In Reply to: Re: Brain Teaser posted by John in Mich on August 08, 2012 at 17:06:37:
It is pretty clearly an airport. The Ford airport was in operation until October 21, 1947, so it could be there. They made the airport into the Dearborn Proving Grounds, so they could have been using it for testing at that point.
I agree, it looks like an early prototype for the 8N. It looks like they were experimenting with changing the battery mounting, softer riding seat, and the axle hubs, but the rest of the tractor appears to be a 2N.
Check out the piece that the seat spring rides on. It is either a casting or a stamping and sits above the axle housing. Notice the rounded projection coming up from the axle housing through the front of the seat spring support. The front tie rod ends are the old "drag link" style and it appears that there is a ball formed intregal with the steering arm. The steering arm sits very low near the radius rod fork. The steering sector arm doesn't look like a 2N, so they may have been experimenting with the new type steering gear. It would be interesting to see another angle so we could look at the steering, dash, and the front of the tube that supports the seat pan. It looks like it would interfere with a normal gear shift lever.
The base of the oil filler tube is quite different, like there is a piece of sheet metal riveted to it. Notice the shadow indicating that the tube doesn't just come straight down into the crankcase.
These "test mules" are interesting to try to figure out!
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