ploughmaster

they have been available from Land Rover dealers for a few weeks and should be about £14 or so. I think there were about 2000 made. edit: It is a limited edition of 2500.

The decal looks a bit 'DIY' and the mudguard extensions certainly appear to have been painted (they were left green on the normal version), so I suspect the roof has been painted too. In which case, I would strongly suspect that this is simply a third party conversion and nothing to do with Britains

I think you should sit down for a couple hours (no, I am not joking!), and count them up. Britains and Ertl issues in 32nd have to be considered together now. Including all the variations that now seem to be issued (US dealer, US collector, US shelf, US show, Euro specials, Britains standard issues, gold chrome, gunmetal, muddy), the number of issues since the Ertl takeover and transfer of production to the Far East has been phenomenal.

I think part of it was justifying having the Powerfarm tractor pto (no point without driveable implements), and partly that it had to be able to be used behind non powered tractors in the range. The only difference was that the pto powered one would drive the rotor quicker at a realist scale spreading speed. The Howard spreader was better than the powered crumbler on the Maschio - what was all that about

I think perhaps you are getting a little confused powerrabbit. The grey version with orange interior was the first one, followed by the mid blue one with white interior and the 'tilt'. The tilt itself was odd because it simulated the full canvas roof which was only ever used on military variants of the real thing, but Britains never used it on their army Land Rover. Real civilian Land Rovers either had a truck cab and canvas tilt over the rear load platform, or a full hard top. There are only the 3 main versions of the Britains farm LWB Land Rover, but there are a number of variations. Just to clarify things a little: 1. Introduced in 1968 as 9676, the grey version usually had an orange interior (although it is also known with white). It came in a sleeve and plinth box, and included a small sheet of stick on decals so that it could be liveried as 'Britains Farm', 'Britains Zoo', or 'WLB Construction Co Ltd'. It had thick glazing and rear torsion spring suspension, with the front axle being fitted with a single, central compression spring. Lights were a one piece moulding which protruded from behind through holes in the casting. 2. At the same time, a set (9575) was issued with the single axle horse box. The model was the identical, but did not have the decal sheet - the 'horseshoe' decal was already fitted to the doors. 3. There exist a transition version which has the 1971 casting revisions, but is grey with an orange interior. 4. In 1971, the casting was revised and refined - the window frames of both windscreen and doors were slimmed down and thinner clear plastic card was used for the windows. The lights were now seperate soft plastic (possibly soft PVC) with a drop of paint on the rear and inserted into the holes in the casting from the outside. (these were often a loose fit and consequently were easily lost). The suspension was altered to have a small compression spring at each wheel. The orangey brown plastic canopy representing a full canvas tilt was fitted to this version. A new driver was also fitted. He had a moveable right arm that clipped to the steering wheel, and a fixed left arm reching for the gear lever. The model came in one of the new 'straw' window boxes. The standard colour was blue with a white interior, but examples exist with olive brown and also metallic blue bodywork. 5. The version with the horse box was similarly revised, but retained the same catalogue number (and box), and did not gain the canopy at this stage. Its colour also changed to blue with a white interior, although some have been seen with the orange interior (probably transition models). 6. Late on the life of the LWB series II model, the horse box set gained the plastic canopy (I think we can assume from catalogue evidence that this was probably late 1973/1974). At this point it also went into a 'straw' box to match the rest of the range. This later version is also known in the olive brown colour. Also in 1972/73, the registration number was changed from MAC 68F to MAC 68L. (just out of interest, at the same time the reg no on the Dumper[9670] was changed from KCB 68F to KCB 68L) When you take into account the different models britains have produced (series II, III, Defender 90, Discovery, Freelander, Range Rover; together with the different versions that have been produced of some (farm, zoo, army, police, rally etc, together with different colours), there are probably in excess of at least 80 Britains Land Rover Models. I haven't actually counted!!!!

The first version (9568) was, as we know, driven directly from the wheels. When the Powerfarm version (9342) was introduced, Britains made a rather clever ratchet type of drive from the axle which enabled the rotor to work either from the pto of the TW35, or from the wheels. When it was subsequently re-released as non Powerfarm (9575), Britains simply deleted the pto drive, but the model retained the drive from the wheels that it had used during the Powerfarm era. ie. ALL versions of the Rotaspresder should drive from the wheels.

This reverse drive wrap around combine was initially marketed as a Massey Ferguson with 16' or 18' cutting widths. I don't think it was terribly successful and MF subsequently divested the rights to the Mortl Company in whose livery you have it pictured. A picture of the MF version can be found on page 99 of World Harvesters by Bill Huxley

I think you will find that only applies to tractors fitted with air braking and suspension.

No, it applies to ALL agricultural tractors, unless they are equipped with independent suspension and air braking (like the Fastrac).

Probably need a whole forum

I would think they only need setting up properly.

except that the MF back end is a GIMA unit, which is the same back end used in Renault/Claas which have the aforementioned 'green' engines in them!

In the UK (and elsewhere), it is illegal for any roadgoing vehicle to have a speedometer fitted which will under read (ie. show a speed slower than the actual speed). For this reason all manufacturers make speedos over read to avoid potential prosecution. In general they will show about 5% faster than actual speed, but may be as high as 10%. With tractors, there are further discrepancies caused by setup of the throttle cable and settings for different tyre sizes, and tyre wear also has an effect on rolling circumference and therefore speed. the only way to get an accurate speed is from GPS. All a little bit irrelevant as the maximum permitted speed for an agricultural tractor on UK roads is 20mph (32.2kph). All you need is a plod who knows the law and decides to enforce it: £60 fine and three points on your licence; thank you please! Added to which, if he looks round the tractor there is a very high chance he will find something else to do you for. Unless, of course you have a tractor with four wheel air braking and fully independent suspension at each corner (suspended front axles and cabs don't count), in which case you can go up to 40mph.

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Hardly surprising as the real ones are too - they are based on the same basic mechanicals, share a cab and many of the controls, and are built in the same factory. As for it only lasting mjb s boys only 3 months, when I was that age it would have been nearer 3 hours