Re: What year did tractors get "complicated"?
As to, "What year did tractors get complicated?" It wasn't a specific year, it was different years for different mechanical systems. You can sort of span a period though. I think it would be fair to say that in the early to mid 1990s most tractors were still as simple as they had been for decades. And by 2005 or a few years after, most of the new ones on the market had become more complicated.
A big reason why you can't go by date is that that tractor age isn't figured like automobiles or people. Tractor models tend to be made in a factory production run and then warehoused until they are sold - sometimes many years later. It is considered that a tractor is "born" brand new the year when they are sold by the dealer for the first time. Lots of commercial machines are made that way. Warranty starts when it is sold. That means if a typical model run for a certain model tractor is ten years, that the machine sold as a 1995 and the tractor sold as a 2005 could conceivably been built the same day back in the 90s. It depends on where they were warehoused.
Anyway, complexity depends on the sytem. For electrics, it got complicated when the old alternator, voltage regulator and battery system with it's analogue gauges began to be replaced with digital circuits and digital readouts as gauges. It wasn't long after that when engine computers became involved with fuel injection timing and emissions.
For simplicity in electrics, look for a tractor with generator or alternator, voltage regulator, battery, and analogue gauges. And no computer.
Simple diesel engines are mechanically injected. The fuel injection pump has a group of tubes leading from it to each injector. Inside the pump is a multilobe cam that is timed by it's mechanically locked position on a shaft so that it will deliver fuel to whichever injector's time it is to fire. Diesels were made that way for a long time. The simple ones still are.
None of the simple engines have any pollution or emission controls beyond a simple EGR valve. Yes, the simple diesels do smoke.
Simple transmissions use gears to transmit the power from engine to wheels. Complicated power transmissions are hydraulic...called hydrostatic, or HST.
BTW, power shift transmissions are generally considered to be in the simple transmission group.
Steering - there have been fewif any changes in power steering technology in the last 30 years. If you have a FEL, you want power steering. Same can be said of 4wd....although keep in mind that the older 2wd tractors tend to be heavier and all have a mechanically locking rear axle .... which means that they can do 90% of the work of a 4wd and can be gotten for much less dollars.
And of course 2wd means they are way less complex.
Wheels and axles. Here is where complexity is reversed. The older tractors tended to have more ways to change the width of the wheelbase than the newer ones do. But this is something that varies more with the brand than with the era. If your land is hilly, you want a tractor's wheels to be as wide as possible. Hillsides are any tractor's downfall. Tire width and a low center of gravity is something that most newbies don't even think about, but it just might be the most important single thing about their new machine.
If I was buying new today, I'd be looking only at 4WD, and mostly at HST. Computer-controlled engines are a fact of life.But if I was buying used and needed to save money while still being able to get the work done I fure wouldn't overlook an otherwise good machine just because it was an older 2wd with a gear shift transmission and hoperully it would have a a FEL and Power steering. And if I was really strapped for cash, a lot of work can still be done with 2WD, gas engine, gear shift, and a good 3pt hitch with a 3pt back bucket. But now we have gone past simplicity vs complexity and have arrived back to tractors from the 1970s to the mid-90s that will probably require some mechanical attention.
Enjoy,
rScotty
I'm stuck in time, as these are the last years of things fixable by a DIY mechanic.
