The County name is synonymous with equal wheeled, high horse power, four-wheel drive tractors.

Established in Fleet, Hampshire, England in 1929, the firm initially converted lorries, before moving to crawler tractors and ultimately equal wheel four-wheel drive tractors.

These tractors started life as Ford skid units which were built upon by County who honed in on the market niche for their specialist four–wheel drive machines, with a large amount of tractors exported overseas.

Four-wheel drive was County’s speciality, with very few manufacturers offering the drive system as a standard factory option until the late 70’s.

County’s niche was – which to this day still is –  equal wheel specialist tractors.

Many people associate the County name with their impressive 1184TW or 1884TW.

However, the concept and design of these tractors can be traced right back to 1960.

While County produced crawler tractors in the 1950s, the Fordson Super Major derived ‘Super Four’.

As Ford released new models tractor ranges, County capitalised by using the new skid units to update their own tractor range.

With Ford releasing the 6X range in 1964, Ford took the range topping 5000 model and giving it the County treatment, transformed it into the equal wheel 654.

When Ford updated the range to the 6Y Force models, County followed suit by taking the updated and uprated 5000 and redesigning it into the County 754 Super Four. 

To transform the tractor in an equal wheel, four-wheel drive machine, each front wheel received power from the rear half axle which had its own drive shaft that travelled along either side of the engine to the massive front wheel hubs on a new heavily engineered front axle.

This allowed for exceptional traction thanks to the driven front wheels as well as a full front axle differential lock.

Furthermore, the extra weight of the hubs, front axle and rims added significant weight to the front of the tractor which also aided traction. However, it did compromise the turning circle and manoeuvrability of the tractor.

The County 754 Super Four is powered by a Ford 256 engine, a 4.2 litre unit designed for the 6Y 5000, and produces 75hp.

The tractor employs an 8F/2R transmission, and could be specified with Select-O-Speed as an additional extra. A long options list included a Duncan cab, assistor rams to boost rear linkage capacity. 

Interestingly, a number of 754’s were also made as specialist ‘forward control’ machines, badged as 754FC. 

Contact Peter at psob1987@gmail.com or see Instagram @flashphotoscork