There’s no question that having some mechanical experience makes owning an elderly tractor a lot more manageable. Having said that, it’s not an essential requirement, and those looking to buy their first machine shouldn’t be put off by the fact that they lack hands-on skills or a well-organised home workshop.
The reality, of course, is that the sort of tractors we regularly feature in this magazine – built, say, between the Second World War and the late 1970s – don’t require expert attention to service and maintain them in reliably, usable condition. These machines were designed to cope with the vagaries of farming life, which, more often than not, involved a penny-pinching owner doing all he could to avoid ‘wasting’ any of his hard-earned cash on his over-worked and under-maintained tractor.
Inherent ruggedness
The likes of Fordson, Ford, County, Muir-Hill and Roadless tractors from the post-war, ‘classic’ era were typically over-engineered to a level that’s simply unheard of today. Components were designed with real solidity, ensuring they were utterly fit for purpose. But this was before the arrival of the corporate accountants and swanky CAD systems that, between then, began whittling away at raw material consumption and production costs in the relentless pursuit of profit.
Back in the day, tractors were routinely produced with an inherent ruggedness that not only ensured reliability, but also allowed those machines to
