What was mounted on the wheels?

[jaki27]

Hello,

What was mounted on the wheels in earlier days of my fordson N? The Wheels and Tires are original Dunlop.
Do you have any ideas?



greetings from Austria, Jakob

[Jerry Coles]

Hi Jakob
Don't know about the rear wheels but looking at your picture the front wheels are not the normal ones. One of the design problems with the Fordson F was it's tendency to rear up if the rear wheels got stuck and the engine could drive the very low ration worm drive differential to cause the tractor to go over backwards.
This was addressed in the 'N' by making the front wheels of heavy cast steel so giving extra weight to the front end and therefore making it more difficult to turn backwards. As you have thin steel fabricated wheels fitted this makes your tractor easy to go over backwards, do be careful.
Regards
Jerry

[Eric Schulz]

The Fordson was a legend in it's own lifetime. There were also myths and legends attributed to it. One such myth was the one above. The overall gear ratio was quite normal, not unusually low geared. The worm had nothing to do with rearing or not. If pulling an implement or a stump, it is important to attach the chain or whatever to the drawbar. Some people, for reasons unknown, wrapped a chain or chains around the rear axle housing/housings. This can result in the tractor turning over backwards. It is a physical impossibility to flip a tractor backwards when pulling from the drawbar. Get hold of a Fordson, hook on to a good immovable tree and see what happens.

When I was young, it was common to hear people say the the howling sound coming from the transmission, and could be heard of a log way away, was due to the worm. Rubbish! The sliding action of a worm is silent. It is the teeth of gears that are not properly aligned or machined that caused the noise.

The tractor shown above has the original from wheels with the rims cut off and replaced by tyre rims. Probably a bit heavier than in their original state.

I have spent many hours driving a range of Fordson tractors, including making them do things they weren't supposed to, so I am speaking from experience.

Eric

[fenhayman]

Eric is correct.
Never pull from above the mid axle height on any tractor. Last week saw someone with a chain attached to the top link bracket on a Power Major.A fatal accident waiting to happen.

[jaki27]

Hello,

Thank you for your infomations. But i want to know what was fixed with the bolts at the rear wheels!

Do you have any ideas?

greetings from Austria
Jakob

[BarryM]

Jakob,

Maybe your tractor was fitted with a grip similar to the ones shown here on an Australian brochure for the Anders Grips.