Gav836

2) JCB Fastrac 3190

Heres some of a couple of demonstraters we had in 2003 when we were trying to decide what to buy

1) Valtra T150

Heres a picture of the inside of the Fendt's cab for those of you who haven't been in one and are wondering why we all keep saying about the complicated controls!!

Heres one for all you Fendt fans, a 818 pulling 7 16 inch furrows on heavy-ish land

Found a picture of our old beet drilling set up, a Fiat 110-90 and Accord Monopil drill

I've still got an 8360 and I think the cab is one of the best, but... the Renault RZ cab is the smoothest tractor I have ever driven. Couple that with front suspension and it's better than my car (car is a bit ropey )

I'll agree with you on that one. Our 8560 has a comfortable cab but my Renault 836 comes top every time with the front axle suspension and cab suspension, definately gives a smoother ride than the Case Magnum that it replaced 

If it starts without easy start it must be a good engine and worth saving. The last one i had anything to do with needed nearly quarter of a can to get it going  every time, thought my boss at the time had shares in the stuff the amount we got through!

For gods sake don't give up the day job, you won't do well as a comedian with jokes that bad!! 

Recieved my Siku Lexion 600 the other day. All in all i would say that it is a great model, a vast improvement over the old 480 model that they do. They have put a great deal of effort into detail and construction however i would say that it is spoilt by a few plasticy bits like the feeder housing. The header too has a great deal of detail on it but again is spoilt by the plastic construction where it would have been much better to have been made from metal. I still think that it is one of the best models that they have made for a while despite this though  . What does everyone else think of it  ???

thats very debateable locally here

i just look forward to acre number 750 cos its the last one  i can then get on with servicing the combine (my baby!!)

half the day? i do it in 10 or 12 hour shifts, it's a real killer at times! Especially when you've got as many weed beet in the fields as we have 

nah, that was in May so gets light early, i hate the job enough in the light let alone doing it in the dark!! 

Don't know if you ever saw the comedy/drama Grass they done? They wanted to film one of the opening scenes on our farm (the whole thing was filmed in our village at work and on the neighbouring estate) and the sugarbeet in the adjoining field needed hoeing so i went in at 5am to do it, and even then had the rather obnoxious location manager chasing me!!  :

Thats the usual start time, early is 5 or 6am when i'm spreading fertiliser or trying not to annoy a BBC film crew whilst hoeing sugarbeet a couple of years ago 

Heres another picture of my Renault, taken at 7am this morning 

I'd go for the Claas 836 as i currently drive a Renault 836 and its one of the most comfortable tractors i've ever driven, economical and a good pulling tractor.

I'd also go for the Fendt 818 as thats what i really wanted when we bought the Renault. It out pulls tractors more powerful, is very economical and has just about everything as standard thats optional on other brands. Despite its level of technology it's also a very easy tractor to drive. Now all i need to do is to keep nibbling at the boss for two more years so when we change mine he might give in  : :D

what happenned to sensible colour schemes? 

iknow a contractor whos running two 265hp class atles's, swears by them because they p!!s all over the competition, nothing else size for size can pull like they do, he's pulling a one pass Tinemaster(like a Simba Solo) with one that his Challenger struggles with

When i had the 818 on demo it was pulling 7 16 inch furrows through clay type soil at between 8 and 10kph, and only used 1 tank of diesel in a day and a half. impressive but then came the price!!

It all depends on the spec of the machine because if you spec a MF 8480 up to the same as the Fendt 930 there is still a slight difference in price about ?10,000 - ?15,000 in the end so alll the way through it on the cvt masseys it's 10% but on a dynashift massey anything up to 20-25% difference

thats a similar story to what it's like here too

looks better with front duals on too. i think the one you are doing with rowcrops would look much better and more believable without the front weight on, would be unusual to have that much front weight on with row crops on the tractor.

yeah, i get the general idea. it seems here that John Deere got to big for their boots, my boss won't even entertain them and his farther has switched to Mccormick and Claas tractors instead of them, they won't even buy anything off the dealer now, all the other tractor dealers say if you want a second hand JD, go out of Norfolk, it will cost less! I think JD are developing a very shakey reliability record here now, much like Renaualt did, although the newer Claas ones are improving things.

How much Gavin ???

Also heard that JD Europe are in trouble mind you think that may be Renault is that right

The qoute we had was arround ?198 000 for 2 818 (180hp) Fendts, that came down to ?99 000 after trade in and discounts, but its still a hell of an investment given the present farming climate.

My comment beneath the picture<<<( if thats what you mean) is referring to the fact that the Renault tractors all have JD engines fitted in them. I only know that here in Norfolk people aren't getting good service from the biggest JD dealer, not very good service backup and a lot of trouble with a couple of models here.