In the United Kingdom and Australia, after the Second World War, it was commonly used for tractors until diesel engines became commonplace, especially from the 1960s onward.
Although there was a campaign for the reintroduction of agricultural Road Duty (tax)-free petrol, which had been curtailed during the war, this was not forthcoming.
[citation needed] On the early Fordson model N, the tap which changed over from petrol to TVO was marked G for gasoline and K for kerosene, reflecting that these tractors had their design origin in the USA.
These aromatics have an octane rating, so adding some of that otherwise waste product material back in a controlled manner into paraffin gave TVO.
On the TVO version of the Ferguson TE20 tractor, the cylinder head was re-designed to reduce the compression ratio to 4.5:1.
To get the tractor to start from cold, a small second fuel tank was added that contained petrol.
The tractor was started on the expensive petrol, then – once the engine was warm – the fuel supply switched over to TVO or paraffin.
If the radiator blind was left shut, though, there was a risk of engine damage, especially in warm weather.