Forestry Memories

4 Wheel Drive Conversion for Fordson Tractor

4 Wheel Drive Conversion for Fordson Tractor

Date Added: 23 September 2013 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1958 Picture No: 2003

Two files containing about 65 Head Quarters Mechanical Development Committee Reports from 1950 to 1958 were saved from destruction by Jim Christie former Forestry Commission HQ, Plant Engineer. Jim, from Crook of Devon, has kindly made the reports available for scanning and entry onto this website. Please open the PDF to see this full report.

Report No 75 describes the tests on a forestry style Fordson Tractor which has been converted to four wheel drive. The team were obviously very impressed with the increased pulling power.

This model was of course the precursor to the many four wheel drive versions that so successfully broke into the forestry industry in later years. A key development.

Can anyone remember driving this early version of the 4 x 4 Fordson?

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Groups: Forestry Mechanical Engineering Reports , Other Vehicles and Machines, Timber harvesters, processors, forwarders and cable cranes

1 Comment

My father had several variants of roadless tractors over the years starting with an early fordson major with power steering which was a must for driving in forest rakes etc. Another upgrade was the super major with diff lock which was a boost. He also had ploughmaster6/4, Roadless 75 and 94T they all suffered the same problem with front half shafts easily broken! Comment left on 18 April 2022 at 20:27 by George Barclay
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