Lot number	140
Hammer value	£2,500
Description	Fordson Dexta
Registration	YUJ 83
Year	c.1962
Colour	Blue

The first Fordson Dexta tractors appeared in 1957 to compete head-on with the Massey Ferguson 35 which had been launched the year before to replace the much-loved ‘Little Grey Fergie’ TE20 in the small tractor market.

Sporting blue and orange paintwork which stood out clearly against the landscape, it was produced at Ford’s Dagenham factory and was powered by a 35hp 3-cylinder diesel engine developed jointly by Ford and Perkins. It is commonly assumed that this was simply the P3 engine recently launched by Perkins, but in fact the P3 fell short of Ford’s expectations and it was substantially modified for use in the Dexta being given the designation P3.144.

All the major castings were made at Dagenham then taken by a stream of lorries up the A1 to the Perkins factory in Peterborough for final assembly, the lorries dropping off their unfinished engines then heading back to Dagenham with a fresh load of completed units. Almost 220,000 Dexta engines were to make this 180-mile round trip between August 1957 and October 1964.

Following a restyle in 1960 which saw the headlights incorporated into the grille, in 1962 a more powerful 39hp Super Dexta was launched, still in the blue/orange livery, before the final 45hp New Performance version made its debut in June 1963, easily distinguished by new blue/grey livery and only made until September 1964 when Dexta, and indeed Fordson production came to an end, all subsequent models being given a Ford badge.

Little is known about the early history of this Dexta but the YUJ number plate would indicate that it was first registered in Shropshire in 1962. The previous owner bought the tractor in 1971 to power a generator that was used to keep the fuel pumps working at a petrol station that he owned near Shrewsbury – these being the dark days of the Seventies when frequent strikes by the coal miners meant that power cuts were a normal part of British life and electricity was often only available for three days a week.

The 3,700 hours indicated are believed to be genuine as the tractor did no other work during this period and was then laid up in a Dutch barn where it was to remain for many years until the vendor purchased it from the previous owner’s estate in 2012. He got the tractor running and used it to transport stone on a building project, reporting that it runs and drives well with all the hydraulics working as they should. The building work has now been successfully completed, hence the reason for sale. A useful transport box is also included.

Please note that there are no documents with this vehicle but an online check shows that the number YUJ 83 has not been allocated to another vehicle so there is every chance that the new owner will be able to get it reallocated to the tractor using the relevant DVLA forms.