Have you ever noticed.....

After a couple of beers the other night, I noticed my '88 Ford 3910 bears a striking resemblence to several Massey Ferguson 135's I've owned. Swept front axle and supports, draft control system, PTO shifter, gear shifter locations, fuel injector, etc., and even the styling to some degree. I had heard that Ford and MF had some litigation in years past. Anybody else ever noticed the same thing?

JBM

And the women get better looking after each one also.

That litigation was between Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson over the 3 point hitch. What are you saying,the Fords all get prettier at closing time?

The Fords and the Massey have a common heritage in the Ford 9N and 2N.

So yes they evolved from a common ansestor.

Jeff

Just ask this guy! :'D

Hey, what's my wife doing on that tractor with another man? Just kidding, there's not enough beer in Milwaulkee.

Ok, how about her sister then?

She's even uglier than Ole's wife, Lena.

How many beers did you have anyway??

There's absolutely nothing in common between those two tractors, and I mean absolutely nothing.

The last commonality between the Ford's and the Ferguson's was the three point hitch with draft control. That was when Ford fittted the 'Ferguson System' to the 9N and it was known as the Ford Ferguson. The 'handshake agreement' that Ford would not honor and the patent infringement lawsuit that resulted are what led to the release of the 8N with it's revised draft control system so as to not infringe on Ferguson's patents.

Most of the 8N was abondoned through the model revisions into the Jubilee/NAA and then the hundred series. Basically the remainder was dropped by the time the 3 cylinder thousand series arrived in 1965.
The last carryover, that hateful swept back utility axle was carried right through until the end of the 10 series. May it finally rest in many a melting pot.
I beleive Massey actually had the foresight to abandon that axle concept some years before. So there really is nothing in common between the 3910 and the 135 and the Ford will weigh quite a bit more in that comparison.

Rod

Feel a little passionate about the subject?

Just a little point of correction. The 8N was the tractor that infringed on Ferguson's patent. After he won the lawsuit. Ford redesigned and came out with the Jubilee/NAA.

Just a minor correction.

Rod,

Respectfully, I'll disagree. Many of the operational components (like pressure control and the lever to adjust the reaction speed of it) are very similar. I've driven lot's of tractors, JD's, Ih, and David Browns of that size, and they were nothing like the comparison I made. Agreed, the 3910 has +-14 more horsepower and is blue and weighs 700 lbs more. And, I only had 4 beers, and they were light beers!

Yes, the 8N is the tractor that infringed on the patents. It was the doing of Henry Ford II and not his father. It has been stated that the first Henry Ford was an honourable man and the second wasn't. He did the same thing to Lee Iacocca. The original lawsuit was for 340 million dollars but was settled for 9.25 million after it dragged on for 4 years. There's a lot more to it but the settlement was a kick in the pants for Ford considering they sold over 500,000 8N's. Ferguson also sold over 500,000 of their new tractors as well. Later Ford tractors used a different type of system. I think if there was a similar lawsuit today, the settlement would have been astonomical. Dave

The 3910 has very very little in common with the older Ford's let alone the Massey's.
If you're looking at a tractor with top link draft sensing, you could say that they're all about the same because they use the same basic idea, but the practical aspect is that Ford used the Ferguson system on the 9N, revised it for the 8N to avoid patent infringement, revised it again for the Jubilee/NAA and basically carried that through the early thousand series until 1965 where it was revised again. When the x600 series utility tractors were introduced in 1976 there was yet another considerable revision to the internal workings of those lift covers.
They may look similar, but they had distinctly different design path's.
I'd also peg the 3910 to be more like 1-1.5 ton heavier depending on it's configueration. The 3000 was a little heavier than the 135; the 3910 a good bunch heavier.
I tend to think of them with a MFWD front axle as well so that adds a lot of weight... but I'd think there's more like 1000 pounds between a basic 135 and basic 3910 along with the 3910 being a couple model generations newer.

Rod