,,, And Then There Were Nine ...

It happened sooner than I expected. In fact, I hadn't expected this to happen at all. I brought home another tractor. And this one is a real doozie. It's a 1949 Ferguson TO-20. Rather than try to explain what I bought, here's a photo from the seller's ad on Craigslist. I know, it's a real peach.

Yes, it's such a fine, fine specimen of a tractor, as my wife will surely attest to. It was being advertised as yard art, and the seller was asking a somewhat reasonable price for this piece of fine art, just $399. The one thing that made me look at the ad and photos more closely was the fact that it was a Ferguson tractor, and for whatever reason, I'm kinda attracted to them. The seller didn't know what model or year it was, just that it was a Ferguson. He took copious photos, so I spent some time perusing them. ***** WAIT ***** Stop the presses!!! What's this strange lever on the right side of the transmission case? Do you see it? It's right there, plain as day.

Ok, below is a slightly better view of it, just in case you missed seeing the obvious... Something so noteworthy totally deserves further investigation.

I knew this wasn't a Ferguson piece of hardware, so I had to do some high-powered investigation. I'd known of things like Sherman and Howard auxiliary transmissions on Fergusons and Fords, but their shifters were typically on the left side or further back on the transmission. After some digging, I found out that this was a Hupp auxiliary transmission. Hupp made an overdrive transmission and a dual range high/low transmission. The lever on this Ferguson signifies that it is the dual range model. Sweet.

But did I need yet another tractor? Nope. Could I just let this tractor drift off into the empty vastness of internet darkness? Also nope. I started slipping further down that slippery slope, and sent the seller an email asking if they were firm on the price and if they knew if the tractor would roll if pulled. The price wasn't firm, and whether or not the tractor even rolled was an unknown.

Hmm, the location was a ferry ride away (expensive, especially so for a pickup truck and trailer) and there were several unknowns, such as the previously mentioned ability of the tractor to roll, if the steering was locked up, if the lug nuts on the the rear wheels would break loose (as the rear wheels were set so far apart that they too wide for my trailer unless I flipped them around), or any number of other things that could prevent the tractor from being loaded onto a trailer. No problem, right?

After some discussion with my wife and the seller accepting my $250 offer, we took the chance and went for it. I loaded the truck and trailer with everything I thought I'd need for this project (not a trivial task) and we headed out at 5:30 in the dark, crisp morning air to catch the 6:25 ferry to Edmonds. The reason for the early start was two-fold. The seller needed for me to be done by 1 PM and the ferry system only had one boat running on the Kingston-Edmonds run that day. Incidentally, the ferry round-trip ended up costing about $150, which was actually less than I'd thought.

Below is a short video of what greeted us when we showed up. Prior to filming this, I did hook the truck to the tractor to verify it did roll. Whew.

The sharp eye in the crowd may have noticed the Knoedler hydraulic seat base in the video above. There isn't a lot of information about these but I did run across this ad below. It has a spring and shock absorber that was supposed to be a better ride than the factory flat seat spring. We'll see how comfortable it is once I get the tractor running and driving. Folks online say that with the Knoedler bracket, the seat gets moved too far forward to be comfortable unless you're smaller in stature. I'm 6'2", so it may not be comfortable for me.

Back to loading. Things actually went fairly smoothly with flipping the two rear wheels around so they had a narrower width. I had to loosen the right rear fender as it was bent and contacted the tire in the flipped-in position. Once the wheels were done, the winching began. I use a come-along to pull tractors into the trailer, so it's not a quick or easy process. Crude but effective.

As I said, things were going fairly smoothly... until they didn't. The left rear wheel decided to disintegrate halfway up the trailer ramps (calcium chloride in the rear tires really does a number on steel wheels). I had to use a bottle jack to raise that corner of the tractor (seen below in the raised position) so the tire wouldn't rub on the fender and stop any and all forward movement. There were a lot of back and forth trips between the come-along and the bottle jack. Winch a little, reset and pump up the jack, winch a little, reset the jack...

The tractor is now loaded in the below photo. It actually only took a little over two hours from start to finish. Having gotten there around 8, we were done by 10:15. It was a good thing too, as the ferry line in Edmonds was such that we would already miss one boat. If we were later in the day, we might have had to wait for two (or more) boats, as it was the day after Thanksgiving.

This next photo shows the poor disemboweled tractor in its resting place at the house. I used the Kubota BX24 to drag it off the trailer. Here's an interesting tidbit, the hood doesn't have holes for the Ferguson emblems that are usually on each side of the hood, and the hood has a hold-open catch under the radiator. Someone online said that if the factory was out of stock of either of these items, they'd send the tractor out without them, as the items weren't essential. At some point in TO-20 production they also did stop putting on the hood latch all together. The 1951 parts manual I found online doesn't show the latch.

A couple of days later I got the left rear tire off the center hub, which wasn't a huge deal as I just had to jack the tractor up and manhandle the detached tire and rusty wheel remnants away from the tractor's large center hub.

This next photo shows the center hub and the remains of the outer rim. Ya gotta love calcium chloride...

The front hubs are different than most I find in TO-20 photos on the internet. These are cast iron and have a five-bolt pattern. They are nearly identical to those on a Ford 9N/2N but I don't believe they are a Ford product, and are slightly different than ones on a 2N I'd inspected at a friend's house. I couldn't find a casting number on these, whereas the friend's hubs had Budd and some numbers cast into them.

And the front wheels are strange. They have the five-bolt pattern but someone had just used bolts and nuts in other holes to hold the wheels onto the hubs.

This photo below is from the internet, showing a Ferguson tractor with the same (I think) wheels and hubs as my tractor. Of course, my wheels and hubs could very well be Ford items. A lot of parts from a Ford 9/2/8N will fit a TO20.

A friend has lots of old Ford tractors and parts, and he sold me some usable tires and wheels. He threw in some mounting bolts and lug nuts, which were very much needed.

So I got busy and did the wheel swaps. It wasn't trivial but really could have been worse for a tractor that's been sitting for decades.

I figured I'd put photos of all my current tractors below, since I eluded to the fact I have nine now. I really have no idea how my problem has gotten so bad, and I promise (yeah, right) I won't buy any more tractors. Ever. As someone online had said, "I prefer to be called a collector because it sounds a lot nicer than a hoarder." Here are the tractors in order of acquisition.

2007 Kubota BX24 (bought Apr 2017). The John Deere 400 backhoe in the background is my son's, and I'm no longer storing it for him.

1948 Gibson Model D with Petter diesel engine (bought Mar 2020)

~1940 Homemade tractor, I added the Onan BH two cylinder engine (bought May 2023)

1986 John Deere 650 (bought May 2023), I put in new rings, bearings, clutch and pressure plate. I also fabricated a splined shaft to drive the front wheels, as the old part was broken and unavailable anywhere.

1951 Baird Beaver (bought Aug 2023)

1955 Ferguson TO-35 (bought Aug 2023)

1958 Ferguson TO-35 (bought Sep 2023), previously used by Jefferson County. The engine had previously dropped a valve so I redid the head. (sold 3/2024, so now down to eight)

1965 International 140 Industrial (bought Oct 2023), with model 1000 one-arm loader, previously used by The Boeing Company.

1949 Ferguson TO-20 (bought Nov 2023). The photo is showing the "new" tires and wheels. It looks a whole lot better than when it first got home.

Like I said, no more tractors.... we'll see how that pans out.

It's Christmastime now, so what better way to decorate for Christmas than to have an old "lawn ornament" tractor decked out with lights... The only problem is, I can't work on my new TO-20 until after Christmas. *sigh*