Gav836

13) Talisman

14) Thyregod T5, Not built by Standens but imported by them during the 90's

15) Standen Factory Refurbished Harvesters

16) 1999 Standen Sugar Beet Price List

7) Sceptre

8 ) Sceptre Mk 2, Turbo Four, Turbobeet Mk 3 and Top Saver

9) Spectrum

10) Spectrum Mk 2

11) Rapide MkII

12) Rapide Mk 3

I've been collecting literature on Standens range of sugarbeet mahinery now for the past few years focusing from the 1970's onwards to when they ceased production of trailed harvesters. There's still a few gaps in the collection to fill which I hope to do as and when the relevant brochures come up for sale. I've concentrated on Standen inparticular as there were a lot of their machines working in my area when I was growing up. I'll just put pictures of the cover of each brochure up and then if anyone wants more of that brochure I'll post more in depth pictures up

1) Tractor Hoe

2) Lifter Loader Mk II

3) Multibeet Standard Topper, used with the above or any of the trailed lifters

4) Multibeet/Multibeet Topper

5) Turbobeet & MkII Lifter Loader with 3 row Standard Topper

6) Turbobeet

My dog at training... humiliating, but funny.

We were partnered with a lady and her Staffy, called Philip (Phil for short... I ask you ) and after Lucy rolled underneath him, refused to move and gave him considerable 'I'm available' signals, the trainer called her a little 'tart' and told us we couldn't train together again

She also suggested that my dog was like it's owner

I'm thinking of renaming my dog, Jordan

I did nearly put something along those lines in reply to your status on Facebook but thought I'd resist and behave myself just this once ;D

Would that have been a variable geometry turbo that failed then as that certainly has been heard of on a certain brand of engine/tractor, I know of one tractor that had 3 fitted within two years on a farm nearby

Our neighbour planted it under plastic two years ago but only the areas that he was planning to combine for the grain, the areas that he planned to clamp were drilled without. Both came through at the same time but within 3 weeks the maize under the plastic was considerably further forward than that without. I would imagine it proved a costly exercise as he's never done it since.

Sounds like Claas tractors that 

First I've heard of it, never hear of any turbo failures on them locally.

As for your Turbo Andy, thats certainly not an isolated incident, my ex workmate's 55 reg Seat tdi had the turbo blow on it last year at fairly low miles also the same week as he'd planned to change it. Definately seems to be the weak link on an otherwise solid engine.

As for what annoyed me today, some absolute cretin thought it would be amusing to pull our irrigation pipes apart at some point over the past 10 days, it was purely by luck that it was the first watering of the field today so I drove the line and spotted them. They picked their place so it was somewhere we might have not looked otherewise, halfway along a 500m run of them on one headland. Would have caused a lot of hard work had we not noticed and turned the main hydrant on >

I can't help you with the grab as its a different type to one our friend had, his would pick up the 6 bales endways and not crossways however I think you are correct that there may be a spring missing from the sledge, it looks like that bar should hold the first bale at the front of the sledge to me only letting it slide back once the second is in contact with it. Its about 15 years since I last saw this set up in operation so struggling to remember how it works

I get mine from this chap, he supplies larger sheets than some other retailers do which can be usefull

http://www.stationroadbaseboards.co.uk/cart_plastic.htm

Our apprentice had the same problem, it took 2 or 3 months for his certificate to arrive from them

You're quite right, it is a 2 x 3 stacking sledge and grab and they do work well. A family friend used one of them for years and may even still have it laying in the nettles. The picture isn't clear enough to tell if anything is missing off either though I'm afraid

Very good and hopefully this year, I'm sure Dan or Tim will be along before long to reveal all......

We had one 150 acre field where I used to work and our neighbours had a 200 acre field, probably the biggest I've come across so far around here. The biggest one where I am now is 66 acres.

Will you be upgrading to a larger drill now as well Gavin?

No we won't Niels, the drilling only gets done by me when I have the time to do it otherwise one of the smaller tractors goes onto it. There will be a new drilling tractor at some point in the future, possibly next year but boss isn't sure as yet

I have to admit that it does sound nice, even my boss remarked on it when I was drilling today

Here's my other new toy, a President Johnson II CB radio which arrived yesterday and is now sitting tidily in the cab roof, didn't fancy drilling too many holes to fit a standard cb in this tractor with the amount of wiring tucked into the cab

Here's a short video from when I was drilling today

First impressions of the AFS 300 computer are good, its certainly easy to use and alter settings on, makes altering things like spool valve flow easy and by fine tuning tractor settings from the information showing on the screen its possible to get the best fuel economy out of it

Been ploughing with the Puma yesterday and was extremely impressed with its fuel usage, between 20 and 28 litres an hour spot rate, the best my old 6920s managed was 30 litres an hour with the plough at 12 inches deep and 50cm furrows. No pictures of that as the camera batteries died but I did manage to get a few today when I drilled and rolled in the kale on what I ploughed yesterday, all behind strawed carrots.

Irrigation and laying another 70 new irrigation pipes that we had to buy for this year, not a cheap past time at £59 each

A new CB radio with a front facing speaker to fit in the spare DIN slot in the roof of the Puma, don't want to be drilling holes in the cab on it if I can avoid it

What a beast! 

Oh and By the way, how come it has Hare and Tortoise buttons on the joystick when its a CVX? or does it have like a high range and a low range?

It still has three ranges in the transmission despite being a CVX tractor, the buttons change between them

I have to say that gave me a good laugh as well, would have liked to have been a fly on the wall inside the limo at the time to hear what was said ;D

6920 has never had fuel injector problems Chris, had a few fuel pump and rail issues but thats it in that area \

The Puma was clean when it arrived, the joys of strong winds and dusty yards. Only took it out of the shed to haul an artic out that got stuck in the yard earlier but he managed to get traction in the end and got himself out. The stones were like ball bearings under his wheels

It arrived at lunchtime but I've been sorting out irrigators this afternnon so its been a 6810 job. They can arrive early if they want but I have the only key for it