The tractor and implement could be raised while stationary and the implement could be backed up. They were not designed to be backed up at all and backing them up could bind them up to the point of breaking.Īnd possibly the most important, because traction is directly related to tractor weight, tractors were required to be heavy enough to create the traction required for tillage.īy creating the draft sensing three-point hitch Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson solved all three of these major problems. Second, implements such as gang disks and many three-bottom plows could not be backed up. My son, Will, running our 1948 Minneapolis-Moline UTU tractor and pulling a John Deere model 66 mechanical lift drag plow In the case of the draw plow, often the only option was to detach the tractor from the plow and try to pull it out backwards. These mechanical lifts worked fine in perfect conditions, but should the tractor get stuck they were incredibly difficult to deal with. Unfortunately, in the 1920’s and 30’s there was really only one way to attach machinery by the drawbar.ĭrawn machinery worked, but it had several limitations.įirst, because the tractors of the time did not have remote hydraulics, plows and other machinery required forward movement to actuate the mechanical lift. I think that we take the three-point hitch for granted today because, for most of us, it has been around our entire lifetime. I know this post was supposed to be about draft control, but I couldn’t help throwing in this tidbit of info as well. Thanks to an argument over his patent, Ferguson began making his own tractors in 1948, and by the mid-1950s all American tractor manufacturers offered a utility tractor with draft sensing three-point hitch. Thanks to a handshake agreement, Henry Ford used Ferguson’s design to create an entirely new type of tractor that had worldwide appeal, the utility tractor.ĭraft control is the ability for a tractor to adjust the depth of its three-point hitch based on soil conditions and engine power output. What made the 1939 Ford 9N tractor revolutionary was the draft control system that had been designed by Harry Ferguson. You can also pickup a "set" amount of material and pull it as far as you need to.Although the Ford 9N tractor is known for being the first widely sold tractor with an integrated three-point hitch, it was not the first. I find I can control the amount I am "digging in" much easier that way. I almost always use draft control when I am grading. Or at least that is true with my unweighted rear wheels. You can set the drag so high that the N will either stall or slip the wheels. Then as you move the control lever father down you are setting the drag or draft to be harder, thus the depth or draft deeper. If you hit hard soil you do NOT have to readjust the implement height to keep from stalling or spinning the wheels. This is the genious of Fregusen's design. When you drive forward the hydraulic system will continually adjust itself to maintain the setting you have set. This is the lightest, or shallowest, draft setting you can acheive. If you carefully move the control lever, from full up, down very slowly, you will reach a point where the implement will slowly drop. In the down postion, the touch control lever sets the "draft" you want for the implement you are using. Thus with draft control the implement is either full up - transport position - or full down - in working position. Where as draft control sets the amount of drag - or depth of a plow. Position control allows you to set, and keep set, the height of an implement anywhere within the lift range from full up to full down. In uneven ground, varying soil conditions, the farmer had to readjust the plow as he went along, NOT an easy task. Until Ferguson's hydraulic control design came along, maintaining a constant depth, consistant with the pulling ability of the tractor was a constant fight for the farmer. Both seem appropiate for the task of plowing where you have both a pulling load and a depth you are trying to maintain. Another meaning is the amount of load when pulling. One comes from the nautical usage for the depth of the water needed to float a boat. Let's start with the term draft which has several old meanings. Re: 8N Ford Position and Draft Control in reply to Clarence Johnston, 10-02-2000 16:20:49
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