Select-O-Speed experience (loong)

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. If you're a fan of the SOS tractors you might want to stop reading now to avoid getting your blood pressure up over my rant. You've been warned. Eight years ago, after mowing for 15 years or so with an 8N, I decided I wanted a Select-O-Speed mowing tractor. I had parted out a few SOS tractors, but never really owned or used one and didn't know a lot about them except they had their core group of supporters. I figured the independent pto and ability to shift up and down would be great. So, I built up a 671/2000 tractor using the '63 2000 DDC transmission to avoid the coasting gears in the earlier model. Build thread here - http://www.oldfordtractors.com/soslm.htm - details the whole thing. It was my first rebuild of an SOS transmission which is a learning experience in itself. Apparently it went ok, because the transmission seemed to work perfectly (or as good as they ever did).

By the end of the first full mowing season I began seeing the downside. I learned quickly the inching pedal was a joke. The thing is off or on, very little in between. I did find that I could get the engine to idle well at 350 rpm, and at 350 rpm the inching pedal did perform much closer to how I thought it should. I could actually back into the shop halfway smoothly. I could live with that, as long as I remembered to idle way down before doing anything. Shifting up or down a gear on the fly ain't all it's cracked up to be, either. Dropping from 5th to 4th would result in almost eating the steering wheel unless you were braced for it. And hang on tight if you jump up to 8th or 9th because it's going to snap your neck backwards and try to jump right out from under your butt. The reason for the SOS nickname "jerk-o-matic" becomes obvious right away. Yes, I know some people use the inching pedal like a clutch when shifting, but the clutch packs weren't designed to be slipped like that and it shortens their life considerably. I couldn't bring myself to do that.

Routine maintenance was a treat. Remove the shifter assembly and cable, remove the pto slider and cable and pull the top cover just to change the overly expensive filter. Then get everything all put back and readjusted. Move the traction disconnect to adjust the bands. No wonder so many owners never do any maintenance.

The "Park" lockup was another annoyance. The tractor isn't moving anywhere unless it's running or the traction disconnect is moved. I'm always moving something around in the shop and just grab the rear tire and roll the tractor a foot one way or the other when I needed room. That ain't happening with the SOS. You gotta start it up to move it a foot.
When it's sunny and 95 degrees and you're mowing for a couple of hours, you learn just how much heat the SOS gives off. Over the next few years it gave me no problems, but constant wondering when the original splines would finally strip off the input shaft or torque limiter disk. Because I know it's not IF, but WHEN that's going to happen. I'm always mowing uphill or downhill, reversing the force on them. And the cables. I get a steady stream of emails all summer from people needing a shifter cable or pto cable for theirs. So, I have to keep a spare shifter assembly and pto cable assembly on the shelf for myself just in case. All along I figured this thing was going to grow on me and I'd learn to love it and soon I'd be waving the SOS flag with the other die hards. But it never happened.

Last year was the 8th (or 9th?) mowing season with the SOS and I decided to throw in the towel. I'm getting too old to be splitting the tractor and fixing the transmission when it finally does break. Although I have to admit it has never given me a minutes trouble so far. Still works fine, but I might as well bail out now while I still can. I collected parts until I had everything I needed and rebuilt it all this winter. A good old, reliable, cheap and easy to fix, maintenance free 4 speed like I alway had with the 8N predecessor.



Last weekend I pulled it all apart and swapped out the SOS. Three days later it's back together and ready for this mowing season with the 4 speed transmission. Just need to get the SOS decals off.




Ahh, it's like being back in the saddle again. Comfortable. Smooth. Simple. No more whiplash. Sure, I'll miss the live pto a little bit. But that's the only thing. And, I can live with that, no problem.



The Selecto stuff goes back to the parts inventory. No need to hoard spare cables anymore. I'm sure there are numerous applications where the SOS tractor is far better suited than a 4 or 5 speed. If I wanted to run a tiller, that first gear would be great. SOS fans can probably name dozens of situations where it's better. But I don't do any of those other things with this tractor. All this one does is finish mow. And I don't expect I'll ever find a time when I'd want another SOS. If you like yours, I'm happy for you. May it live forever. It just wasn't the thing for me.
.

I'm sure Larry will be pretty upset, but for me, I don't care, each to their own I guess. Myself, I would have stuck with the SOS. It's a good trans when everything is dialed in right, including the 4-5 and 8-9 shift. On most SOS trannies, it's not nearly as bad as yours apparently was.

Again, congrats on your piece of mind. Your left knee might not like the 4 speed so much as you get older though.

Good post John.
I don't have any experience with them.
Drove my buddy's 871 around a few times before and wondered why folks think they're special
Helped put an input shaft and clutch in a 971 a few years ago which wasn't hard.
I just bought my first SOS recently. All I've done with it is drive it around a few times.
As far as I can tell it shifts good, runs good, sounds good.
But ya know, I just don't like the darned thing - for all the reasons you mention.
I will put it on the bush hog this summer and get a better feel for it. Maybe do my spring plowing with it.
I'm thinking, like you thought, that maybe it'll grow on me.
But in the mean time...
I've got this good 8 speed in my back pocket see.
And, while I'm not entirely committed to changing it out - mostly because it ruins an otherwise early, very original tractor - I've started collecting the parts I'll need to do it.
Just in case.

No worries here John, I'm glad you got the split done and back together with little or no trouble.

I love my SOS, I am aware that sooner or later I'm going to have to do some repairs though, but for me so far its been a nice tractor for what we use it for, and running a tiller is one of those things.

Still a good lookin mowing tractor, glad everything worked out in the end for you.

Eight or nine years is quite a while to get used to it!
Is there a reason you didn't want a 5 speed with live PTO?

"Is there a reason you didn't want a 5 speed with live PTO?"

The 5 speed is harder to work on, the 3-R couplers wear badly and are getting very hard to find, the clutches are expensive, the up/down shifter can be a pain unless you have a 4-5 lockout installed, and the high position of the clutch pedal is uncomfortable. But the main reason is the 4 speed setup came along first and I don't have a 5 speed on hand.

Are you planning to sell the S-O-S and related parts?

Dean

Steve, Have been lurking in the shadows for years at YT and have appreciated your site also. I read with interest your comments about your SOS mowing tractor. I have used SOS,4spds,and 5spds tractors and like features of all 3 for certain jobs. Will also agree that the 4 spd is much simpler and easier to find parts for. I have owned 5 SOS tractors. My first SOS was early 971G with the free wheeling feature. For us, 5th &6th were the right gears to use for baling hay 4th was to slow except for real heavy hay. We found the free wheeling very undesirable on our hills too! The inching pedal was also very jerky for hitching wagons and such. To help reduce that issue I placed a 2x6 on the left foot board. By doing that it was easier to feather the {clutch} with your foot! That really helped the hitching issue plus like you said idle down the engine also. Never had any trouble with it only adjusted the bands and kept it 11yrs. This one was always real jerky starting out. The best one was 1962 last of the red ones, 801 D w/ SOS that had a 63 or 64 blue box. Put 4500 hrs on it, was far better than the first one, no more coasting gears either. They put a longer inching pedal on the later ones and I put the 2x6 update on this one too. It was much smoother starting out. We also found that there were some gears you just had to feather to shift smoothly. 4 to 5 and 8 to 9 are to far apart, so up or down we used the {clutch}. We used the inching pedal like you would use a normal clutch, starting and stopping even though its not recommended and never lost a clutch pack on 4500 hrs. This tractor had a Ford loader on its whole life and we found the SOS really nice for that, no gears to grind back and forth again using the inching pedal like a normal clutch. Kept this one 25 plus years, replaced the disc on the flywheel,a part on the shifter handle, and adjusted bands, oil. What I really do not like was the PTO.You could not be shut it off like the 4 & 5spds.With a bush hog they tend to rotate until it warms up.No PTO brake!This was not a problem on a baler though. Your comments about Park, I could relate to also. They would move a little when cold too so the only way to stop it was lock the foot brakes for awhile. Guess I was really lucky never had any trouble with either cables. You could not wear shorts, and run all day either cause the transmission gets really hot. I can relate to having the 4 spd, much smoother starting if you do not need live PTO. I liked my SOS tractors but around here no one will work on them so your on your own to keep them operating in addition to part issues. Because of that I have sold all my SOS tractors. The 1962 801 D was great handy tractor for us and I kept that one the longest till just 3 yrs ago! When it went down the road my kids were very upset with me. My reply got a little long!!!

J.E.

Hey John-
You have given us a lot of useful information on the SOS Ford tractors. I copied it into a file and saved it with my other important Ford Tractor documents. Now, I have never owned a SOS nor ever worked on one, but, after having watched the experts work on them and picking up useful information, I'm sure I could handle the task. Th elate, great Carl Davis use to do the SOS demos at the Ford/Fordson shows and really knew his stuff. The F/FCA still puts on SOS demos every year at their annual shows and you can learn a lot from the gang. Remember, 9N tractor chief engineer Harold Brock warned them (FORD) that the SOS was not ready for production and they ignored his warning and put it out anyway. We all know what happened then. Just curious, how was your gas mileage with the SOS compared to the 8N? It just seems the larger 971 would be more fuel gulping than an N.
[i:654c4848f0][b:654c4848f0]<font size="4">Tim Daley(MI)</font>[/b:654c4848f0][/i:654c4848f0]<table width="100" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"><tr><td height="25" colspan="2" bgcolor="#CC0000"></td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td></tr></table>

"Are you planning to sell the S-O-S and related parts? "

Yes, eventually the SOS parts will be for sale.

"how was your gas mileage with the SOS compared to the 8N?"

The 134 uses a little more gas for the same amount of work, but not a lot.

"I liked my SOS tractors but around here no one will work on them so your on your own to keep them operating in addition to part issues. Because of that I have sold all my SOS tractors."

I've received lots of email the last few years from guys who say the same thing. They're looking for someone to work on them and can't find anyone locally. Shipping the tractor or even just the transmission across the country to get it worked on is too expensive. Tractor values in my area reflects the SOS fears. A tractor with the SOS transmission won't sell for half of what the same tractor with a 4 or 5 speed would bring - if you can sell it at all. Many seem to get scrapped because of that.

As Bern so aptly put it - To each his own.

Even though my SOS has been limping for years I find that it has its advantages when mowing and its disadvantages for anything requiring precision maneuvering. Given its known issues I am careful to not get it into situations that I know it is balky handling. Call it a love/aggravated relationship and one that I know will eventually (sadly) end in a pile of scrap due to unobtainium parts issues. Like the little boy with the curl on his forehead, when it is working good it is very convenient and when it is temperamental it is as aggravating as my hard-headed wife.

That said mine is going to get a workout this weekend skidding treetops out and powering the PTO log splitter. As long as she is running she will be making my life easier.