The successful farmall tractor

     Larry Gay is a tractor historian and author. He grew up on an Iowa farm, where he developed a fascination with the machinery involved. After receiving a degree in agricultural engineering, he worked for Deere & Co. for 35 years as a product engineer and later as manager of engineering for John Deere Merchandise. A longtime collector of farm equipment, Mr. Gay started a second career in retirement writing books on about farm tractors. In 2010, he was inducted to the 2010 class of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Fellows.  

     He contributed this essay on the development and success of IH's Farmall tractor. This essay follows the tractor's story through the 1940s; this project will also include a followup.

By Larry Gay

     The McCormick-Deering Farmall tractor was the result of eight years of development work by International Harvester. It started as a motor cultivator, progressed into a bi-directional tractor, and finally the Farmall tractor configuration with the engine in front and the drive wheels at the rear.

      Before the introduction of the Farmall tractor in 1924, the popular tractors were standard-tread tractors. Some of the major ones and their year of introduction were the Fordson (1918), the McCormick-Deering 15-30 (1921) and 10-20 (1923), and the John Deere D (1923). Standard-tread tractors were those with the two front wheels in-line with the two rear wheels, attached to a straight axle, with a pivot point in the middle of the axle. Standard-tread tractors were suitable for plowing, other tillage work, pulling grain binders, and pulling wagons. Of course they were equipped with a belt pulley, so they could be used to power threshing machines and other belt-driven machines. What they couldn’t do was cultivate corn and other row crops. 

     The McCormick-Deering Farmall tractor was a new configuration of a tractor with widely spaced rear wheels that could straddle two rows of corn, with 30 inches of clearance under the rear axle, two closely spaced front wheels that could travel between the two rows of corn, and the ability to carry a cultivator. The cultivator was mounted ahead of the operator for good visibility and was connected to the steering column for side-to-side movement. The Farmall was a 2-plow tractor with a vertical four-cylinder engine, and a three-speed transmission. Now there was a tractor on the market that could perform all the tasks of a standard-tread tractor plus cultivate row crops. 

     One reason the Farmall became so popular was it was the only tractor that could cultivate row crops for several years, as the other manufacturers didn’t introduce row-crop tractors until about 1930. Deere & Company introduced a three-row cultivating tractor in 1927 and 1928, but the three-row concept wasn’t accepted.

     The major disadvantage of the original Farmall was with its widely spaced rear wheels which resulted in side draft when plowing. The Oliver Hart-Parr 18-27 Row Crop tractor introduced in 1930 overcame this problem with two large diameter rear wheels mounted on a splined straight rear axle which permitted them to be set in a narrow position for plowing and in a wide position for cultivating. The large diameter rear wheels provided ample clearance under the rear axle. This configuration was adopted by the Farmall F-12 in 1933, the John Deere A in 1934, and the John Deere B in 1935.

     International Harvester capitalized on the popularity of the Farmall by introducing three models in the early 1930s. There was the 3-plow F-30, the 2-plow F-20, and the 1-plow F-12. Then the original Farmall became known as the Farmall Regular. Harvester also kept making improvements to the Farmall tractor. A few years ago at a IH collectors show, a collector brought a collection of Farmall Regulars and F-20s, one for almost each year, with signs telling what the changes were for each year.

     International Harvester introduced the Farmall H and M models in mid-1939. These 2-plow and 3-plow tractors were what I consider to be “classic” tractors of the 1940s. Tractors become classics with a combination of features, performance, and reliability. The H and M were “styled” with a grill over the radiator and a streamlined fuel tank, were powered by four-cylinder engines, equipped with a five-speed transmission, adjustable wheel tread with large diameter rear wheels mounted on a straight axle, and an operator’s platform mounted above the transmission for good visibility. The controls were conveniently located with a clutch pedal on the left side and the two brake pedals on the right side. This was at a time when other manufacturers were still using hand brake levers, hand clutches, separated brake pedals, and a left brake pedal beside the clutch pedal.