Motor Heads: Cars, Trucks, Tractors & Hvy Equip.
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Here's how a war created the GREATEST RACING DYNASTY in history!
Jun 10, 2025 #VINwiki #BentleyBoys #roaring20sGreg Porter shares his insight into the era that precipitated the racing lives of the Bentley boys in the 1920s
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Ford didn't abandon the tractor market. They simply teamed up with New Holland.
My New Holland 4630 (55 hp) was built in 1997 and says "Ford" right on it.
Look just over the front tire and just under the "4630".
Sold their line to New Holland.
They went to put a happy face on it - that's how it goes when a major maker leaves a market and sells their designs. When GMC sold its heavy-truck line and designs to Volvo, they didn't call it abandoning the market - it was "Teaming up" with "White Motors" (bankrupt from 1979; the company was sold to Volvo as Volvo-White) and creating "A new brand - WhiteGMC." Which lasted about six years, before just becoming Volvo. Which it is to this day. A lot of both White and GMC designs were incorporated, but that's faded with time - the GMC-Volvo purchase happened in 1990; 35 years ago.
Ford wanted out. This wasn't surprising - Ford, the company, always had a love-hate relationship with farm equipment. Henry Ford wanted to make tractors; but directors of his car company did not. This was one of the few times the stood up to Old Henry - and that led to H. Ford & Son Tractor Works, marketed as Fordson.
With time, Fordson was absorbed into Ford, but even that brought more grief. There was the Ford 8N lawsuit, between Harry Ferguson, inventor of the Three-Point Hitch, and Henry Ford, who put it on his 8N, promised Ferguson a royalty, and then told Harry to pound salt. That suit carried on for years, and in the end, cost Ford $9 million and a lot of lost goodwill.
That was in 1952. Thirty years later, the Ford tractor line, such as it was, was mostly rebranded imported products. Ford was tired of the business - the family, the directors. New Holland could have what was left of it.
They went to put a happy face on it - that's how it goes when a major maker leaves a market and sells their designs. When GMC sold its heavy-truck line and designs to Volvo, they didn't call it abandoning the market - it was "Teaming up" with "White Motors" (bankrupt from 1979; the company was sold to Volvo as Volvo-White) and creating "A new brand - WhiteGMC." Which lasted about six years, before just becoming Volvo. Which it is to this day. A lot of both White and GMC designs were incorporated, but that's faded with time - the GMC-Volvo purchase happened in 1990; 35 years ago.
Ford wanted out. This wasn't surprising - Ford, the company, always had a love-hate relationship with farm equipment. Henry Ford wanted to make tractors; but directors of his car company did not. This was one of the few times the stood up to Old Henry - and that led to H. Ford & Son Tractor Works, marketed as Fordson.
With time, Fordson was absorbed into Ford, but even that brought more grief. There was the Ford 8N lawsuit, between Harry Ferguson, inventor of the Three-Point Hitch, and Henry Ford, who put it on his 8N, promised Ferguson a royalty, and then told Harry to pound salt. That suit carried on for years, and in the end, cost Ford $9 million and a lot of lost goodwill.
That was in 1952. Thirty years later, the Ford tractor line, such as it was, was mostly rebranded imported products. Ford was tired of the business - the family, the directors. New Holland could have what was left of it.
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Still says "Ford" on it and they kept the Ford model numbers.
I wouldn't buy a new though. Mine was built in the UK. The new ones are coming out of India.
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Great Museums Of Rural Life And Old-Time Power At The Tuckahoe Steam & Gas Show In Maryland!
Jun 20, 2025 #classictractor #tractor #classictractorfeverClassic Tractor Fever was on the road at the 50th Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association Show. In addition to outstanding steam engines and classic farm tractors, Tuckahoe offers a number of museums on the grounds that fascinate people, and give a glimpse of American life in the past. Andy Koch of the Tuckahoe club gave us some insights. More on the Association and the show at the website: www.TuckahoeSteam.org
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A Classic Farm Tractor With A British Accent! Say Cheerio To The 1969 BMC Nuffield Tractor!
Jun 16, 2025 #classictractor #tractor #classictractorfeverLots to see at the Grease, Steam and Rust Show (GSR) in McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania each fall. When we were there, we saw this tractor - not often seen in the USA. We visited with Dave Leamer, who owns this BMC Nuffield and it is a real beaut! Enjoy the story!
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I had a TJ.
Basically it was a good rig. The coil springs (on beam axles, which is, for off-roading, a better way) gave a great ride. A LOT of work went into balancing the CJ7-derived chassis, with much success. And Chrysler in those years was at the top of its game - quality-control was better than it ever had been, morale in the company was high, profits were there. And the TJ Wrangler was AFFORDABLE. I got my stripper, 1998 model-year closeout, for $10k.
There were two problems. First, and less important, the front prop-shaft had no disconnect. Locking front hubs were not available. The engineers did work to reduce the front-axle drag when unloaded, but there was only so much you could do. I bought the TJ when I was new to Conrail and was working in a major rail yard, often having to use my own car to get into rough places to do switching.
As always happens, I bought the rig, and then immediately got a promotion, and a seat in engineer's school. That entailed two months' commuting to Pittsburgh (on Interstates) followed by being bounced between Cleveland and Buffalo. On Interstates.
Not being able to disconnect the front axle, for all that good-weather highway riding, I pulled the front shaft. And what a project THAT was - intentionally or not. A factory skid plate that served as a motor mount had to be partially removed to get to the transfer-case boss.
That was the lesser problem. The REAL irritation to me was, that damn massive dashboard and those airbags.
After two years, I sold the thing - for what I paid for it. By then Daimler owned Chrysler and quality, and customer-care, was sliding into the toilet. My TJ had the AMC-designed pushrod four - far better than the OHC four designed for the Neon, that Daimler ordered stuffed into new Wranglers.
The beginning of the end. A few years later, vacationing in Las Vegas, I found a YJ, equipped similarly to my TJ, and bought it and drove it home. With the more-traditional dashboard, no airbags, it was a much more pleasing driving experience. The leaf springs were rougher, but not anything like the old CJ7 - it was much closer to the later TJ in driving. I was suited, and kept it ten years. Only my serial relocations, made it impractical to keep - I sold it in Wisconsin.
Wish I had it now.
Glad Steve likes his Jeep. Hard for me to get my head around how a TJ Jeep is an old Jeep.
Basically it was a good rig. The coil springs (on beam axles, which is, for off-roading, a better way) gave a great ride. A LOT of work went into balancing the CJ7-derived chassis, with much success. And Chrysler in those years was at the top of its game - quality-control was better than it ever had been, morale in the company was high, profits were there. And the TJ Wrangler was AFFORDABLE. I got my stripper, 1998 model-year closeout, for $10k.
There were two problems. First, and less important, the front prop-shaft had no disconnect. Locking front hubs were not available. The engineers did work to reduce the front-axle drag when unloaded, but there was only so much you could do. I bought the TJ when I was new to Conrail and was working in a major rail yard, often having to use my own car to get into rough places to do switching.
As always happens, I bought the rig, and then immediately got a promotion, and a seat in engineer's school. That entailed two months' commuting to Pittsburgh (on Interstates) followed by being bounced between Cleveland and Buffalo. On Interstates.
Not being able to disconnect the front axle, for all that good-weather highway riding, I pulled the front shaft. And what a project THAT was - intentionally or not. A factory skid plate that served as a motor mount had to be partially removed to get to the transfer-case boss.
That was the lesser problem. The REAL irritation to me was, that damn massive dashboard and those airbags.
After two years, I sold the thing - for what I paid for it. By then Daimler owned Chrysler and quality, and customer-care, was sliding into the toilet. My TJ had the AMC-designed pushrod four - far better than the OHC four designed for the Neon, that Daimler ordered stuffed into new Wranglers.
The beginning of the end. A few years later, vacationing in Las Vegas, I found a YJ, equipped similarly to my TJ, and bought it and drove it home. With the more-traditional dashboard, no airbags, it was a much more pleasing driving experience. The leaf springs were rougher, but not anything like the old CJ7 - it was much closer to the later TJ in driving. I was suited, and kept it ten years. Only my serial relocations, made it impractical to keep - I sold it in Wisconsin.
Wish I had it now.
Glad Steve likes his Jeep. Hard for me to get my head around how a TJ Jeep is an old Jeep.
The damn video made me think.
His, like mine, is a 1998. Geez, that's a new Jeep...whoa, hit the brakes, Slick. That thing's 27 years old.
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS.
Judas Priest. When I bought my 1998 TJ, NEW, a 27-year-old Jeep would be a 1971 CJ. The first year of American Motors ownership, and still with the 1950s Willys engineering...an F-head four, open top, shorter nose of those years. THAT would have been truly primitive - only suitable for farm duty.
So now the TJ is of that age. And it's wearing it well - it's a lot more desirable than the overpriced, fragile, current crop of Wranglers - made by a Belgian company that doesn't understand them engineered under contract and over the phone from India.
And while I could have gotten a 1971 CJ for about $1000, in good shape, that TJ today would easily go for close to $20k.
His, like mine, is a 1998. Geez, that's a new Jeep...whoa, hit the brakes, Slick. That thing's 27 years old.
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS.
Judas Priest. When I bought my 1998 TJ, NEW, a 27-year-old Jeep would be a 1971 CJ. The first year of American Motors ownership, and still with the 1950s Willys engineering...an F-head four, open top, shorter nose of those years. THAT would have been truly primitive - only suitable for farm duty.
So now the TJ is of that age. And it's wearing it well - it's a lot more desirable than the overpriced, fragile, current crop of Wranglers - made by a Belgian company that doesn't understand them engineered under contract and over the phone from India.
And while I could have gotten a 1971 CJ for about $1000, in good shape, that TJ today would easily go for close to $20k.