The history of tractor development is littered with tales of inter company rivalry, devious plots and various happy coincidences, that rarely leave the shadows of rumour to bask in the light of public scrutiny.

However, there is, occasionally, a story which comes to to surface where the facts are established, but are open to interpretation, and such is the case with the fate of Funk Manufacturing, which started off in life as an aircraft manufacturing company.

While such enterprises tend to be multi-million dollar high tech concerns nowadays, back in the the 1930s, brothers Howard and Joe Funk, built 60 small aircraft in the back of their parents’ grocery store.

Funk Airplane — This Funk B75L was one of one of 380 aircraft the company built, the majority being pre-war. Source: David Miller

Aircraft production ceased in the 1940s, as what was now the Funk Aircraft Company turned its hand to producing parts for the war effort.

Come the end of hostilities, the company started aircraft production once again, but poor sales eventually forced it to drop the enterprise altogether.

First Ford encounter

It was at this point, that the company first engaged directly with agriculture, developing and selling a kit of parts by which a Ford 8N could be upgraded to 95hp through the installation of a Ford six cylinder industrial diesel.

It is believed that 5,000 of these kits were produced, suggesting that the transmission of the 8N was sturdy enough to cope with the extra power and torque.

Funk Advert — An advertisement for the six cylinder conversion boasting of a doubling of the power available

They also produced a conversion for the Ford flathead V8 of the time, yet these were not so popular with only around 200 being sold.

The kit was sold to Ford dealers who would convert the tractors before sale, Ford itself was not overwhelmed with joy at the idea, instructing dealers to tear up the warranty and taking Funk to court.

It was at this point that 8N transmissions started to fail which is perfectly understandable, or so it might be thought, but the problem was traced back to a manufacturing fault rather than the gearboxes being over stressed.

Funk do a deal

Therefore it was that Ford and Funk came to an agreement over the kits in which Ford would take back the original four cylinder motor and sell it on as an industrial engine with full warranty – a deal that lasted until manufacture of the 8N ceased in 1952.

It is at this point that the company history becomes a little murky, one source claims it shut up shop altogether, while another notes that it was bought out by Gardner Denver in 1969, an engineering conglomerate that was eventually subsumed into Ingersoll Rand.

TW tractor — By the late 1980s the TW range was getting a little tired and Ford was planning its replacement

That it kept going and built upon its engineering prowess with the production of transmissions for plant and construction is obvious for in the late 1980s, the company came to the attention of an Englishman by the name of David Pearson.

At the time, he was head of sales for Ford in the UK and the company was looking to upgrade and revamp the TW series which was then getting long in the tooth.

John Deere had introduced its 50 series in 1987 which also featured six cylinders in each model and a 16/8 Power Synchron gearbox, Ford needed to react with new models of its own.

John Deere 50 series — The six cylinder John Deere 3350 offered 100hp but in 1989 Deere launched the 55 series which directly competed with the TWs

An essential element in the plan, according to Pearson’s memoirs, was a new powershift gearbox and the factory had indeed been working on a new transmission in conjunction with ZF.

ZF woes

The results were disappointing and after a visit to a Farm in Georgia at which the solutions that ZF had come up were rejected, the hunt was on to find an alternative that would actually suit European farmers.

It was then that news got to Ford of a gearbox that an obscure American company called Funk were developing for earthmoving equipment.

Six months later, the team were assembled once again and set off to Texas, where the new box was put through its paces and besides there being a slight glitch between a couple of gears it was hailed as a resounding success.

Funk were able cure the issue and so provided a clutchless powershift of 18 forward and nine reverse gears with the transmission having a top speed of 30kph, 5kph more than the American version which was limited by legislation to a lower speed.

Same engine, new box

Thus it was that the new transmission was mated to the trusty Ford industrial six cylinder in the TW’s successor range, the 8030 series introduced in late 1989 at the Smithfield show, ready for the 1990 season.

Yet, the story doesn’t end there, for as delighted as Ford may have been with the new gearbox at first, John Deere had already moved to undermine any joy Basildon might have had with its new transmission.

Ford tractors — Ford decided upon a new image for its larger tractors with the new box so the TW range was replaced with the 30 series

Again, the timing and details are not immediately clear but at some time in 1989, John Deere purchased Funk from Gardner Denver, which by then had merged with Cooper Industries.

Thus it was that Ford found itself in the unhappy circumstance of buying its much vaunted new gearbox from its strongest rival.

Coincidence or forethought?

Whether Deere knew that Funk were developing a John Deere beating transmission and stepped in to spoil the fun, or whether it was a happy coincidence remains unknown, yet Funk’s abilities and experience was now directed to creating new transmissions for John Deere.

Despite this, Ford persevered with the Funk unit and derivatives of the original box were used in the 70 series which replaced the 50 series which by now had exhausted the potential of the redoubtable six cylinder industrial engine which had been in use since the sixties.

The new engine was the Genesis 7.5 litre unit which had been developed to meet the incoming emission standards set by both Europe and America and it owed much of its pedigree to Ford’s American truck engines.

It was at this point in time that the Ford agricultural division was sold to Fiatagri and so the relationship with Funk drew to a close after forty years of a partnership of mixed fortune.

First Ford encounter

Funk do a deal

ZF woes

Same engine, new box

Coincidence or forethought?

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