A Ford 8N

Most people wouldn’t know what the title of this blog is all about.  Up until this weekend, I wouldn’t have, either.  But now I do.

The Ford 8N was a dynamite tractor manufactured by, well, you guessed it:  The Ford Motor Company.

I guess I sort of vaguely knew that Ford manufactured tractors, but it wasn’t something I spent any time thinking about.  Until this weekend, that is.   You see, our local Ford dealer (Ford of Upland here in So Cal) is just down the road from my home, and when I was tooling by this weekend and I spotted a real beauty. Not the young lady in the photo to the right…although she sure is nice, too.  Nope, I was driving by and the tractor you see below was in Ford of Upland’s parking lot. I knew it was something special when I saw it, and I just happened to have my Nikon with me, so I stopped in and walked over.

Now you and I both know that a competent sales person is not going to let you walk onto a new car lot without coming over to say hello, and I hadn’t gone 10 steps toward that tractor when my new friend Deb approached. I told her straight up that I didn’t want to waste her time as I had just bought a new car and I wasn’t in the market for another one.  What I really wanted to do was photograph that very cool tractor.  I asked what it was and I was surprised…Deb is a real tractor expert. She told me that it’s a 1949 Ford 8N (you could tell it’s a ’49 because it doesn’t have a tach; they didn’t add a tach until 1950).  Yeah, I knew that.  Didn’t you?

Anyway, Deb told me to take as many pictures as I wanted, and I picked the best ones for you here on the blog.  Deb also let me take her photo, and she told me that if any of you guys or gals are in the market for a new Ford, you should give her a call at 909 946 5555.

While I was there I took a good look, and I have to tell you, the new Fords are pretty nice.  Ford common stock has been going gangbusters, too, and I think they really have their act together.  When Alan Mulally came over from running Boeing a few years ago, he applied many of the same engineering and manufacturing techniques Boeing uses to Ford’s products, and the results speak for themselves.  Folks, these are great looking cars, and I can tell you from the ones I’ve rented on my many secret missions, they are fine automobiles.

Deb asked what I did and I told her. She told me she’s into motorcycling, and I told her our bikes are styled like the original Mustangs made in Glendale.  As a person who’s probably about 30 years younger than me, Deb had not known of the original Mustang motorcycles.  I told her that Mustang went out of business in 1962, and within a year, another young fellow named Lee Iacocca picked up the rights to the Mustang name for a little project he was working on at Ford.   That Mustang has been in production for almost 50 years now, and if you call Deb I’ll bet she’ll give you a killer deal on that black beauty I grabbed a photo of up above.  Ah, it is indeed a small world….

And hey, before I go, I found this pretty cool video on tractors…

It’s a fun video with the right kind of music, and it has quite a few photos of the mighty 8N.  You know, gearheads like anything with a motor, and tractors are no exception. My good buddy Ernie is a bona fide tractor dude, and my favorite moto mag (Motorcycle Classics magazine) has a sister publication focused on antique tractors.

Cool stuff, boys and girls…

Ride safe, and I’ll see you on the open road.  I’ll be on the modern Mustang.  The two-wheeled variety, that is…made right here in the good old USA.