Tractor Shite - The Grey Menace

[DodgeRover]

Will have a look what the spare rad is like when I'm up where it is over Christmas

 

Looks a nice thing, like you say loads of different shades of Fergie grey, one of them is a really really light grey which you don't see at all on the restored ones.

[scruff]

Trantor win!

 

Here's some more tractor snot:

 

Track Marshall at the Caenby Corner cafe

 

One for twosmoke!! Maybe a bit modern for this thread (mind you 1992 K reg isn't with cars is it), the 7840 on the front is one of our yard tractors, occasionally I will take it on an adventure to aid a delivery or move something a bit easier. Damn good tractors in their time, certainly better than the four year old one behind it.

 

View from the command centre of a 1983 Ford 6610 equipped with the infamous and absolutely completely SHITE "Rubik's Cube" gear shift. The shift pattern is something like

 

3

I

N--------- 

I            I

4           I

             I

             I

            N

             I

1           I

I            I

N---------

I

2

 

...with a lever about 3ft long under the steering wheel and a throw between the two 'gates' of about a metre.

 

 

Here's a good one for AS, name the origin of that steering wheel. A very early JCB Fastrac.

 

[scruff]

Ford model A based golf course tractor in Oakham museum

 

Sleeping beauty....?

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

i mustard mitt i would rather like to have a pratt about with a fastrac or a xerion vc

[DeeJay]

First "Slammed" tractor?

 

Wearing a hat.

[twosmoke300]

7840 was a good yoke in its day but most are buggered and/ or on a loader these days .

The ts115 that replaced it was a really good machine too .

Can't say I found the tsa series too bad and the farm that I worked on had several over 12000 hrs without major probs . In fact I think they have tla tractors on a cauliflower rig with well over 20k !

[scruff]

True true, I don't think much of the T7 above, maybe it's a Friday afternoon job. I am surprised how many 40 series I see on my travels but they do tend to be owned by quite enthusiastic owners. This one meets your buggered description. We've also got an 785XL International, an 856XL and a couple of baby Fastracs as 'shunters'. 

[twosmoke300]

We had an 856xl with the international bonnet on our farm in ne Scotland . Would love one now

[cros]

 

The first tractor I drove was a TE20 but this Dexta replaced it a few years later, its still looking fairly new. The loader made getting on and off awkward but was reasonably powerful for its time. The front wheel looks old because the skinny standard equipment was hopeless for the extra weight over the front and these would have been swapped over from the previous Ferguson. It should be frowned on for kids to work a full day at 8 but thats how it was for me growing up on small tenant farm that always seemed to be struggling. 

  By the end of the 60's we got colour, and 'go-faster' stripes with a new Ford 4000. For this very heavy land it should have been a 5000 but budget wouldn't permit so the struggle continued with steel wheels and home made weight arrangement to stop the front rearing up. I've used this type of wheel recently and they are very unforgiving to the final drive- you can hear the gears groaning as the oil film breaks down.

 

[Richard]

Is that a home made cab? I don't remember them looking like that.

[twosmoke300]

Probably a lamborne or Duncan type can

[cros]

It was a Winsam cab, bought new with the tractor. Previously ploughing had been a very cold job, this was a bit more comfortable but very noisy. No heater of course.

[quicksilver]

Lots of tractor love here. Never thought much of them until recently but now I've driven Six-cylinder's Ferguson. It was terrifying but oddly compelling and I'm still not sure I'd want to drive it on the road. My grandmother's cousin was a farmer and his sole means of transport right up until his death a few years ago was a Fordson Dexta bought new in 1959. Despite appearances it was fully road-legal when this photo was taken.

1959 Fordson tractor by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

[hairnet]

 

uncle shay pwns you

[RRT22R]

Good evening Tractor Boys and Girls - Time for an update.

 

I joined The Ferguson Club, who did a good job assisting me through the registration process with the DVLA. This resulted in an age related number being issued to the Grey Menace. 'XS' was the regional identifier for Paisley, and they must have a few of these left over, as another recently registered tractor I know also has a 'VXS' plate issued. No MOT, free tax and £50 to insure with the NFU and we are all road legal. 

 

 

I took the radiator to P&M Radiators in Norwich, who did some repairs and pressure tested the original core. It passed the test, but the very helpful Paul suggested that a re-core might be on the cards soon...

 

 

The fan belt was a little past its best, so I got a new one from BearingsRus at half the price of the ones from the vintage tractor parts suppliers. 

 

 

The source of the oil leak was from the oil pressure gauge pipework, which had been previously 'repaired'... A new pipe was duly fitted.

 

 

The Ferguson is started by moving the gear lever into the 'S' position and neatly prevents it being started when in gear. In my case, this function didn't work, and I could only start it by shorting out the solenoid.

 

 

So I removed the solenoid, cleaned the contacts, adjusted the lever and tidied the wiring.

 

 

The next issue is the fuelling. I have previously cleaned the filter bowl and replaced the fuel line, but once the tractor has been running for a while, the carb float chamber empties, and it cuts out. Next step is to remove the tank and have a look-see.

 

The best thing about the tractor is its engineering integrity and simplicity - You could literally fix it in the middle of a field with a knife and fork. I'll hopefully get it running soon and get it to the petrol station for a fill-up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cros]

Looking for something different? Can't decide between petrol or diesel? Hedge your bets with one of these:

 

Petrol on one side

Diesel on the other

 

The original hybrid, available at a scrapyard near me.

[mercrocker]

Start on petrol run on dizzle?

[cros]

That's it. It looks like an expensive way to avoid heater plugs but not as costly as Caterpillar's solution which was a separate petrol engine for starting, even on the similar sized D2.

The bloke has got his hand over the cylinder head of the flat twin 'donkey' engine, it's hard to find a decent picture.

I used to drive one on a rubbish tip at Harlow. You had to wind a rope round a pulley located just in front of the gear levers, and it took lots of pulls on a cold morning. That was the heater!

[mercrocker]

I have some video footage of a Cat dozer with the donkey starting up that I took at a ploughing match a couple of years ago.   Buggered if I can find it now, though.

[mercrocker]

I did find this piece of Arboreal Agri-shite, though....It was at Abbey Hill last weekend. 

 

The Stanhay Apple Box Transporter.   Powered rather exuberantly by a 6 cyl L-R petrol engine, I believe.   Only 2 were built and both survive apparently. 

 

 

 

 

On a trip to the Canadian deciduous fruit regions I remember discovering that  their approach to apple box hauling involved cutting down a full size Chevy sedan so that a flatbed could be built across the chassis frame, leaving only driver seat, scuttle and front panels from the donor car.   

[Asimo]

National ploughing championships were local a few years ago - guess what competition class this is.

 

 

Diesel Caterpillar with petrol "starter motor"

 

 

Chamberlain Tandem - Australian madness with two (slightly different) GM two-stroke Diesels.

Despite I went back the next day and hung around till I froze I never heard it running 

[cros]

∆∆∆∆ what a fine sounding thing two Detroit Diesels must be.

[somewhatfoolish]

The shot gun cartridge is a good party trick but they start OK on the handle (most of the time).

 

This is my mate's Series 1 about to tow our trailer home from a rally, it's got high top gear, the lighting kit and winch, it's lovely and he spoils it rotten. You wouldn't believe it lives outside under a sheet and roads everywhere.

11760178_1640434172867305_1239922424931084750_n.jpg

Field Marshalls are splendid but no doubt megaspenner these days?

[Six-cylinder]

I am staying on a farm in Holland and this one is the view from our bedroom window.

[simmo]

A few from a recent auction

 

[Six-cylinder]

I have been to Hastings and they claim to have the largest beach launched fishing fleet in the UK. The interesting bit is rather than having a crawler to launch the boats, each boat has it's own crawler!

 

It was just a shame my friend with me saw no interest in them so only general shots and not a catalogue of each one as I would have liked.

 

Trouble is I now want my own crawler!

[PiperCub]

Have little experience in tractor driving, drove my first, a Ford (don't know what - fairly small) at 17 not long after passing my car test. It was via a college mate who used to drive it regularly on a farm he used to work at, he was 16 at the time and is the only person to date I've met who had actually passed an official tractor driving test at 16 (which i think you still can do now).

 

Don't think I'd want to own one unless I lived somewhere I could use it fairly regularly but would like to know someone locally who had one so I could tinker with it and occasionally play on it!! That goes for plant machinery in general to be honest for me. 

[CreepingJesus]

Good thread!

One of the plusses of living in a village with an average age of 125, is vintage tractors. I shall endeavour to investigate...

[Six-cylinder]

but would like to know someone locally who had one so I could tinker with it and occasionally play on it!! That goes for plant machinery in general to be honest for me.

Is Buckingham local? Because we have a tractor, digger and dumpers to tinker and drive.

[Guest]

Have been tractor tinkering all day at work, there are 3 lying around. Main one is a John Deere, whf which I converted from turbocharged to N/A as turbo was fooked, then wired up the lights properly and added a beacon ,got the heater working and then sorted the aerial so I can get radio 2. Then on to the Yugoslavian Massey Ferguson, kingpins were seized so no steering,so it got sledgehammered,then greased and moved under its own power for the first time in years. Next will be another John Deere which has been fitted with a 6 cyl combine engine..that may take a little longer. 

 

Will get some pics

 

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