The History of the Nuffield Tractor - Part 1

An assessment of the plant was made and the site was deemed siutable for tractor production. The Nuffield team accepted the challenge and arrangements began, starting with the recruitment of Dr. H.E. Merritt and Mr. Claude Culpin, two people who would be instrumental in the designing and testing of the "NUFFIELD UNIVERSAL" tractor.

By May 1946, the prototype Nuffield-Universal tractor was on test, and during the following three months, another twelve prototype tractors were made and tested in the U.K and abroad. The tractors were shown to a selected audience at a demonstration at Pershore Wore in late 1946.

The tractor itself was now thought to be ready for production. All the refinements had been completed and teething troubles overcome, however production was held up due to the steel shortages and full production would be delayed for over a year.

By November 1948, the steel situation changed and sufficient stock could be obtained on a regular basis to begin production. The New tractors were first seen at the "Smithfield show" in London in December that year and were put on the market in utility and rowcrop versions.

The M3 or rowcrop was priced at £ 487 and the M4 utility at £ 495. That price was for the basic tractor only, Hydraulics three point lift and P.T.O cost an extra £60. A belt pully was £12 and electric lights and horn £9.

Initially all the Nuffield tractors produced were were allocated to the U.K with a view to assisting in the increase of crop production to counter the food shortage. After this though from 1949, Nuffield began the exportation of the Universal by a subsidiary company belonging to Morris-Motors called "Nuffield exports Ltd" (initially exports were limited to 5 countries, but later became world wide.)

The Universal itself, was powered by a Morris Commercial, 4 cylinder side valve T.V.O engine, type E.T.A, which produced 38 horse power at 2,000 rpm. The Hydraulic power-lift was well thought out, and remained basically the same for over 20 years, apart from occasional improvements. It is operated by two seperate levers, providing 1 lever for internal hydraulics and one for external tappings (such as front end loaders and tipping trailers) or both levers could be used for one double acting external ram. The maximum pressure of the hydraulic system was 1,250 lbs/sq.in, the maximum lifting capacity at the draught link ends was 2,770 lbs.

The Nuffield shared a few obvious similarities to it's American counterparts, and these were purposely made. They were : the overall appearence was quite similar to the Fordson and the color was "poppy orange", like Allis Chalmers. This was done to instill confidence in the farming community that had come to accept for granted the reliability of the American counterparts, and to improve the overall chances of sales both here and abroad.

The N-U M.3 and M4 had a five speed gearbox and speeds ranged from 0.91 mph to 17.30 mph.The clutch was a Borg and Beck single dry plate type II AB-G. The full production tractors differed slightly to that of the prototype, the main difference being the hydraulic lift, P.T.O and styling. It was also slightly larger, but apart from that they remained the same.

The Smithfield show of 1950 saw a choice of three engines on offer,a T.V.O (using the E.T.A engine-later replaced by the E.T.C) a PETROL engine, and a Perkins P4 (T.A) diesel,which developed 38 h.p at 2,000 rpm ( the P4 was replaced in 1954 by a B.M.C Diesel) The latter being by far more economical to run and by far the most popular. Plus the ever increasing availability of this cheap fuel was to sound the death bell for V.O powered tractors. This model of universal was known as the DM4, it retailed for the cost of £667 whilst the row crop DM3 was only £10 cheaper.

Serial No's are as follows (stamped on the offside main frame)

T.V.O : M/3M/4   N.T 501 to N.T 15508
PETROL: PM3/PM4   N.T 75001 to N.T 78653
DIESEL: DM3/DM4   N.T D.E 50001 to N.T 57545

Unlike other Tractor manufacturers, such as Ferguson, International Harvester, etc. who made implements of their own, The Nuffield Organisation decided NOT to manufacture implements themselves but to select implements already manufactured that were best suited to the Nuffield-Universal and then approve them for use with the tractor.

Nuffield Mechanizations set up departments to test and evaluate the implements that were sent for approval by manufacturers. Lists of "approved Nuffield" implements were available only from the manufacturer and only approved when the evaluation team felt that they would not damage the tractor when mounted and operating.

In total the Nuffield list had 100 approved implements and even assisted manufacturers in their research and testing of new ones, introduced for the new range of tractor in 1950 ( to fill the gap in the engine range). Since Nuffield's did not have a diesel tractor engine in production they decided to use the Perkins P4 ( which was already proven in other makes of tractor) until such time that they could produce their own. It is interesting to note that when the new BMC deisel engine was introduced to replace the P4 in 1954, sales on the U.K home market were 70 per cent Diesel and 30 per cent TVO.

By 1955 the sales were 95 per cent Diesel and 5 per cent TVO. By 1951 the service hour meter and the hand brake were standard. The tractor came with a six months warranty. Replacement parts and prices for the Perkins 'P4' (T.A) Diesel engine were as follows: engine £120:00, Crankshaft:£6, Cylinder head:£8, Water pump:£ 2,7sh, injector 15 shillings!! oh to be able to buy such rarities at that price today!!

The second part of this history will cover from 1951-1960 and overview the upgraded 'ETC TVO engine and roadless models.

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