David Brown was still a relatively young tractor manufacturer by 1953, having produced its very first tractor in 1939 for Harry Ferguson in the shape of the Ferguson Type A. This only lasted for three years as Ferguson took his ideas to the US and Henry Ford. So, David Brown soon designed and produced their own machine, resulting in the VAK1 model first introduced in 1939.
Tractor beginnings
The shortages that came with the Second World War rather stymied the success of this first tractor, and it was soon altered to make it easier to produce and remained in production until 1945, by which time it had also spawned a crawler version.
The replacement, the VAK1A, was very similar but featured a longer wheelbase, modified front axle and an improved engine. This model proved short-lived as the VAK1C came along in 1947, this then being the most successful of the early David Brown models and was given the name Cropmaster.
The new Cropmaster was equipped, originally, with a four forward and single reverse transmission as had its predecessors, but in 1949 it wasdiesel. This soon became the most popular version by far, as diesel engines were becoming more popular in Britain. The Cropmaster was also used as the basis for both industrial and narrow vineyard variants and was suitable for a wide variety of applications.
