All uphill
Still rolling along
- Location
- Somerset
MBIFO a Cletrac dozer.
MkI MF 165. 1964 - 67, before the engine was replaced with the later 212 series Perkins. The wheel rim centres were also changed from red to silver around the same time. I think the 175 was superseded by the 178 around the same period.
Is that a County or Roadless beyond the Massey's?
It was a County, a brand that I had never heard of before yesterday.
County Commercial Cars made crawler and equal sized wheel 4 wheel drive conversions of Fordson and Ford tractors for many years. They were fitted with Ford lorry engines. Popular with forestry operators and on very large farms. They were strong, had incredible traction and were great for heavy pulling but had ahorrendous turning circle.
Roadless, Muir Hill, Doe and a few other less well known companies also produced 4x4 versions of Ford products over the years.
They were all a small niche market as there wasn't really anything else on the market to compete with them at the time but in the 1970s, the likes of Fiat, Lamborghini, Landini, Zetor and SAME started selling much cheaper, mass produced 4 wheel drive tractors and Ford started to build their own too as there was now enough of a demand for mass production and the likes of County slowly died off as their market evaporated and they couldn't compete.
Highly prized and very valuable today.
County Commercial Cars made crawler and equal sized wheel 4 wheel drive conversions of Fordson and Ford tractors for many years. They were fitted with Ford lorry engines.
If I recall, Ford were quite laid back about bona fide engineering companies customising their products, presumably to promote sales.
They issued a standard letter which gave the customiser a general approval, enabling them to sell the finished product as a 'neo-Ford'.
The same happened with the Transit, which is thought to be one of the reasons why it became so dominant in the market.
We had Nuffields, a Fordson, and later Ford tractors, with the latter being regarded as the best.
My long deceased uncle, who bought all the tractors, reckoned David Browns were too complicated and Massey Fergusons were too lightweight.
We had a twin fuel grey Fergie for light duty, although it fell out of use as the farm - and the tackle - became bigger.
Grey Fergies are still popular today for use on market gardens and smallholdings, partly because there are not many new lightweight tractors being made,