The introduction of the farm tractor revolutionized the way in which agriculture was done. With the replacement of human effort, and animal inputs, production was increased exponentially, with more being done in less time. The first machines which could be considered “tractors” were massive steam driven machines developed in the 1870’s. These machines had tremendous power at its advantage, however versatility was definitely not an advantage.
The invention of the internal combustion engine gave a boost to farm tractor production. Companies like International Harvester, Case, Rumley, and Hart-Parr adopted their steam driven tractors to use the smaller internal combustion (IC)engines, however the steel tracks for wheels were still used. The diesel engine was later developed by the German Engineer Rudolph Diesel, from Germany’s Dresden’s University of Technology. This enabled a better tractor to be manufactured with the more reliable, less problematic diesel engine.
Popular tractors today include Agco, Allis Chalmers, Case-IH, David Brown, Deutz, Fiat, Ford, New Holland, Massey Ferguson, McCormick, and combines Gleaner, and New Idea.
Maintenance parts for all of these tractors are provided by the respective companies. Dealers for all of these tractors are found throughout North American and most parts of the world.
However, a least expensive method of maintenance parts are from replacement manufactures (aftermarket supplies), and good used or rebuilt parts from salvaged yards. Popular aftermarket suppliers are:
Vapormatic. Vapormatic is a British based manufacturer of replacement parts for most agriculture equipment. This company was started in 1949 when two engineers experimented trying to operate tractors with vaporizing tractor oil. Several major mergers and sales were made during the coming years. The major merger was the sale of the entire Vapormatic company to John Deere in 2001. The Bepco brand of replacement parts for ag equipment is another famous British tractor parts company providing parts for David Brown, Deutz-KHD, Fendt, Fiat, Ford, New Holland, Case-IH, John Deere, Steyr, Renault, Same-Laborghini-Hurliman, Perkins, Massey Ferguson, Landini, Zetor, Valmet, Merlo, Kubota, Manitou, JCB and McCormick.
The major development with Bepco is its merger with the other British company, Tract-Pieces. Today, the combined companies is known as Bepco-Tracpieces Group. TISCO, an American brand of tractor parts, begain its humble beginning after Ben Calmenson began working out of his car’s truck, selling parts for ag equipment in 1937. Soon after, he began manufacturing parts for the machines. Today, TISCO is owned by the Woods Equipment Company, and provides more than 37,000 parts for ag equipment
Male Clevite. Male Clevite is most known in the parts world as Clevite. This is a US based company that manufactures for both OEM companies, and sells parts as aftermarket to the non OEM companies.. The advantage of using Clevite is that the aftermarket parts are offered the same warranty as the OEM, since they are both the one and same parts Federal Mogul is known for its many sub-variations of names. Names like FP Diesel, Diesel Guard, Moog chassis parts, champion spark plugs, National and Payen gaskets, Sealed Power o rings and sealing parts, and Wager parts. These are all popular parts that are used for both heavy duty applications, ag equipment, and automotive sector.