TRACTOR TALK
SMALL, TALL TRACTOR
1967 MASSEY FERGUSON 165 HI-HI
BY JIM ALLEN
This British-built tractor sits very tall in the saddle. A high clearance tractor coming from England is more than a little unusual because the market such tractors there in is just about nil. The most likely theory is that the Country conversion were done for an export buyer. Possibly the contract came from MF for a special order from a dealer.
The Country Commercial Cars has been out of business since 1990, so any records are probably long lost.
Consult the books on Massey Ferguson tractors and you will see no high clearance model of the MF165 listed. So what are you looking at here? Well, it’s the real deal but it’s not the factory real deal. It, and a number of others, was converted by County Commercial Cars in England and here’s as much of the story as we know.
THE MASSEY FERGUSON 165
For 1964, Massey-Ferguson updated their line of tractors ... pretty much worldwide. MF’s were popular the world over and well respected in Europe. Their big factories were located in Detroit, Michigan, USA, and Coventry, England, but MF also had factories in France, Australia, Argentina and Italy and they were pretty big stuff in the ‘60s. The American and British product lines were largely the same, tweaked as needed to suit the markets. A few of the models were new, especially at the bigger end of the line, and more would appear, but most of the smaller tractors were refreshed versions of the old line. Such was the 165, an evolution of the very popular MF65.