new to me vintage tractor

well i got chided here once for tractor stuff but here goes.....sold the 1939 Farmall F30 it was just too big to deal with but felt sad and started looking for a more convenient sized one found this 1950 Ferguson T20 not far away and bought it for $1800 runs good but someone painted red over its original grey i found out that thousands of these were shipped to british isles and lots built there too and very popular and even used by Sir Edmund Hillary on Mt. Everest expedition anyway i am going to put it back grey and tune it up and change oils and play with it.

Not sure if the same model but a lot of small tractors like this survive in seaside towns in NZ, people probably picked them up for a song and use them for towing/launching their boats.
Nice project.

yes further reading says lots of them went to australia and new zealand

Red paint always gives the illusion of going faster then it really is!! LOL

I think you will find that Sir Ed Hillary put tracks on them for an expedition to drive to the south pole .
These were one of the first tractors I drove as a lad on the farm ,(around 6 or 7 years old)
Elf n safety was a bit different then.

The patterns for the T20 were made by one of my uncles then working for Qualcast in Derby...

cool! i thought it might stir some responses i go pick it up tuesday first thing good pressure wash (the tractor not me)

alan hodge said:

well i got chided here once for tractor stuff but here goes.....sold the 1939 Farmall F30 it was just too big to deal with but felt sad and started looking for a more convenient sized one found this 1950 Ferguson T20 not far away and bought it for $1800 runs good but someone painted red over its original grey i found out that thousands of these were shipped to british isles and lots built there too and very popular and even used by Sir Edmund Hillary on Mt. Everest expedition anyway i am going to put it back grey and tune it up and change oils and play with it.

Click to expand...

Nice !! Please keep the rebuild / overhaul pics coming.

Cool - we are tractor aficionados here too - mainly Fordson's / Fords, but also a couple of Massey Harris's and an Oliver.

T20 has a good following and lots of parts about. Fun project!!

Though the grey Ferguson is fairly small by modern standards, it could plough as much as three men and 18 horses. For its time it had a decent hydraulic three point lift. Had one for a couple of years, surprisingly reliable and useful. Loved the small turning circle.
I think it had an glass bowl for filtering out water from the fuel. Broken when freezing. It rarely happens that you can get two gears engaged at the same time, blocking the gearbox. Just unbolt the gear lever and use a lever to free it up.

Hi Alan
The little grey Fergie has a large following here in Australia.There is a bloke named Lance, up in Bundaberg Queensland and he does helpful youtubes on the T20,complete overhaul,also does other brands/models .He goes under the name Bundy Bear's Shed ,well worth a look . I have a MF35X from 1963 , second owner.

HRD just watched one of bundy's videos very good info thanks

MF 35x here too,
Wanted a 135 but they are too expensive here and not much different to 35x
Rebuilt most of it.

Graeme

Yeah, I had a 35x for a while as well. Now have a JD 4200. I need 4wd where we are.

I just bought a 1949 Ford 8N a couple of weeks ago to use as a trailer shunter and snow clearer ( ie not to really use as a tractor) I had earlier been thinking about getting a caravan/toyhauler and in confined space of my driveway I figured I need something maneuverable to be able to move it around. I grew up in Australia and have childhood memories of the little grey Fergies and would have liked to have gotten one of them but the Ford 8Ns are much more common in the US. As it turns out they are very similar tractors, the backends being virtually identical. The whole Harry Ferguson story is a fascinating one especially his dealings, or mis-dealings, with Henry Ford.

I remember being puzzled as a kid, when on family drives in the countryside around the Adelaide Hills, at how many farms had piles of derelict old Standard Vanguards lying around. Many years later I found out that the Fergusons (Massey Fergusons?) used the same wet liner blocks as the Vanguards.

The Ford uses a 4 cylinder flat head engine from a Model A and there is really good parts availability. However, it’s a similar situation to Norton Commandos – not all reproduction parts are considered equal.

Hopefully you’ll have fun with your Ferguson.

I opened this thread expecting to read about the OPs recent purchase of an old Harley…

Fast Eddie said:

I opened this thread expecting to read about the OPs recent purchase of an old Harley…

Click to expand...

No farm implements for the Oxford contingent? ;-)

Hi dad got his first T20 in the early fifties, I first drove one when he ran out of beer and needed to go to town, but the car battery was flat, I was too small to reach the pedals, so his idea was to hook the car to the T20, sit me on the seat with these instructions, "when I jump off the tractor you steer it until I blow the horn and then turn the key off"
Well it worked dad was Happy to be able to get his beer and I at last drove a tractor.
Have photos of myself on the T20 driving it when I had to stand on the clutch pedal to start off and barely being able to see over the bonnet.
Spent many years ploughing, harrowing rolling, cutting Lucerne, raking etc, if I didn't want to go to school, dad would say, right your on the tractor all day, best punishment ever.
Love the T20, have had a 1949 for about 21 years now with a Howard reduction box so, 8 forward gears and two reverse gears, these were for use with the Howard rotary hoe.
I keep promising it, I will restore it, but too many bikes at the moment, still starts and runs has good oil pressure, carby needs work.

Burgs

I've now got tractor envy!!

gortnipper said:

No farm implements for the Oxford contingent? ;-)

Click to expand...

In the wonderful countryside of Oxfordshire one could have as much vintage farming machinery as desired!

In Oxford City, parking might be an issue…