In Ireland, businessman Harry Ferguson had been developing and selling various improved hitches, implements, and tractors since the 1910s. But Henry Ford waited to reenter the market, planning to have the right new tractor at the right time to achieve a market-changing success. During the 1930s, experiments were made at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan and Richmond Plantation, Georgia facilities, creating prototypes of row-crop tricycle Fordsons, V8-powered tractors, one-wheel-drive tractors, and other ideas. Henry Ford continued tractor R&D in the U.S. Some British Fordsons were imported to the U.S. Ford Ltd of Britain continued to thrive with the Fordson from 1928 onward. The Fordson was a tremendous success in North America and Europe from 1917 to 1928. The first genuine Ford tractor was called the Fordson because a misleading Ford brand not related to Henry Ford was squatting on the Ford name at the time ( Ford Tractor Company). Over 530,000 units of 8N were sold worldwide the Fordson Model F had sold over 650,000 units worldwide, but in North American sales the 8N surpassed it in popular acclaim and units sold.

By some measures the 8N became the most popular farm tractor of all time in North America. The 8N, which debuted in July 1947, was a largely new machine featuring more power and an improved transmission. The 2N, introduced in 1942, was the 9N with some improved details. The 9N was the first American-made production-model tractor to incorporate Harry Ferguson's three-point hitch system, a design still used on most modern tractors today. The Ford N-series tractors were a line of farm tractors produced by Ford between 19, spanning the 9N, 2N, and 8N models.

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