scruff

Cheers fellas I will do just that 

Hi gang. I’ve done 3000 miles in this now and I love it,  we will see how the MOT goes in the summer but I’d like to keep it I reckon . There’s been a few things of note. It can get a bit fumey in traffic so maybe the exhaust is blowing somewhere, and occasionally a message saying “engine power reduced” or similar but no EML on. I went and got an OBD reader from euro car parts and it came up as glow plugs, that looks a shite job to do but we shall see. Anyone here done it?

I got the graunch of doom last week so yesterday chucked some new pads in it. Been to the Nene Valley Railway today and the bit of sunshine was enough to try the air con properly, works a treat.

It would be great to see any older pics of it. The thing is even in 2002, it wasn’t that unusual to stumble across some old 50s chodbox parked on the street, nor find people sleeping in their cars, and this one was off the beaten track a bit. Taking the above article at face value if it wasn’t for the new nimby in the area it might have stayed put a while longer. I well remember people living in their cars on the seafront, a mix of homeless and workers away from home saving on digs.
 

There’s a house round the corner from my parents that has featured on here before. ‘69 Transit rotting into the road, two fifties yanks and a ur Quattro on the drive in comparable “naysmith” condition full of cats and rubbish. Part of me hopes they will be there for years to come, but I don’t have to look or smell them every day.

Fascinating story. I do wonder if one of Miss Smith’s friendly neighbours took it upon themselves to register it at some point and has just plodded on with it in her memory? 

On 13/02/2024 at 14:21, 5speedracer said:

Likes a Volvo by the look of it, are they 100% Volvo?

I remember seeing some DAFs of theirs but that was some years ago. They’ve run Volvo since the days of F7s, F10s etc at least. 

Fair play. They are definitely getting rarer! 

Just playing catchup, what a superb result (as usual). Wonderful Waggon hope to see it somewhere, Beamish maybe? Still a fair hop, maybe I ought to do a Scottish rally!

22 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

I've never done a survey, but anecdotally I think it must be ERF

I am sure that I see far more old ERF doing work than any other type of truck. Actually, I can't remember the last time I saw a 30+ year old working that was not an ERF

 

You do also see 1980s Leyland and Mercedes 7500kg models in summer being used privately as horse transporters. Occasionally also Bedford

 

 

There's always ERFs coming out of the woodwork. 

The cult following of 143 Scanias must have given them an reasonable survival rate, its certainly harder to find a nice F12 of the same age that isn't an import. 

4 hours ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

Powered by the ubiquitous 1.6HDi, for extra  low cost/high liability points !

To be fair, if it's survived so far it's probably been looked after. Belts are fiddly but perfectly DIYable. Give it an oil change while you're at it, 6-9k mile intervals and 5W30 low saps oil are essential for those.

Excellent Intel SF. I know absolutely nothing about them. 5w30 is like water isnt it?!!

Holy thread resurrection batman! 

Apologies, once again. Life seems to have left little time for ye olde foruming but here's an update. 

The long drawn out engine swap on the 2a is finally done, a couple of things happened to spur me into action and i ended up taking it to work and doing it under the crane in the factory one Saturday morning, as otherwise I'd have just faffed around and found excuses. 

Post mortom on the dead petrol engine was amusing 

It did still run, I drove it out the garden and onto the trailer 😁 

The engine I fitted was a 5 bearing 2.25 diesel that came from a friend in France, I know it's a good one and after swapping the clutch for a diesel one and new engine mounts and downpipe, it looks at home in there 

I then took it back home, on towing duties was one of the reasons I was spurted into doing something with it, I had acquired another Land Rover 

I'd known this wagon for nearly twenty years and along with friends and my wife, have had some proper good adventures and fun with it, so when my good mate Steve said he was looking to move it on we had to have it. It hadn't moved since before the pandemic but with a fresh battery and a dust off away it went and drove 50 miles home no sweat. That was last October and I've been using it every day since, only problem has been the starter motor packing up. 

Front hitch is handy !

I've always run older stuff daily. A35 was the oldest and was fine, the salt did get it though. 😔 Though to be honest if I'd had the skills and facilities I'd have mended it and carried on.

Currently use my 1979 Series III Land Rover daily, in some ways still the perfect rural family transport - it's got the child seats and a dog cage in it permanently, it doesn't matter if it gets filthy inside, can chuck all my oily and sooty steam engine shite in it etc etc. It is still a Landy tho with all the quirks, I keep thinking about a baby Austin again or something like a Somerset or A50/A55

It's interesting you say that as I did think the tractor was much more substantial than a normal swather, it had a proper steering axle etc rather than trolley wheels. Still a weird thing to drive . It was a proper Fortschitt header with it.

I didn't take any other pics than this, it was a H reg I think and I picked it up from a farm near Pocklington. It's just outside Edinburgh now and the guy has about 25 acres of OSR to do with it and some for his neighbours. 

On 7/14/2023 at 12:37 PM, martc said:

Any idea what this is? It's in Leipzig, there's a Fortschritt tractor and IFA to the right and a Russian lorry in the background, so I guess it's from Eastern Europe. Below the grille there's a name starting with an I and ending with P but I can't make out the middle possibly 3 letters - could contain R A M N or W.

I see your Fortschitt tractor and raise you this beauty I moved last week. 303 oilseed swather. 

Very sorry to read this 

Money. That's all people seem to care about when old motors are mentioned. 

I got James Brown's (journo not king of soul) new book "animal house" for Christmas. Some good KLF encounters and photos of Ford Timelord in Sweden.

Proper lorry.

I got a 17 plate FH 540 at the end of September, absolutely love it. 

Ellard make industrial/agricultural doors and have done since the 50s, it might be off some sort of weather protection for a barn or similar.

Done a few jobs on my latest purchase this morning. A Series III was my first car so it's great to have one again. Even smells the same (good and bad). Just off to the post office in a min to sort the change in tax status out and should be able to run around in it soon. 

I have a few poo pants stories, here's a couple 

Had a hired mini digger on a job on the Isle of Dogs years ago. One Monday morning it wouldn't start, ignition light on but no go. No problem thinks I, I'll jump it off the van (Transit). Bit of a fiddle to get the leads on with a few sparks and then try the digger. Nothing at all.... No lights on the digger... hang on what's that smell? The friggin throttle cable was melting all the plastic off and was glowing red - and my mate shouts "there's a light on in the van" . Sure enough the battery light was glowing merrily away. Shit shit shit... Obviously a bad earth on the excavator but the van had me puzzled. Got the cables off, took a moment to weigh things up. Decided to ring the hire firm with a non start and let them sort it. Bricking it about the van I rang the boss with that sinking feeling in my stomach... "Oh it's been a shit starter the last few weeks, probably packed in totally" 👀

Barrelling along the A24 flat out in my first car, a diesel Series 3 Landy, ears bleeding and overdrive screaming when there's a sudden lurch and I see the passenger side front wheel merrily spin itself away up the hard shoulder. It was dusk so the resultant spark-show as the brake drum ground itself along the tarmac was quite spectacular. It had pulled itself hard to the left which fortunately was clear, I ground to a halt on the three remaining brakes and composed myself. Not easy jacking up a three wheeled Land Rover in the dark. Often wonder if someone ever found the lovingly painted steel rim clad with a nearly new BF Goodrich tyre 🤦‍♂️ 

Following a mate one beautiful sunny morning. Me in my 205 he in a rough old Range Rover. He had been having propshaft problems and so had removed the rear one. Unfortunately he didn't realize the prop held the handbrake drum in place. Into a NSL and he put his foot down, five seconds later the drum catapulted off the road like a cast iron frisbee aimed straight at my Peugeot. By some miracle it missed the car but I just caught sight of it in the mirror, hitting the kerb and shattering into pieces.

Mick Moody will import you a new Ford if you want one, there was a geezer running one on international event/music work. Ideal as I think they are only built 4x2 and LHD. Ford themselves have at least one on the road, you see it with a race/exhibition trailer behind it. I'm not going to pretend i know the in and outs of the cut throat European heavies market but it looks a good contender to me, I would have one. They look well smart I reckon and the cabs look as nice inside as anything else these days. The Brit fella who had the Moody one raved about it in one of the mag's a few years back.

https://www.fordtrucks.com.tr/en/

Setting up our stand at the Royal Highland Show. 

Surprising yad spot. With bonus swallow 

Not really a truck, but lots in common. Moved this JCB Fastrac for a bloke this week. I do a lot with Fastracs but hadn't driven one of these particular models since I was a student. This, coupled with the fella buying it to restore, meant I was surprised to find it's 23 years old! 

This is the smaller of the "big" Fastracs with a 155hp Perkins in it. Nice tractor, it ran well and built up air no problem, all the gears worked etc. 

Not quite as cool as the original Fastrac with the Austin Rover steering wheel and wind up windows, but still a pleasant place to be. Air con was ice cold.

On 5/13/2022 at 10:27 PM, quicksilver said:

That'll be this one. They've also got another Actros, a Volvo and Scania, always immaculately turned out.

Quite rare to see these old-style Actroses now as they're all over 10 years old but there's still a few nice ones about.

Tipped next to their older Volvo today, 09 plate and spotless. Unlike mine at the moment 😃