The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi everyone, I am a bit new to this so hopefully you will be gentle. I am looking to get my first tractor and have allways liked Majors, so any help with the following would be great.
From what I have seen the largest horsepower is the super major from 1963 onwards, is this correct?
of this age do they have rear hydraulics, if not can they be fitted "nicely" (I dont want to do too much butchering)
I will be using it for winching trees and towing a timber trailer so would like as many horses under the bonnet as possible.

Any further reccomendations of what to look for, I have a very tight budget of around £2000, so any help of what matters and doesnt would be really usefull, It will be a bit of an ongoing project and I am a pretty capable mechanic/fabricator

Thanks in advance

David

Hi, if you are winching trees you won't be too worried about rear hydraulic linkage, you want a bolted on winch such as Cookes or Boughton. I have a Boughton 10ton 2 speed forrestry spec winch but these are fetching good money nowadays and have probably seen their fair share of action.
The base tractor got slightly more powerful as they progressed from diesel major to the later supers but your money is probably better spent on an earlier one which has had money spent on it rather than a worn out super major (which is unlikely to be producing anywhere near its original power output!).
The 4WD variants were popular in timber but these command prices a good way over your budget so you will be sticking with 2WD. The supers had difflock which can be an advantage when the going gets tough.
Your best bet is to check relevant magazine classifieds and ebay regularly, there are lots of Majors about but if you want something half decent to start with and equipped with a winch you are going to be needing some luck with £2k in your pocket.

Welcome David.

You made the right choice of tractor and you found the right place for all your answers.

The younger the major the more horsepower. The new major has 38 Hp. The power about 50 Hp and the Super NP has about 55 Hp.
All Supers has depth control. And you can make a auxiliary for a tipper.

Take a look on the main site to find all the data about the models and look at pictures on this forum. It will tell you a lot.

Thanks for the replies, looking positive that I will be able to find something then. my £2000 budget is for the tractor only, I allready have a winch for now, however I do like the look of the mounted boughton ones, What benefits do they have over a 3 point link versions?

Welcome Aboard Matey. You can pull more with a bolt on winch as the way it attaches is much stronger. Dandy Dave!