Ford 8N Tractor 1949

The Ford 8N 35 h.p. Gray and Red Tractor replaced the Ford Ferguson 9N within twelve months of Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson parting company.  Apart from the extra power and an extra forward gear the 8N was very similer to the 9N, so much so that it was the result of a patent infringment lawsuit over the hydraulic system.  The Ferguson case was settled half way through a lengthy trial in favor of Ferguson and the payment of nine and a quarter million dollars by Ford, the largest sum to change hands as a result of patent infringement litigation up to that time.  Ford revised the design and kept on making tractors in ever greater numbers, more than half a million units of the Ford 8N Tractor had been produced when production ceased in 1952.