rankrank1 said: (quoted from post at 16:12:02 04/18/15) All the stuff that everyone has mentioned certainly helped in regards to financing, marketing etc. but it was NOT the biggest reason for the success of Ferguson's 3 point hitch....
In 1939 which is when the Ford 9N with the Ferguson system debuted in America; the US was on the verg of getting into "lend-lease" where the US was sending steel and other raw materials to Britain as they were already in WWII fighting German aggression basically alone. At that point we were trying to help yet stay out of the war. The US would not enter officially enter WWII until 1942when Pearl harbor was attacked.
During "lend lease" and all during WWII steel, rubber, copper and all other raw materials were rationed to the general public so there would be enough for the war effort and to send to our allies.
The brilliance of the Ferguson system is that it let a tractor that weighed 2500 lbs pull a 2 bottom plow where all other tractors of that time that were pulling a 2 bottom tow type plow had to weigh 5000-6000 lbs or more to do it.
At a time when steel was rationed heavily 2 tractors could be made in the Ford design compared to only 1 tractor in other mfg's traditional design - even the US government loved this as the US farmers still had to feed the homeland as well as other parts of the world too.
Add in all the other perks of great financing, dealers everywhere, and it being significantly cheaper and without a doubt had a proven track record behind it out of necessity it cont'd to succeed well after the war too. No other system ever got the proven track record behind it that the 3 point system did out of necessity and it was obvious that the system was universal where any other copycat system was not going to be universal at all. Regardless, Many farmers took what they could get during WWII in the way of a tractor. Often it was not necessarily the brand the farmer wanted and a big credit to them all is that got er done anyway. (Reason why I believe that this was and will forever be our greatest generation of Americans and no I was not around back then but I admire and respect those who were).
I agree with all that and I do know that Harry Ferguson was the one who went and got the steel and rubber restrictions lifted so they could resume the 2N production with rubber tires and battery ignition. Another over looked fact that helped the Ferguson system was because it was a 3pt and you could plow every inch of your land verses the pull type plows. For people that owned oddly shaped fields with lots of corners this was a huge plus. Another big plus was by the time Ferguson had went on his own he had the greatest team of engineers there was to be had. That was one of the biggest reasons Massey Harris wanted Fergusons company. Ferguson held the patents on a lot of machinery...for example Ferguson was the one who came up with the modern side delivery rake. If you was a farmer looking to buy a new rake would you buy one of those old pull type crazy wheel rakes or the new lighter 3pt side delivery rake that was gentler on the hay and could get into every corner of the field?
This post was edited by Jason S. at 09:22:31 04/18/15 3 times.
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