All Grip Traction is a recently formed company designed at converting small two wheel drive vintage tractors into four wheel drive. This small company converts a range of classic tractors including the Massey Ferguson 165 into 4wd. This is the only company that is still in existence today which carry out this conversion. So far the company has successfully converted a Fordson Dexta, Super Dexta, Ford 3000, Ford Ferguson, Ferguson T20, Massey Ferguson 35 and 65.
As can be seen from the pictures above, the construction and design of the 4wd transfer case and the 4wd front axle is poor in my opinion. The main problem I have with this solution to the problem is the fact that the transfer case uses a chain to transfer drive from the main output shaft from the gearbox to the transfer shaft which sends power to the front wheels. This method of using a chain would not be suited for heavy work like a tractor would do.
The second problem I have with this conversion is that the front axle that is used in the conversion is of poor design. The axle has been modified off the back of an old Land Rover jeep, the axle is first chopped to size (length ways) and two differential swivel ball joints are added at each end to all for steering the tractor.
The problem here is that the swivel ball joints tended to cause problems when locking the steering causing, in some cases, the ball joints to pop out of its sockets. Also the poor design of mounting the axle to the tractor seems to me like a “botch job”, the existing 2 wheel drive axle is welded to the 4 wheel drive axle, and the mounting brackets are the used on the 2 wheel drive modified axle to connect the assembly to the tractor.
Firstly the aesthetics of the front completely distracts the eye from the profound iconic look of the 100 series tractor as well as this the mounting brackets used on the 2 wheel drive axle was not designed to carry the extra loads and stresses from the 4 wheel drive axle. This is certainly not good when a good reliable tractor is required to do a job and the conversion doesn’t hold up.
As can be seen from the above photos this second design is no better than the first, and I would even go to say that it is worse. The big issue here is the transfer case is no longer located in between the gearbox and the centre housing but instead it takes its drive from the PTO shaft. This essentially means that 4wd can only work if the PTO is set for ground drive, so while using the tractor in 4wd you cannot use the back PTO for cutting grass, topping, spreading slurry or for anything that requires the PTO to spin at engine speed. This is the major flaw of this design.
All in all I can say that i will not be using the design for the conversion of my tractor as the cons far out weigh the pros.
If more information is required about the services that this company provides a link is provided here, All Grip Traction.