MJB1

best post some pics i spose right lets see what i seen nice little highway / industrial International 258 Valmet 8000 series 1 landy being inspected prior to a refurb David Brown 1200 Ford 3000

had my last day on my lorry , it was 1st of that particular 3 on the fleet so the first to go , i now have the 3rd till the end of nov after that who knows scania ?

oops ! best get a replacement now then mark , but keep the wheels & tyres back

i think i'm right in saying , it was a David Brown / CASE built backend & gearbox ? cant remember the year it came out ? 1994/5 ? i remember seeing one new at the royal & a friend i was with with said his boss was going to demo one , but i never found out what happend . it was at the time when MF were doing a lot of badge engineering as they also released the megele mamot forager as the massey ferguson 5130 which was also a short lived partnership

no mate salary. but having ben offered a few dractor jobs in the past few years i worked out i'd be about 4000 per year down & that averaging out the overtime from the farms . thats a lot of money but i was tempted . as for the romantic side of the job ? i know what you mean all's good when the work is shared out & right what you say , during busy times you expected the weekend work , but for many now sunday is just another day . i once headed up a team of four that was reduced to two , we kept up quite comfortably till i was left on my own with a bigger tractor & plough etc , the kit can get as big as it like , but there's still only 24 hours a day & it just seemed i was working them all.

what sporty & sleek ?

bit sparse for me i'm afraid , just a siku MF 8680 from barry & steve & an ftf highway ford which was a raffle prize

hit the nail on the head i think robert, i know a fair few lorry drivers , myself included that would have loved to stay on the farms , but unfortunately the wages are awfull & hours are either full on or nothing , of which we know anyway lorry drivers are getting in short supply as well from rural parts as years back tractor drivers made the move from one to the other , but now there arnt many left to make that move & if they did think about it the haulage industry seems to suffer from government programmes that make the move financialy difficult

blimey you're a hard audience to work , remember those things we all used to have .........aww what was it ................ah yes.............................. a sense of humour ;D

me & th boys are going to mosey on up to toytrac at dinnertime ish

ooh sorry to hear that mate , surprised you wanted to stay in agriculture at all after that thanks for the replies chaps , good the read that it's different all over the country & that we're not quite extinct just yet

nice topic rich looks like a good place to work ! ha technicians , couldn't find their @r$£ with both hands , , a technician plugs thing in to find out whats going on then fit new parts, mechanics on the other hand have a skill of knowing what the problems are & actually repairing the fault proper. being a technician is a bit like being a jazz musician, it's just an excuse for people who cant actually use the proper tools to do a decent job of it

just a thought , as i do see a lot of youngsters performing jobs that used the be for head tractor drivers , do such jobs still exist ? when i was young a 590,699,7610,8210 1490 , 1690 etc were all bought for the head driver so to speak , the lesser of us were in smaller horse powered tractors & the jobs like ploughing ,drilling, spraying , foraging, potato harvesting & combining were all jobs done by the head driver . unlike now 16 year olds drive top kit & what used to be done with a shovel like cleaning out from under a potato grader by hand is all now done with a bobcat or simmilar , we were the bottom of the heap , now youngsters just jump straight it to middle management ! i used to be the wire tye & stack boy on a grimme 2 row harvester, tying spud bags & stacking them on the little room the harvester had , sometimes in exess of 60 bags per run & with little time to do either . cant say i see that now times change & with 150 hp tractors being the bread & butter tractors they are now does this job still exist ? may sound strange to some maybe but i have been a head tractor driver & i supose to an extent a few here may still be , i'd certainly put gav in that role but how many are left ? or is it you're now assigned to a particular job like spray / fertiliser man , ploughman/ combine driver etc head tractor drivers did we die out ?

some good going on the spuds gav , looks like the harvester copes comefortably with the amount of soil on the web as well mate , the standen i used to use used to suffer from aggitator bearing roller failure if a constant load was put on it , but trying to find a good comprimise was hellish as did't want to bruise too many spuds the only time i filled the main web up was digging down hill or with salad varieties . looking at the vid i see the main beam inhibits the view of the web , you find that an incumberance or just not take any notice of it now , ? so is it a better having a main beam or a full frame machine ? like the pics

why's that ? you in a hurry to be somewhere Ol ?

are those UH MF 35 wheel centres you've used as the hub for the turn frames john ?

nice work john , that's going to look a peach on the 550. you finding brass easy to work with ? look forward to the sprung loaded tines

lost my wallet had 2 debit cards which are now cancelled , driving licence & digital tacho card , phoned DVLA for replacements £20 for the licence & £19 for another digi card

now thats not a half bad idea mark , surely they couldn't balls that up could they err surly thats black wheels & silver rims oooh dribble

err ...................fraser..................?.................. i'm assuming you mean 1/32 size if that is the case then there are a few members on here who will build trailers to order http://www.threeoaksfarmmodels.co.uk/index.html http://www.modelfarmer.co.uk/index.html

i have matter of fact if i wasn't 'asked to leave' 10 months earlier i might of had one , mixed reviews from the drivers though , i think the xylons they had were big 4pot turbo's which made them ever so quick & nippy , & great for road work.............................as long as there wern't too many hills , that was the killer , having never driven one i cant comment , but have been told , they needed a bit more torque at the bottom end . however their primary function was to haul 2.500gallon tankers on road work so what they fell short on in that use never showed up their real promise with the field work they were never used for , although they were trialed against the early fastracs of wich were of second rate in everything against the xylon. maybe if like JCB they'd hung on a bit longer , the xylon would still be in production quality conversion dave really well done :)

shame they wern't released with wider tyres to start with ! nice combination johny :)

more like 'all blue mud harvesting crew' :of lovely photos

buyers guide would be a good idea for some of these import tractors

i'll be at toytrac i expect , but as for lightland even if he made the flight over from NZ we still wouldn't let him in ;D