In 1981, the Ford Motor Company launched its new Series 10 range of tractors – an update of the entire range of small- and mid-sized tractors from the 2910 up to the 8210. Amongst the new features, that also included a synchromesh transmission for the first time in a Ford tractor, was the availability of factory-fitted four-wheel drive on the medium-sized and larger models.
This fact would have a very serious impact on a small group of niche tractor manufacturers that had built their businesses around converting Ford’s two-wheel drive tractors into four-wheel drive machines. The effect was so great that you could say, to borrow terminology from palaeontology, the introduction of the Series 10 tractors was almost an extinction level event!
In many ways it was an unusual situation, although conversions of conventional tractors from many different manufacturers were quite commonplace. The amount of Ford tractors that were used for such purposes – whether it be for producing crawlers, four-wheel drive tractors, diggers, loaders, etc. – was much greater than with other manufacturers’ machines.
This was due to several reasons, but mostly because of the Ford units’ cheapness, and availability, as well as their reliability, and dealer back-up for parts and servicing.
The converting of Ford tractors into other machines began right at the very beginning, with various machines produced based on the Fordson Model F. This continued throughout the Fordson era, latterly produced at Dagenham in Essex, and then the later Ford tractors built at Basildon.
By the end of the 1970s, Ford tractor skid units of various sizes were being bought in large numbers by companies converting them for various uses, with
