IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: 50s Ferguson TE20 tractor

In today's video we are looking at the Ferguson TE 20 Tractor, which changed the world of farming as we know it.

Today's video is sponsored by Adrian Flux. Why not check them out for your next classic car insurance policy?

if you're hard of hearing, here is the text we talk through when we look around the tractor:

In today’s video we are looking at the Ferguson TE20 tractor, which was made from 1946 to 1956 and if you’re trying to work out if the TE represents a model or engine type, it simply means tractor England.

The Ferguson TE 20 came into a world, a year after WW2 ended, where horses had been largely replaced, certainly in England by cars and other transport and the horse was now being replaced on the farm by modern machinery.

In fact, it was the Second World War I mentioned which partially facilitated the TE20 coming to life.

The Standard motor company had operated, during the war, a shadow factory in Coventry making aero engines. As the war drew to a close, it meant the 1 million square foot site had no real use and with it, the site came to the attention of Harry Ferguson, from Ferguson tractors who saw real value in the site.

With this, a deal was struck and Ferguson was in charge of design, development, sales and service and Standard Motor Company made the tractors in the factory.

The tractor we’re testing today has the 2088cc engine which was developed by Standard Vanguard for their cars.

The earlier tractors used the imported 1966cc Continental Z-120 engine which was discontinued in 1947 when the Standard engine started being used, although there was a period of time where stocks of the old engine were used, so it’s possible to find TE 20s with these engines as late as 1948.

Although with only 315 of these tractors made in their first year of production, the predominant TE 20 engine which you see in these older tractors today is the more well known Standard Vanguard engine.

In total, the tractor sold over half a million units in its lifespan, making it popular in a way no tractor had ever been before and to some extent, even today, because when you ask many people of today what they think of when they think of a tractor, it truly is the little grey Fergie.

Now we’ve had a brief chat about this iconic little tractor, let’s meet Kev the owner, who affectionately calls this one…Ken.

#classictractor #fergusontractor #TE20 #standardmotorcompany #oldtractor