Earliest 'modern' tractor features

Today I was spending some seat time on a two banger Deere rotary hoeing and I got to thinking about when the last modern feature in functionality on a tractor was introduced. The tractor I was running is a 1960 model, made Jan 7th making it 56 years old and it has live PTO, live remote hydraulics, live three point hitch, draw bar, everything a brand new tractor has to offer for basic functions and I can't think of any new function that has been added to a tractor since then.

What was the first tractor to have all of these features all in one package and when? Oliver super series? Case with eagle hitch?

I'm thinking it happened in the early fifties or very late forties.

I think the answer to this will depend on what you consider a 3 point hitch. Many companies had their own thing, as Ford/Ferguson had the patent on the 3 point for some time. IH had their fast hitch, Case
the Eagle, AC the snap coupler, etc.

My bible on this stuff- Lester Larsen's The Farm Tractor 1950-1975 is buried in a pile of my wife's stuff in our "office."

Deere's first model matching your description would have been the 20 series introduced in fall of 56. Did Oliver's Super series have a true 3 point? Or did that come along with the 770, etc? I think IH
was still only offering the fast hitch on the 350-450... or did it have a 3 point option? Did Ford's 801 etc have power steering or live PTO? We've debated over who had what first, but not who had the
complete package.

I would add a few features to your list though, added since 1960- differential lock, MFWD, hydraulics that could sustain an orbit motor continuously, to name a few. A decent cab didn't alter drawbar pull,
but it sure made a difference in likabilty, too.

Would the Ferguson F-40/Massey Harris 50/Massey Ferguson 50, as well as the Ferguson TO-35/Massey Ferguson 35 Deluxe be one of the
first?

you could have a fleetline oliver with factory 3 pt. hitch, live pto, live hydraulics

Fleetline came out in 49? Was three point an option on the later ones? Something tells me the late fleetlines could have had 3pt but it is scarce as hens teeth.

Come to think of it MFD is way old as far as inventions goes and I was only thinking about US made tractors. I'll betcha there were European tractors with all these features plus MFD before it showed up in the US.

The first year IHC 300 did not have the top link mount for 3pt hitch, later years did.

A Ford 960 would have had 3pt and live pto and most came with the power steering option.

Would put both those manufacturers right at mid 1950s.

Paul

The greatest safety feature was building a tractor that could be mounted from the side like the 9N Ford. All others for some time were mounted from the rear. I do not like the N series Fords but I must respect this safety feature.

Yes,
The Hundred Series came out late 1954.
All of them would have had live hydraulics and 3 point with draft/position control. Any of them could have had the optional live PTO. They all had the blank cover for optional hyd remote valves. I think optional power steering came out about a year later.
Diesels were introduced in I think, 58.
Not much changed till 1965 when they got hyd flow control, differential lock and 12V.

Cockshutt 30 was the first tractor with LPTO also offered 3pt and live hydraulics,4 speed trans with a high/low.

(quoted from post at 22:15:55 05/15/16) The greatest safety feature was building a tractor that could be mounted from the side like the 9N Ford. All others for some time were mounted from the rear. I do not like the N series Fords but I must respect this safety feature.

Click to expand...

Explain that

I could be mistaken, but I think the jubilee Ford
could have all of these features, starting in 53.
Live PTO was a rare option.

The earliest modern tractor features are the features found on todays new tractor. Don't really matter who came up with what when, what matters is what's out there today. What I consider the first "modern" tractor I got to operate was a Farmall 560. Good hydraulics, IPTO, diesel, power steering and a high/low shift on the go. But by todays standards the hydraulics are nothing to brag about, the fast hitch died, no cab, not enough remotes, no shuttle shift or power shift transmission. No heat, no air and no stereo! No GPS or auto steer either.

The who had what is really moot. A lot of the innovative things of yesteryear came from now long gone companies like AC, Cockshutt and IH. Yea I know, the IH name is still out there but just the name.

Like all this ado about the quad track. Heck Cat played with a quad with steel tracks in the 60's and dropped it because the need disappeared. And a skidder company (can't remember the name) had a steel tracked quad skidder out before the CaseIH came out and long before the new JD. A lot of the things we have on tractors today and even most of the older ones came from other sources. The turbo was over 50 years old before Cat first put one on a tractor. The forerunner to the power shift was the automatic tranny in cars available in 40 or 41. Sure not the same but the concept came from there. Hydraulics were nothing new when they were first added to tractors. About the only things that I can think of that was tractor specific was the basic tractor itself, rear list system and the PTO. The steam engine was already widely used before the first tractor was build as was belt power. Same with the IC engine and diesel.

Rick