Massey Ferguson 399

The Massey Ferguson 399 tractor was released globally in 1987. It was the most powerful in the range of the 300 series built at Massey Ferguson's Banner Lane, Coventry, U.K. factory.

Appearance

It was first introduced with a black cab that was similar to that of its predecessor range, the 600 series Massey Ferguson. Its brilliant red appearance stood out when the state of the art "Hi-line" silver cab was introduced in 1988.

Engine

The 399 was initially powered by a 97 horsepower Perkins A6.354 6 cylinder diesel engine as standard. The engine was uprated to a 104 hp (78 kW) Perkins 1006 series engine and the cab updated in 1991. The company never had such bumper sales with a series of tractor since it first started decades previously. The years 1994–96 were good for Massey Ferguson when the Republic of Ireland and the UK had record sales of this series. The main reasons for this was its reliability, excellent cab, strong features and powerful engine the latter sometimes receiving dealer fitted turbocharger kits to boost the 399's power to the 125/130 horsepower mark, giving the farmer a lightweight, yet powerful tractor for field work where a larger tractor might damage the crop.

Transmission

At the start of production the 399 was available with a 12 fwd 4 rev synchromesh gearbox until 1991 when a 12 fwd 12 rev shuttle gearbox was introduced. Four years later a 18 fwd 6 rev speedshift gearbox was introduced, which was similar to multi-power gearbox fitted in the earlier Massey Ferguson tractors, both the latter two gearboxes were fitted until the end of production and were available as 30 or 40 km/h speed versions.

Equipment

In the U.K. and Ireland the Speedshift tractors were offered with front fenders, flashing amber beacon and rear wash wipe as standard equipment in two wheel drive form or four wheel drive form, the latter being the bigger seller of the two. The tractor remained in production until 1997 when the 4200 series was launched and the 399 was replaced by the 4270.

References