He reacted by forming Dearborn Motors in November 1946, which took over tractor distribution from Ferguson. By 1946, the younger Ford discovered that, despite its success, the Model N lost Ford Motor Company over $25 million in six years. Henry Ford passed leadership of his company to grandson Henry Ford II in 1945. Īn immediate success, the 9N's configuration became an industry standard, which was followed by other tractor manufacturers for fifteen years. Ford once said 'Our competition is the horse.' the 9N was intended for farmers who were not mechanically minded. It was designed to be safe, quiet and easy to operate. The 9N weighed 2340 pounds and had 13 drawbar horsepower, which could pull a two-bottom plow. An innovative system of tire mounts for the rear wheels and versatile axle mounts for the fronts enabled farmers to accommodate any width row-crop work they needed. Ford's 9N further improved the cantankerous Model F by updating the ignition with a distributor and coil.

It sold for $585 including rubber tires, power take-off, Ferguson hydraulics, an electric starter, generator, and battery lights were optional. It was officially called a 'Ford tractor with the Ferguson system', although the name Ford-Ferguson was widely used. The investment resulted in the production of the 9N tractor which was introduced on June 29, 1939. įord Motor Company invested $12 million in tooling to finance Ferguson's new distribution company.

Ferguson's successful tractor demonstration led to a handshake agreement with Ford in 1938, whereby Ford would manufacture tractors using the Ferguson three-point hitch system. It was light in weight relative to its power, which impressed Ford. In October 1938 the Ferguson tractor was put through a demonstration before Ford and his engineers. In 1938, Eber Sherman, importer of Fordsons from England to the United States and a friend of both Ford and Ferguson, arranged to have Ferguson demonstrate his tractor for Henry Ford. In the mid-1930s, he had David Brown Ltd build Ferguson-brand tractors with his hitches and implements. Ferguson put such hitches on Fordsons throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. By 1926, he and a team of longtime colleagues (including Willie Sands and Archie Greer) had developed a good hydraulic three-point hitch. In 19 he gave demonstrations at Cork and Dearborn of his hitches and implements as aftermarket attachments to Fordson tractors. His first tractors were adapted from Model T cars. In Ireland, businessman Harry Ferguson had been developing and selling various improved hitches, implements, and tractors since the 1910s. But Henry Ford waited to reenter the market, planning to have the right new tractor at the right time to achieve a market-changing success. During the 1930s, experiments were made at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan and Richmond Plantation, Georgia facilities, creating prototypes of row-crop tricycle Fordsons, V8-powered tractors, one-wheel-drive tractors, and other ideas. Henry Ford continued tractor R&D in the U.S.

Some British Fordsons were imported to the U.S. Ford Ltd of Britain continued to thrive with the Fordson from 1928 onward. The Fordson was a tremendous success in North America and Europe from 1917 to 1928. The first genuine Ford tractor was called the Fordson because a misleading Ford brand not related to Henry Ford was squatting on the Ford name at the time ( Ford Tractor Company). Over 530,000 units of 8N were sold worldwide the Fordson Model F had sold over 650,000 units worldwide, but in North American sales the 8N surpassed it in popular acclaim and units sold.ĭevelopment of the Ford-Ferguson tractors By some measures the 8N became the most popular farm tractor of all time in North America. The 8N, which debuted in July 1947, was a largely new machine featuring more power and an improved transmission. The 2N, introduced in 1942, was the 9N with some improved details. The 9N was the first American-made production-model tractor to incorporate Harry Ferguson's three-point hitch system, a design still used on most modern tractors today. The Ford N-series tractors were a line of farm tractors produced by Ford between 19, spanning the 9N, 2N, and 8N models.

Ford 8n draft control lever