Ford 8N did it really have a tendency to roll backwards??

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I'm thinking of purchasing a Ford 8N tractor for my homestead. There is a local Farm and Country store with parts and there are local mechanics that can work on the tractor.

My question:

Is it true that the Ford 8N had a tendency to rollover backwards very easily????

-- David Kennedy (dkennedy@midtel.net), August 07, 2001

Answers

We have an 8N. They are very light in the front end and ours wants to lift up if we get a really heavy load on the back. So I guess one would roll over backwards if you let it. We usually just back up the hill if we have a load. There are front end weights you can buy for them. My husband is going to try to rig something with a bunch of old elevator weights he can get from work.

But the other side of the issue is that the 8N is wide in front also. So it is less likely to tip sideways than one of the "tricycle" tractors with the two little wheels close together in the front. Ours has never acted like it wanted to tip sideways, even though we live in the Ohio Appalachians and have a good bit of slope to our property.

More of an issue for us has been that the brakes on 8N's are notoriously... unpredictable. That has made for some fun rides down the hills! If you still like the 8N for your particular situation, consider adding a roll bar and seat belt to help prevent serious injury. Also be sure to get the override clutch kit added. Apparently the pto will continue to push you along without it. A neighbor rode his up a big pine tree when his brush hog wouldn't stop.

-- Lori in SE Ohio (klnprice@yahoo.com), August 07, 2001.


David, Just purchase or make (from an I beam or R/R iron) a weight for the front end and make sure you put water and anifreeze in the front tires. For added traction, put water and antifreeze in the back tires also.

Bart

-- Bart (Dominickwb@dot.state.sc.us), August 07, 2001.


I have had 4 9N's and 3 8N's and a Jubilee and never had that problem. The lift weight for an 8N is about 850# I use forks all the time with them to pickp up pallets loaded with stuff. Yo can get front wheel weights that go on the inside of the wheels. Just paY ATTENTION to what you are doing, if the front end starts to lift, engage the clutch.

-- hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), August 07, 2001.

ANY tractor will roll over backwards if used improperly. It takes only 1.5 seconds for it to happen. This type of accident is a leading cause of farm deaths, too. Knowing how to hook on to a tractor is the single biggest factor in preventing it from rolling over backwards. Make certain you hook BELOW the rear axle level!!!

It's simple physics. If you have even the slightest doubt as to this helping, try it with a toy tractor on a tabletop. When you hook above the rear axle level and create forward force with that axle, it flips over backwards. When you attach below, it doesn't flip.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), August 07, 2001.


Gary is right, NEVER pull anything via the top hitch point and if you use a drawbar fitted between the lower link arms be sure to use it with the arms in their lowest position.

I don't see any sense in loading up the front with iron or concrete weights unless you want to shorten the life of the front wheel bearings. Front wheel weights are probably kinder to the bearings.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), August 07, 2001.



Have had an 8N for 18 years. The front end is a bit light but I'v never had any problems with it lifting very far off the ground. I do know of a neighbor who pulled his into the barn on a dirt floor, the tires froze to the ground and it nearly rolled over backward when he tried to back it up. Since then I back mine in and pasrk it on old mud flaps from semi trailers.

-- Paul (Treewizard@buffalo.com), August 08, 2001.

Gary is right - any tractor will do it. It's so easy to wind the rest of the thing around those big rear wheels with the high axle, using the tremendous torque of a tractor engine and low tractor gearing. Start slow and be ready with the clutch - ALWAYS. It's worse under load, of course (even with a low hitch, although as they said a high hitch guarantees it - if not today then tomorrow). With a high hitch, even if you have got moving OK, all you'd need to do is hit a bump and you start throwing the front up, and then you're moving too fast to do anything. Be VERY careful if you have to start facing uphill - it's better to develop the habit of making sure you don't have to.

Note also that tractors will very readily tip sideways. Be very careful if you have to traverse around a hill - again all it could take would be a bump on the uphill side and suddenly your centre of gravity is thrown outside the centre of the downhill wheel. Also stay away from gulleys or steep road verges - they can easily crumble away under the weight of a tractor.

In Australia, they've now made it compulsory for all tractors sold, or any being used by an employee, to be fitted with a ROPS (roll-over protection scheme) frame - basically just a frame which will keep the tractor off whoever was on top of it when the tractor rolls over. Can be built into a tractor cabin, otherwise can be just a squarish upside-down U-shape fitted behind/around the seat. It's an added expense, which is why they don't insist on it for the owner of older tractors, but it's well worthwhile as insurance. Tractor accidents kill more farmers than any other kind - and when you see the survivors you might believe the dead ones were lucky. Having a tractor roll around on top of you can wreak some remarkable changes in the human body.

This is not to say you shouldn't use them. They're power tools. Use appropriate care, that's all.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), August 09, 2001.


And while we are on the subject of tractor safety...

Make sure all the original safety bits and pieces are still in place. PTO shields are obvious but dont forget the little things like those spring clips on the pins used on the 3 point linkage arms. The wire ring is supposed to be flipped over the shaft so that the pin cannot be jiggled or flipped out by anything. If you are, for example, ploughing and one lower linkage comes adrift the other will probably break and in less than a heartbeat the tractor is upside down on top of the plough.

If you have a front bucket never drive at speed with the bucket loaded and raised as that is inviting a roll over at the first change of direction.

Tractors are one-person machines, this includes hooking up.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), August 09, 2001.


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