Gav836

At present we run 2 Renault Ares, an 836 and an 816 (2003), a NH 8560 (1997), a Fiat F140 (1995) and a Case MX150 (2000) tweaked to match a MX170. The Claas came out of an auction in 2002 for ?47000 with 1000 hrs on the clock, bargin price really! Will try to get pictures of the other machines as we use them. The 816 and 8560 do all the spraying with 2 Berthoud Racer 32's 3200 litre, 24m sprayers. The 836 pulls a 6 furrow Lemken and the MX150 pulls a 5 furrow Lemken, The Fiat does all of the sugarbeet drilling and hoeing now, although till the 816 came along it done all of the drilling with a 4 metre Amazone RPD power harrow combi, alongside the 8560 which uses a cultivator drill and front press.

3) The Fiat again only showing our 2003 Monosem Meca 3 Sugarbeet drill clearer

2) Our Fiat F140, 7200 hrs since 1995, first new tractor our boss ever bought

Well it had 3 APS cylinder bearings this year but that was a fitting error when we put a new cylinder in due to stone damage. Had a few problems with the sieve belt tensioner pulley bolt shearing, still looking into that, and the usual electrical faults with sensors on it. Did also have a new stop solenoid on it. Other than that, has behaved perfectly, cutting about 1500 acres of rape, barley, wheat, oats and beans.

I thought i'd post up some pictures of the kit i use at work, just a few to start with, will post more as i find them/take them 1)Our 1997 Claas Lexion 460, still only has 1800hrs on it

i can give a wild guesstimate as to what my boss will say, needless to say it won't be repeatable in polite company!!

now theres an idea. one question though- how can i calibrate my hand to throw 160 kg per hectare?

The Case got it out, backwards in the end! I did have a NH8560 drilling behind me at the time, he daren't get too close though due to his weight! Case is an MX150 tweaked to MX170 power levels. That field had been set aside for 10-15years apparently so they'd had time to dig biiiiig holes!! I lost a Magnum 7230 in a hole up there 2 years earlier subsoiling the rabbit holes for the gamekeeper so they're very big!

this is what happens when you reclaim rabbit infested heathland set aside! Bunnies 1-Gav 0

we had a unimog do some spraying for us last autumn-never again!! If they are low ground pressure then i'm a monkies uncle!! we'd never seen such a mess! Our 8560 has done 7000hrs now on a P reg, started to make a few funny back end noises now. Does spend alot of time on a KRM opti drill though, 4m wide, looks like a mounted simba free flow in a lot of ways only fully mounted, too heavy really! Has to have a big sumo press on the front just so it can lift it, no wonder its started to complain! Its on its second wiring loom though, the first one burnt out at 2500 hrs, both the cab and engine wiring loom and alternator had to be replaced, very costly!!

wish that was all i had to do, we have over 300 acres of beans in total, theres 2 of us messing about like this, sometimes involving 10 mile round trips to change implements over. I've still got 80tons of compound fertiliser to spread asap, 450acres of sugarbeet land to plough and 400acres of spring barley land to plough so i've got a lot left to do yet, the other chaps got similar areas to do hence the reason we think drilling might be better.

Took long long enough to get over the event which put me of MF's! Nothing like a gearbox falling apart on a narrow road when you have duals on to cause embarrassment and much disruption!!

Our soil causes wear and tear on anything it touches, so no a hard argument, takes a set of reversible points off the plough in under 50 acres! He's more keen on making a cultivator drill at the minute for them, i think the MF is the better idea! Now gonna beat myself over the head for using the words 'MF' and 'better' in the same sentence!!

yeah, think i need to get my set of thumbscrews out for the boss again, be easier to get a stone to bleed at times! Trying to put 170 acres in by yourself with one tractor gets frustrating, especially when the other one is there but the driver won't take his sprayer off it to help!

i've heard of that one too, very good drills for that job, know where theres a few for sale, not the easiest bloke to haggle with though- the price is the price!BAH!

We do plough ours in at the moment, but looking for an easier option as i have to do the job by myself with the one tractor swapping between plough and spreader so takes longer than it could do.

Anyone out there have any preference as to how you put you field beans in? Do you prefer to plough and press them in after broadcasting them on, or drill them in? Has anyone actually built a drill for the job like a couple of people round this way have (see pic), we are seriously considering this idea due to increased acreage after cutting second wheat out of the rotation.

would love to get my hands on one, but my french isn't up to working out the finer details!! Knew i should have paid more attention at school!

thanks for the addys, will have a look on there

ok, i've got boxes full of leaflets on machinery so theres a good chance if anyones looking for details of something i could find a leaflet on it!

Hi guys, can anyone tell me where i can get new parts such as wheels, tyres and hydraulic rams from as i'm running out of scrappers!!

i've got some leaflets on the Nodet air spreaders, will look them up and get copies if they would be of any help to you? let me know...

I can give you a little idea as to what the cost would be as a 6 furrow Kverneland plough with just the press built onto it was ?20000ish when we were quoted 2 years ago, hence we bought a lemken plough and farm force press!

i believe it was the 7820 which replaced the 7810, an 03 plate 7810 must be one of the last made, i'm sure one of you John Deere experts on here will correct me if i'm wrong!

We may well have had TM190's instead of the Renaults, but our local dealer never gave us a demonstrator in the 3 months we were trying them out, my boss wouldn't buy a tractor if we weren't sure that was right for the job. As for the John Deere, i loved the 6920s we had on demo, but it wouldn't fit on our power harrow due to the gearbox being to far forward so was out of the equation. The 7920 we tried was one of the most uncomfortable tractors i'd ever driven, a few baling contractors locally share that opinion as well, one farmer wishes he'd never bought the thing because of all the trouble he's had with it. I just wish the 7810 was still in production because that was a brilliant all purpose tractor, and sounded great too!