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Reasoning behind Row Crop tractors?

B

blunosr

Member
Hi, I've often wondered what the reasoning is behind having the front wheels both together on row crop tractors. It seems to me that just makes another track of compaction. I suppose it spreads the compaction out more?
Was it just for marking out rows?
Do they make them anymore?

Just wondering...

Thanks,

Troy Boyd, with 4" of snow on the ground. Way up in Northern British Columbia.
Bye for now,
 
i think the big reason was for cultivating crops with mounted cultivators. it gave enough clearance to get thru taller crops.
 
Think about the term Row crop back in the day before they had all these chemicals that do who know what to who knows who they cultivated stuff to keep the weeds out so they had to have a tractor that was easy to drive between the rows and still do the job. With a trike set up it was easy to stay between the rows and not run over the crops.
 
I can think of three reasons. #1 It cost less to make a narrow front end than a wide front. #2 You needed a narrow front end for a corn picker. #3 Early front end loaders weren"t made for a wide front. PS Troy. No snow in Faro Yukon Canada. Gerald
 
I like my Farmall H for working in the woods too. It turns really
tight compared to the WF tractors I've used, and the big wheels
seem to give it more traction and make it easier to go over bumps.
I have read that the last NF was made in the 70s sometime but I
don't know.
Zach
 
What Glennster and Gmccool said pretty much cover the reasons.

Only thing I can add to what they said is that a NF lets you see the rows better when cultivate'n.

Dave
 
When row crop tractors were first developed, rows were 40 inches apart.

There was a LOT more space for the close-spaced dual front wheels to fit down between the rows.

Compaction has nothing to do with it. Two tires on the ground is two tires on the ground.

Quite possibly the real reason for the narrow wheels was SIMPLICITY. A narrow front end is just a steel post with two wheels attached, whereas a wide front end has a bunch of moving parts.
 
Just to add my .02 , also made for nice square corners and no standing hay left on corners when mowing hay. Instant corrections when cultivating as cultivators mounted right behind front tires. At end of rows you turn on a dime to go right back on the very next set of rows. Could cultivate higher corn as rear axle height was only limiting factor. Back then in bean and corn land a 10 or 20 acre field was the norm making for lots of turning. Fields were divided up by the type soil and drainage issues and planted to crops favoring those conditions. There were no 100 acre fields with wet spots , clay hills , sand knobs and nice black loam all in the same field trying to raise an even crop. You had to have "even" crops for quallity cultivation and thus weed control. There WAS a method to their madness.
 
Buy, beg, borrow, or steal (jk) a copy of the book "150 years of international harvester" and follow the development of the first row crop tractors and you will see the method behind the madness. 8 pages of development to get to the prototype for the regular.
 
I'd say with my experience with them was so you could mount forward cultivators so it was easier to see where the crops were and how deep being cultivated. and as others say the turning capabilities.

When they came out with the two row corn picker the trike style couldn't be beat with the standard row plantings the early planters did.
row crop tractors
 
I have a IH 766 narrow front made in 1974. The old man who had it said he had to order it to get one.
 
NF tractors have a shorter turning radius and when adjusting the wheel spacing for different jobs the front end didn't need to be adjusted on a NF tractor.Adjusting the front end is a big job plus the front wheels need to be lined up every time.With power adjust wheels on the rear a NF tractor can be adjusted from ready to plow to ready to cultivate in a matter of a few minutes.BTW I'd rather drive a NF tractor
 
Two reasons: they turn quicker... and it's easier to mount front/mid mount cultivators.
You'll notice that the narrow front died with the cultivator.

Rod
 
Troy Bud, all those guys are BSn you. Narrow fronts were built because the designers with their wisdom and vision knew that in the future guys would take their tractors and compete with them to see who could pull the most or furthest. Now of course to pull you need traction, and we know that the first tractors were called traction engines. One of the most important factors in traction of course is weight on the drive wheels, and the less you have in the front the more you can have on the back. So the decision makers said to put narrow fronts under them so that their tractors would out pull the other brands and thus their sales would increase.
 
(quoted from post at 08:08:15 10/24/10) Amen Glenster. Clearance in tall corn.
Click to expand...

Glenster & Cowman are correct. Wide front axles didn't have enough clearance to cultivate taller corn without breaking off the stalks. This was back in the day of planting on beds instead of flat planting not to mention notill & RR seeds. When I was a youngster my Dad took me out of school to cult beds in front of the other tractor that was equipped with a 2 row frt mounted planter. Then later after corn and cotton was up the crops were cultivated 2-3 times to control weeds & grass plus my days of walking up/down rows with a HOE. My Dad also thought corn must be cultivated to stimulate growth & production.

Plus my Dad bedded and re-bedded several time before planting. Re-bedding required the 2 frt narrow wheels to be reversed so frt tires would straddle the top of a bed. This was attempted with wide frt axles with little success because 3 rows must be straddled for rebedding instead of 2.

Man growing crops has changed a lot in 50 yrs.
 
Cheaper. This was in the war years, after the Depression. $10 was a big deal back then. Narrow front was cheaper. Big deal, more than we probably realize in today's consumer world.

Mounted corn picker - doesn't work on a wide front (Vermeer's (or was it Kinze?) prototype mounted 4 row not withstanding....).

Cultivating, it's harder to get clearance for the wide front end, both for the cultivator and for tall corn. However; it's a lot easier to get a narrow front with mounted cultivator stuck in the mud! Negative of the narrow fronts....

Manuverability - most narrow fronts can spin on the rear wheel in a circle. Backing wagons is easier with an old narrow front than a widefront.

--->Paul
 
(quoted from post at 11:32:27 10/24/10) Cheaper. This was in the war years, after the Depression. $10 was a big deal back then. Narrow front was cheaper. Big deal, more than we probably realize in today'
it's a lot easier to get a narrow front with mounted cultivator stuck in the mud! --->Paul
Click to expand...

Many narrow frt tractors were built,sold & cultivated crops long after the depression was over. Up till the early to late 60's.

Down here in Texas crops were never cultivated in the mud so getting stuck cultivating muddy soil didn't happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
(quoted from post at 14:20:16 10/24/10)
(quoted from post at 11:32:27 10/24/10) Cheaper. This was in the war years, after the Depression. $10 was a big deal back then. Narrow front was cheaper. Big deal, more than we probably realize in today'
it's a lot easier to get a narrow front with mounted cultivator stuck in the mud! --->Paul
Click to expand...

Many narrow frt tractors were built,sold & cultivated crops long after the depression was over. Up till the early to late 60's.

Down here in [b:9fbfa459ce]Texas crops were never cultivated in the mud so getting stuck cultivating muddy soil didn't happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/b:9fbfa459ce]!!!
Click to expand...

:lol: How does it go --- If you stick with it when it's dry it will stick to you when it is wet.....
icon_nod.gif
 
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