The New Holland 7840 is a Ford New Holland tractor: one of the machines sold in the short period when the Ford tractor range was being folded into the New Holland business. The film below shows a working example. The sources used for this page describe the company and its ownership, not the model.
New Holland 7840 at a glance
| Maker | Ford New Holland |
|---|---|
| Period | the early 1990s, after the 1991 Fiat purchase |
| Brand colour then | Ford blue or Fiat terracotta red, sold side by side |
| Ford tractor heritage | Fordson Model F, 1917; three-point hitch on the N series, 1939 |
| Ford buys Sperry New Holland | 1986 |
| Fiat buys 80 per cent | 1991 |
| Single New Holland brand | launched in Orlando, 1996 |
| All tractors painted blue | 2000 |
| Technical data | not given in the sources used here |
| Example filmed | a working 7840 on a farm |
The sources describe the company and its ownership, not the 7840; the model’s technical data is left out because it is not in them.
History of the New Holland 7840
Two tractor traditions in one company
Ford and Fiat were both old hands at farm tractors. Ford put the Fordson Model F into production in 1917 as the first mass-produced petrol tractor and introduced the three-point hitch on its N series in 1939; by the 1980s its tractor division had brought in power hydraulics, pneumatic tyres and diesel engines. Fiat had built tractors since the Fiat 702 of 1918 and had passed a million of them by the end of the 1970s. When Ford bought Sperry New Holland in 1986 the result was Ford New Holland, and when Fiat took 80 per cent of that company in 1991 the two tractor ranges had to be brought together.
The years of two colours
That merger was deliberately gradual. For several years the combined range was sold in Fiat terracotta red and in Ford blue at the same time, so that dealers and farmers of each tradition could keep buying the machines they knew, badged with the names they trusted. The 7840 belongs to that period: a Ford New Holland tractor of the years before the single brand arrived. In 1996 the New Holland name was launched worldwide at a convention in Orlando, Florida, and in 2000 every tractor was painted blue.
The machine itself
The 7840 is a general-purpose farm tractor of the class that did the bulk of the work on mixed farms: cultivation, haulage and loader work. The sources used here do not give its engine, transmission or years of production, and this page does not invent them. What the sources do record is the unusual position of such tractors in the market: the same basic machine could leave the factory in two colours, under two names, for two sets of loyal customers.
Design and features
- Ford New Holland badge: built in the years when Ford and Fiat tractor ranges were being merged.
- Two-colour period: the same family was sold in Ford blue and Fiat red before 2000.
- Ford engineering: descended from the company that put the three-point hitch on the N series in 1939.
- General-purpose tractor: the size of machine that did most work on mixed farms.
New Holland 7840 versions
- New Holland 7840: the tractor described here.
- Fiat-red equivalents: the same class of tractor sold under the Fiat names in those years.
- Later New Holland tractors: the blue machines sold after 2000.
The bigger tractor of the same family is on the New Holland 8560 page, and the Ford-era 10 series on the New Holland Series 10 page. More machines are in the New Holland section.
Video: New holland 7840 TRACTOR-Mad
Video by TractorMad on YouTube.
Sources
- New Holland Agriculture, English Wikipedia: Ford and Fiat tractor history, 1986 and 1991 purchases
- New Holland, Dutch Wikipedia: two colours before 2000, colour change
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