Why are late Fordson Major so heavy ?

560Dennis

Well-known Member
Location
Madison,Ohio
Need more Fordson posting.
So was looking a ballast weight in tractor data , Fordson are heavy compared to others ,which is good in my opinion . Not good for pulling competition, but good for farming which it was made for.
Whats your opinion is extra weight helping you ?
Just my thought for discussion
 
Good topic. My grandfather farmed a hundred acres, from '64 till '70 when he retired his only tractor was a Super Major 5000. It didn't have any cast weights but would imagine the rears would of had fluid.

Here's a link to the Power Majors Neb. test and a picture of the Major's weights. They would of added more weights but the their doors were only 12' wide. lol
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2153&context=tractormuseumlit

This post was edited by JLMac on 11/09/2022 at 05:36 pm.
 
My Grandfather and Great Uncle were both mechanical engineers here in Canada, and always talked about how the British-engineered farm equipment was typically very over-built and hefty. They said it was the same for a lot of equipment during the war. Not always the most user-friendly, but heavy enough to take quite a beating.

Up here in the Shield equipment gets the holy heck kicked out of it, and for years the dominant tractors were always the Fordsons, the British built Ford thousand series, even David Browns and Nuffields. They weren't always the fanciest nor most operator-friendly, but the extra pig iron and over-built nature sure let them take a s**t-kicking.

I love my Allis' and Olivers/Whites more than anything else, and would unquestionably rate them as my favourite tractors. But I also recognize they wouldn't still be alive if they were treated like our Fordsons or Ford 5000's have been. One of our Majors in particular has had an almost comically-brutal life. It was used as the main skidder tractor on our 600 acre hardwood woodlot for decades (as well as performing a lot of regular farm work). I remember watching my grandfather skid some large (30+) maple one time: There was one particularly steep section of trail where you had to drive at speed to keep ahead of the log. This particular time, the log (probably at least 3-4 ton) got carried away, slammed into the rear of the tractor, pushed the tractor at speed off the trail, dislodged a smart-car sized boulder with a front tire, and came to rest when the front axle slammed into a stump. We chained it off and kept on skidding, and didn't consider that as abnormal at all.

I remember thinking about later that evening: although my 170 Allis at our other farm is my favourite tractor and much better laid out and user-friendly, it probably wouldn't handle that kind of abuse more than once or twice before something crucial broke. That kind of abuse was all in a normal day's work for the Fordson.
 
I have hauled my fair share of heavy loads, but my 61 Super with rear tire ballast, front wheel cast weights, and front end loader push the limit of of my 96 Dodge 2500 diesel. I believe it weighs around 8500lbs in its current state. However, it is GREAT for overall traction and stability, and the tractor has never left me wanting or needing more pushing or pulling power. It has better traction in the snow than some modern 4wd tractors that I've ran that only weigh half as much.
 

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