Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Guide to Tractors (Our Ultimate Encyclopedias)

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Look through the five hundred photos in this book and be amazed at how such a simple vehicle has developed over the last hundred years. Early gasoline tractors were cumbersome and heavy, the makers assumed that they would replace the cumbersome and heavy steam tractors, they should have done some market research (probably unheard of at the turn of the last century) because farmers wanted small vehicles and it took until 1912 before they got what they wanted. The machines slowly evolved to suit agricultural needs, getting more and more powerful (and once again heavier) until today when the agri business uses huge diesel units with twelve tires (to spread the weight) strangely it was not until the 70s that the makers thought the driver might like a cab to protect him from the elements.

This paperback (at amazing value for the price) covers the history of the American tractor with excellent color pictures of the various makes. The photos are mostly three-quarter or side views of the complete unit, with many close-ups of a logo or engine, they all have technically detailed captions. I thought the quality of the photos was very impressive which was the main reason I bought the book. The older models are covered by contemporary photos rather than illustrations from period ads, these machines have all been carefully restored to 'like new' by collectors.

Between the pages showing historical development there are plenty of spreads called 'Classic Profile' where famous models are covered in more photographic and spec detail. My favorite is the Raymond Lowey designed 1947 Farmall H from International Harvester. Was it the world's first streamlined tractor? It must have got something right because IH shifted 390,317 units at $962 each. If you want some good historical visual reference to tractors get this well designed and printed paperback, at a bargain price too.

I was very impressed with this book. The pictures are great and so is the information. I actually bought two of these books, one for each of my grandfathers. When I gave it to my dad to look over, he didn't want to give it back. I'll have to remember it for him next year. I know my grandfathers will love it.

I like the contents of the book. The variety of tractors is excellent. The photos are beautiful. My book was published in 2006 and I am disappointed with the readibility of the font used for the text. It seems that larger font with less space between the lines would be easier for older eyes to read.

I read this good book, here in Brazil. I'm an agronomist and I like to read books.
Five great things of this book:
1-This book has hundreds of photos. Almost all with colour and with great quality. In fact, about 60% of this book are its photos. The paper has also excellent quality.
2-There's many informations about many dozens of tractors brands. More than thirty of these, I didn't knew nothing. Please, I'm an agronomist, not a dummy about tractors, but I learned about many tractors that I didn't knew nothing before to read this book.
3-This book is very easy to read and understand.
4-There's enough space for the Fordson tractor. This was the most important tractor of all times.
5-East European brands, such as Ursus and Zetor are well covered in this book. The Ursus Factory is a Polish producer of tractors located in Warsaw, Poland. Zetor is a tractor industry from the Czech Republic,

Some problems of this book:
1-This book has letters with small size.
2-This book is more than 95% about American and European tractors. In fact, American tractors have about 80% of this book. This book is very americanized.
3-This book has too litle space for the Soviet/Belarusian brand Belarus; just one page and and a half page. About the biggest Indian tractors brands, Mahindra, there's nothing. Brazil and Argentina have place in this book only when talking about international brands of tractors, such as Valmet and Deutz. There's nothing about tractors made in China, Mexico, South Africa and Indonesia.

It was very interesting to read about how all the different events shaped the development of what we think of as standards now. I mostly concentrated on the MF line, as I just bought a MF-65 and did not know much of the history of MF. I also liked the parts about AC, as my first tractor was a AC-WD.
You can not beat the price, and I am thinking of sending a copy to a friend.

This book is a very complete book including information about all tractors that have been on the market. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in tractors, restores tractors, or buys and resells tractors.

I picked up this book at Costco and gave it to my Dad for Father's Day last year. Since that time HE has been recommending it to other people to buy for men they know. Can't tell you how much that says. If you have someone who used to farm, or loves tractors this is an awesome gift. So glad to find it on Amazon and the price is what I paid at Costco too.