2287 W. Auburn Auburn, Hgts, Michigan 48057
After reading the article ‘The Real Fordson Story’ in
the February issue of GEM, I am reminded of Henry
Ford’s tractor production later on in the 1930’s. It is
also in interesting story.
In the middle to late 1930’s, Henry Ford began to formulate
ideas to help his company better compete with other tractor
manufacturers in the U.S. He wanted something to replace the aging
and sometimes dangerous Fordson design. He wanted to produce a
tractor that was low priced and popular with farmers; something in
a row-crop tricycle design to do battle with the Farmalls and
others. By 1937, his plans bore fruit in a tractor designed and
assembled from existing Ford truck and car parts. These were used
in order to keep costs down as much as possible. According to
Nevins & Hill in their book Ford: Decline and Rebirth,
Henry Ford displayed his new creation to several newspapermen in
January 1938. They write ‘He was as happy as a boy with a new
fire engine.’ The tractor was scheduled for production later in
1938, but was never started. In the interim, Ford met Harry
Ferguson and was persuaded to begin building a tractor using
Ferguson’s hydraulic hitch system.
The tractor has 100 horsepower V-8 engine, a four-speed
transmission, and a truck differential with two final drives. It is
14 feet 8 inches long, 7 feet 10 inches high and 8 feet 11 inches
wide.
The tractor was donated to the Henry Ford Museum after the
lawsuit between Ford and Ferguson, and was restored and put on the
museum floor in 1952. Pictured is a copy of the Museum’s
accession sheet for the tractor. It remained in the Museum until
1958, when it was removed and put in storage. I acquired the
tractor at the September, 1982, auction of Museum items; it was lot
#233.
Since that time, I have spent several months getting the tractor
back into running condition. I have taken it to several shows where
it has always been widely accepted. Shown are several pictures of
this unique tractor. I received a letter from Mr. Michael Williams,
of Rosings, Rattlesden Road, Drinkstone, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk,
IP30 9TL, England concerning my tractor. Mr. Williams has featured
the tractor in two books he has written, Farm Tractors in
Color, and Fords and Fordson. He says of my V-8:
‘I understand the Institute did not attach particular value to
the tractor, but I believe this was because they knew very little
about it and assumed it was of no historical value. I believe it is
an important tractor, because it is a very good example of the way
Henry Ford tried to keep down his costs by basing his tractor
design on existing car and truck components. It is a link between
the early Fordson design and the Ferguson System tractor which
arrived two years later.’.
I would appreciate any information from anyone who may know
about the tractor, or who may have seen it at the Museum between
1952 and 1958.
