65-75 Ford 2000 & 3000 Sheet Metal Changes ???

BearKiller

New User
I am identifying tractors in photos I have taken.
I recently captured a 1965-1975 Ford 2000 and 3000 sitting side-by-side.
I noticed the 3000 had the bold "set-in" grille and the 2000 had a cheapy-looking wrap-around grille.
The 2000 does have an impressive looking big round what I assume is breather on the left side of the hood that is lacking on the 3000.
These sheet metal differences got me to thinking that I had seen 2000 that looked like the 3000 and vice-versa.
Internet searching anymore is about useless, but I did manage to finally find photos of both variations of each model.
Technical detail pages I find offer no explanation of these differences, nor any clue as to which year the changes are made, lumping both into the 1965-1975 category.
Can anyone shed some light as to when these changes were made with each model, 2000 and 3000 ?
Are there any other year-model identifying changes that would show in a photo ?

While I am at it, am I right in thinking that a proper row-crop version of these tractors was not offered ?

Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.
 
I am guessing here without a picture. Possibly the 2000 you were seeing is actually a 2600 with the dry air filter element from '76 up which would explain the sheet metal.
 
During the '65-'75 production run, there
were changes made, including the grill,
on April 1 of '68. I'll try including
pictures of my son's '65 4000 (wrap-
around grill) and my '74 4000SU.
The circle on the left side of the hood
is the dry type air filter for gas
models. Diesels used an oil bath behind
the grill until some time in '76.
No, there were no rowcrop versions of the
2/3000, only the 4000 and bigger models.

cvphoto3630.jpg


cvphoto3631.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 04:18:15 05/04/20) During the '65-'75 production run, there
were changes made, including the grill,
on April 1 of '68. I'll try including
pictures of my son's '65 4000 (wrap-
around grill) and my '74 4000SU.

Thanks !
So, if I am reading correctly, the wrap-around grille (upper picture) is earlier than that of the lower picture; right ?

When I get my pictures ready, I will try and post a photo of both styles side-by-side.
 
They changed the sheet metal and some other things on 4/1/68. The wrap around grill is pre-4/1/68 and the inset grill is 4/1/68+. The pre-4/1/68 tractors also had the louvers on the sides of the hoods while the later ones had smooth hood sides.

Another thing that changed on 4/1/68 was the model numbers stamped into the flat spot near the starter and on the foil stickers under the hood. Pre-4/1/68 they started with 2 for the 2000 series and 3 for the 3000 series, and on the 4/1/68+ tractors they started with B for the 2000 series and C for the 3000 series.

The air filter on the left side of the hood was for gasoline engines and they used that throughout the 1965-1975 run of the thousand series. The diesels had the oil bath filter behind the grill for the entire run as well. There were a few exceptions to those two air filter styles with the industrial models.

Several other things changed over the production run, but not all of them on 4/1/68. One that I can think of off the top of my head is they changed the power steering pump in 1970.
 

There were several changes made during the 65/75 Ford thousand series tractor production run.
The most obvious is the grill and hood design changes made in mid 68.
65/mid 68 had hoods with vented louvers and wrap around grills.
Mid 68/75 models hood smooth side hoods and flat grills.
The breather in the left side of the hood was used on both styles of hoods but only on tractors with gas engines.
Many other small changes were made during production but are not as obvious to those not familiar with those changes.

Without trying to be confusing Ford announced the model change to began on 4/1/68, but this was a running production change made as inventories of older components were depleted.
A couple of examples: I owned a 4000 built near the end of April 68 that still had hood, grill, wheels and engine of the early model, I also had another 4000 built in July 68 that had the new model hood, grill and wheels but still had the early model engine, my present Nov 68 built 4000 has all new model components.
 
(quoted from post at 12:09:39 05/04/20)
There were several changes made during the 65/75 Ford thousand series tractor production run.
The most obvious is the grill and hood design changes made in mid 68.
65/mid 68 had hoods with vented louvers and wrap around grills.
Mid 68/75 models hood smooth side hoods and flat grills.
The breather in the left side of the hood was used on both styles of hoods but only on tractors with gas engines.
Many other small changes were made during production but are not as obvious to those not familiar with those changes.

Without trying to be confusing Ford announced the model change to began on 4/1/68, but this was a running production change made as inventories of older components were depleted.
A couple of examples: I owned a 4000 built near the end of April 68 that still had hood, grill, wheels and engine of the early model, I also had another 4000 built in July 68 that had the new model hood, grill and wheels but still had the early model engine, my present Nov 68 built 4000 has all new model components.

Yes, the first "new model" tractors with the design changes were made on 4/1/68, but they continued making "previous model" tractors along side the "new model" tractors up until July 19 1968 (note in my Service Manual says last production code of a "previous model" tractor was 8G19B). But all "previous model" tractors that I have seen, even those made after 4/1/68, still had the old style model number with a numeral for the first character rather than a letter.
 
And...
There were early high tin 3000s and later
low tin 3000s. Early round rear axle
2000s and late square rear axle 2000s.
Early canister oil filters and later spin
on oil filters. Early light bolsters and
later heavy bolsters. Early radius rods
that yoked to the axle center and late
ones that yoked to the axle knees.
One of the few things that remained
constant over the years was the tach and
hour meters were universally Lousy.
 
Yep... Luke's 4000 has eaten two tach cables, and run up maybe 10-15 hours on the meter. We estimate he's put 150 hours on it.
 

The April built tractor had a SOS trans which is was sold for parts long ago, don't remember the model code, just that it had a mid to late April build date.
I still have the trans case from the July built model with smooth hood and early 192 gas engine, I'll look at the model number sometime when I can get access to the case, buried under other spare parts.
 

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