Grey Fergusons

I think you'll find the innovation of three point linkage (The Ferguson System) helped make them popular, that and the farmer now had an extra paddock available after selling his now redundant chaff burner horse.
Quote''
Ferguson System Principal
and Theory of Operation




An implement cutting through the soil at a certain depth say eight inches requires a certain force or draft to pull it. Obviously that draft will increase if the implement runs deeper than eight inches, and decrease if it runs shallower. Why not use that draft fact to control the depth of work automatically? The draft forces are sensed through the points of attachment and the hydraulic pump automatically reacts to changes in draft loading. So if our implement cutting at eight inches is forced deeper into the soil. By the front end of the tractor rising upwards over a small hill, the immediate increase in draft would give a lift signal to the hydraulic pump and the implement would be raised to such a point as the draft forces were equal to previous. ie eight inches. Conversely if the front end of the tractor drops in a hole, the implement depth raises to say six inches the draft force would reduce and this would then send a drop signal to the hydraulic controls thus the implement would dig deeper and the draft forces would balance again at the eight inches. This principle is known as Draft control and was patented by Harry Ferguson June 1926. The Ferguson design team worked on this principal for quite some time using springs and levers and other mechanical ideas and eventually Hydraulics was seen as the solution to this problem.

The Ferguson System of Implement Linkage and Hydraulic on the TE Tractors utilizes the above basic principle in the application and control of power to farm implements. The Ferguson System utilizes three points of attachment, instead of one, to transmit the pulling force of the tractor to the drawn implement. The implement is attached to the tractor by means of two bottom links which PULL the implement, and a top link which PUSHES FORWARD AND DOWNWARD ON THE TRACTOR ABOVE THE REAR AXLE. Thus the weight of the implement and resistance of the soil to the implement plus the effect of other forces adds traction-producing weight as needed. The forward thrust through the top link also keeps front end of the tractor down even up steep hills.

The compression force exerted through a spring in the top link also acts on the built-in hydraulic system to govern soil depth of the implement automatically(draft control). Manual changes in depth are made by the Finger Tip Control Lever within easy reach of the driver's seat.

The Ferguson system also has one very important safety feature which no other Tractor not using the Ferguson system of control had at the time. This is a safety relief control. If while plowing the implement was to strike a solid object, ie large rock or tree root the hydraulic pressure is released, the weight transfer to the rear wheels is immediately reduced to such an extent that the weight of the tractor is actually supported by the implement. Thus leaving the back wheels to harmlessly spin. This prevents damage to implement and tractor and reducing the risk of rear roll over that a lot of tractors at the time suffered from so badly.

Gents
All interesting stuff.
DNOs article refers to tipping over backwards.
I saw somewhere- at a Fergie display I think- that early days of tractors, lots of English farmers were being killed by tipping over backwards, and a fix for this problem was not found until Harry Ferguson worked this out.
I guess too many were killed or injured simply because their last tractor was a horse, and a tractor took some training before it did what it was told.
Rgds

The Fergy draft control may have read well on paper and perhaps it even worked back in the Old Country lightly tilling soft loamy soils but here in Aus we worked tractors hard.
Once an implement hits the hard stuff, draft control tries to lift it out of the soil to reduce the load. This rears the tractor up slightly as well as squashing the rear tyres, all of which has the old fashioned Fergy "control" throwing a fit. Implement spends too much time up and down tickling the surface.
So farmers used depth wheels instead, ignoring draft control on those primitive underpowered machines.
We were always told the end-overs were from inexperienced hands pulling from the top link (3-point linkage centre) instead of from a proper drawbar.
Trouble was very few tyred tractors actually had a 'proper' swinging drawbar so 99% pulled from the 3-point linkage using a drawbar.
Now you could pull and lift at the same time (to stop wheelspin) and this is usually where it came unstuck. They'd rear up so quickly and as we've mentioned, the useless pedals were just wrong in an emergency situation.
I was always surprised how the Germans pulled from the tow point. You can see them even today at tractor pulls with the old Bulldog banging away, front wheels off the ground and no chance of going any further due to the various angles of force.
We always pulled from the swinging drawbar. It's mounted below and ahead of the diff so there's no reaction trying to lift the front wheels. In fact it assists when turning as the force holds the front wheels onto the ground.

we could talk about Ferguson they werent to bad for what they were the main things they had for them was price and there was plenty of them around to buy
There 3PL was good but as Jeffo says it wasnt until later tractors that the 3PL really came into its own other tractors had 3PL as well and some worked a lot better Ferguson's do any main stream tractors use top link sensing today the lower link sensing of US tractors work a lot better on heavy implements than top link
You just have to look at tractors ten years newer than the grey fergy they have more than one handle on the 3PL control and for a very good reason Ferguson worked but not as good as people make out it did it could never compete with Fordson Major or Super Majors or the Inters of the day in most of Australia's farming areas

Paul

For want of better words, the Fergy was pretty agricultural. Jeffos' right draft control never seemed to work real good for me on many soil types except concrete.
Heard of one fella on Nerang River at Weedons Crossing had one sitting in the shed for years, his family bought it for him, to make his life easier, but he still harnessed up the horses to do do the work daily. No doubt had some colourful language describing the tractor in the shed.

I beg to differ My father bought a Fergy in 1947 and went contracting with it and paid it off in a year, and as for the draught control when they came out they revolutionised farming as the only alternative was the fordson with it's lenghthened rear mudguards to stop you from being killed, the Ferguson used with the implements designed for the tractor outperformed anything in it's day the only thing that scared me about the fergy was when you were using it with a slasher and it would drive you through a fence if you didn't allow enough time to stop at the end of each row but they cured that with the 35 and the 2 stage clutch and using a fergy with a front end loader without a counter weight and rear tyres full of water well what can you say

oldgmc wrote: I beg to differ My father bought a Fergy in 1947 and went contracting with it and paid it off in a year, and as for the draught control when they came out they revolutionised farming as the only alternative was the fordson with it's lenghthened rear mudguards to stop you from being killed, the Ferguson used with the implements designed for the tractor outperformed anything in it's day the only thing that scared me about the fergy was when you were using it with a slasher and it would drive you through a fence if you didn't allow enough time to stop at the end of each row but they cured that with the 35 and the 2 stage clutch and using a fergy with a front end loader without a counter weight and rear tyres full of water well what can you say

I think a lot depends on the type of farming it was gunna be used on but on heavy draw bar type work they could never compete with the E 27 N Fordsons or Bulldogs or Farmalls and the I think you will find even today more acres are farmed in Australia still using a draw bar
The Fergys were good on little east coast dairy and fruit farms I guess but not of much use on a broad acre farm in Australia

Paul

When tractor driving many years ago at Buntine in the WA wheat belt, I very nearly tipped a 'Super Ninety' over backwards. I had un hitched the plough and decided to take a short cut across a drainage ditch. Definitely a wrong move! :ohmy: Climbing out of said ditch, the front wheels lifted off the ground. I managed to slam the hand throttle in and the wheels bounced back to earth. It still makes me sick to the stomach when I think about it all these years later.

TDU

oldgmc wrote: .....using a fergy with a front end loader without a counter weight and rear tyres full of water well what can you say

Counterweight? That'd be the carryall with a 44 of fuel wouldn't it? Fits most tractors using a FEL

I think anyone who has driven a tractor for any time has almost had one of those rollover yourself experiences. :S