford NAA which I had used since a kid and the gears seem about right to me. But, the 8N seems to be a click or two faster in every gear including reverse. What I would normally cut in 2nd on the NAA, I do in 1st on the 8N. The reverse seems annoyingly too fast for me and I'm constantly throttling down when I'm backing which makes those little utility mowing jobs around trees and obstacles a bigger chore because I'm constantly trying to get it in the "right" speed back and forth.

Nonetheless, I've been pleased with the little redone 8N and so far it's comparing favorably (other than the 3 pt operation) to the trusty ol' NAA....

Soundguy · May 31, 2005

Yep.. reverse gear was fast on the 8n. in fact.. in late 52 ford designed a lower reverse gear... somewhere after sn 500,000.. Mine's 504580 and it has the lower gear. That same low gear was used in the NAA. As for the gear ranges for the 8n and NAA.. I'll look up the ratio.. but I'm guessing the NAA and late 8n have similar speeds in similar gears.

Soundguy

RobertN · May 31, 2005

Good points on the Sherman boxes. The most influencial issue in our case, though, is my Pa... It would be a lot easier if he would mow a couple of times earlier in spring. This stuff gets so thick, and tall, that even mowing it tall takes a lot of power to the mower.

To20Chris · May 31, 2005

Reverse is pretty tall in the TO20 as well, though I don't know exactly how it compares to the early 2N. You really notice it when trying to line up implements (and I now realize how nice all those reverse gears are with a shuttle!). I think the Ferguson 4 speed box helps a bit with forward, though it's plenty fast too.

frank_f15 · May 31, 2005

up until i bought my KUBOTA i had a 2n with a KK 5FT RFM thing had plenty of power, but even in low gear it shook me all over the place, and if the grass got to tall in the wet spring, could not slow down enought to get a decent cut.

Soundguy · Jun 1, 2005

( the 8N seems to be a click or two faster in every gear including reverse. What I would normally cut in 2nd on the NAA, I do in 1st on the 8N. )

Probably just your imagination. The NAA trans gears are the same ratio and final ground speeds as the 8n, except the early 8n had a higher reverse gear.. late 8n and naa had the lower reverse gear.. 2.13mph@ 1000rpm on late 8n and NAA compaired to 3.03mph @ 1000rpm on the early 8n.

Soundguy

JoeinTX · Jun 3, 2005

And I don't doubt that for a minute, Soundguy, as the transmission seems identical between the two. I wonder if my perception of higher speed is due to the slightly smaller tires that the 8n has versus the NAA...?

Frank, I too was a little surprised at the power the little tractor had. I'd been used to a slightly larger but similar tractor when I bought it and was worried if the drop-off in HP would show. But, so far, it chugs right along without a hiccup running the same implements as the bigger tractor, so...? It has a lot of convenience adn feature shortcomings versus the modern tractors, but it's cheap and usually accomplishes the same thing at the end of the day.

By the by, are you an F-15 fan, Frank?

Soundguy · Jun 3, 2005

( I wonder if my perception of higher speed is due to the slightly smaller tires that the 8n has versus the NAA )

If the tire size changes the rolling circumference.. then yes.. same tranny.. different tires.. different ground speed.

Soundguy