Re: Why narrow front tractors

Posted by JWhite on July 28, 2005 at 19:32:20 from (208.49.214.85):

In Reply to: Why narrow front tractors posted by Vince H on July 28, 2005 at 06:05:52:

I might as well ad my opinion to this too. The stability is one of the benifits of a WF and like others have said, most early tractors were 4 wheeled because they were self propelled wagons with large drive wheeles and the bulk weight of some required a 4 point stance (steamers, Rumleys, etc). Not all of the early tractors were 4 wheeled though. Some had a single wheel (either front or rear) that was used to steer the machine. These had 2 drive wheels with the engine and transmittion placed between them. The 3rd wheel was for balance to keep the engine's frame from spinning between the drive wheels (early AC had this feature), and there were a few that had a single drive wheel and 2 smaller wheels for balance and steering (Bull Tractor and Daine). Every company had their own idea on how a tractor should be (which at that time the automobile was still new). Around the mid 20s to early 30s, everyone figured out that a pulling and belting tractor should have a 4 point stance but there was still a farm task that required some horse drawn, in-the-rows work (cultivating), and the cultivators were pulled with the operator sitting directly over the sweeps to avoid damaging the crops. The narrow front tractors were designed to replace the horse (or mule) in their last field of usefulness. The NF tractors sits up higher for visability, usually have a narrow body (no wider than a horse's ... you know) and the narrow setting of wheels allowed the operator to keep his eyes on the cultivators under him and the wheel (or wheels) sitting under the nose to keep from damaging the crops. A wide front end would not allow the operator to keep his eyes on the wheels themselves in a growning field of corn or other rowed crop. If you keep your front wheels in the row, your back wheels, if set properly, would follow without much worry. The narrow front made for a good point of reference when driving a tractor (with or without anything behind it) thru a farmer's field of crops.

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