Friday Tractor

[Majorman]

Todays Tractors and Extra pictures are all versions of Fordson and Ford based conversions by County Commercial Cars of Fleet in Hampshire, England. The company started out in the early 1920's adding extra axles to Ford model TT trucks to increase the load carrying capacity, transporting produce from farms to Covent Garden Market in London. They soon moved into driven axles and their products were taken up by Ford and fitted at the Dagenham Factory until the 1940's. County then developed a crawler tractor based on the Eordson E27N and later on the Fordson E1A Major range. They started building a four wheel drive tractor for towing trailers of sugar cane which then became the four wheel drive tractor base of the business.
County Super Six

 

[caterpillar guy]

Did most of them articulate or steer on the hubs? Some looked like they did both like the 9600 model looked like for it to turn would have to articulate or take an awful big circle. Then some like the county six look like they may have steered at the hubs rather than articulate. Could you elaborate a bit more on this?

 

[Dieseltech]

Neighbor had one like that years ago, if I recall it had the 363 cube Dorset diesel. Since the front wheels only turned it needed a LOT of room to turn around.

 

[DRussell]

We had an 1164 county that was based off a Ford 5000 transmission and rear-end, but with the 6 cylinder 401 ci engine from an 8000 or 8600 Ford. The front hubs steered like a normal tractor. Because of the large wheels it didn't have a short turning radius.

It didn't have a high platform and as a result you constantly got a shower of dirt off the front wheels when doing tillage work.

It was a pulling machine though. Unstoppable in mud.

 

[rrlund]

I always liked those, but you have to be careful saying Friday tractor here in Michigan. There actually was a company that made a tractor called a Friday.

 

[Majorman]

They are all Hub steer, County did not make a pivot steer. They did have a large turning circle but, when ploughing, on the headlands we used the brakes and spun them round like a crawler. Roadless 115 and 120 and the Muir Hill turned much sharper.

 

[DoubleO7]

(reply to post at 10:13:39 12/16/22)

I drove right by the factory about two weeks ago.

 

[Paul from MI]

The Friday tractor was built by David Friday of Hartford, MI. The first ones used a Model A Ford power train, later Chrysler industrial engines. Made with a very fast road gear to haul produce to processing plants. Production ended in the early 1950's.