The Ford County tractors are not actually real Ford tractors, but were made from Ford parts by the UK manufacturer County Commercial Cars Ltd.
The design of County tractors is always the same, it has four equally sized wheels and the engine is quite far forward, almost in front of the front axle. They have four-wheel drive and huge tractive power.
Counties are less suitable for road use. But on the field as a tractor all the more! This is also evident in the steering. On the road, it has a correspondingly large turning circle of 15 to 20 metres due to its front-wheel steering, but in the field it is steered like a tank with single brakes. The turning circle is then only about 3 metres.
County's first tractor was the Super 4, built from 1960 and based on the Fordson Super Major. Its four-cylinder diesel engine with an output of 3,610 cc produced 52 hp. Other County tractors with four- and six-cylinder engines followed. The most powerful tractor was the County 1884 with an output of 188 hp. The base was always a Fordson or Ford tractor, which was rebuilt and strengthened.
When Ford itself started producing four-wheel-drive tractors in 1975, County sales began to decline. Ford tractors were much cheaper. The company continued to build tractors under different owners until 1990.
Today, old County tractors are especially sought-after and not exactly cheap. In terms of pure pulling power, Counties are little inferior to modern tractors. In fact, modern tractors often lose out.
Even today, many Counties in Britain are still used daily, for example by contractors or in road construction. There, the County has long since achieved cult status, similar to the MB-trac in Germany.
On Online Classic World, used Ford Counties are regularly offered for sale.
