phil phoenix

Time for an update, I have been canabalising the wiking JD 6125r and have switched over the slimmer buddy seat into the britains cab. Also I have swapped steering wheels as well. Done some painting in the cab, put some brown paint on the arm console and a bit of grey to hide the green paint in the cab. I decided to pinch the steps treads off the 6125 and overlay them on the new model which looks ok. The really hard job is preparing the way to fit the Wiking front linkage onto the britains. Angle grinding with great care plus lots of filing & hack sawing. But its almost ready to be glued in place. Also done quite a bit to the cab as well but will cover that in the next update.

Nice 390 there Trig, looks great on that tiny diorama.

This new model from Britains is very good, but it could possibly be even better. I have acquired a cheap Wiking JD 6125R and I'm going to attempt to improve the 185 by stripping parts of the 6125. Last time I did this was on a Siku JD 8370R and a week after I finished it Wiking brought out the 8R 410!! Hopefully that won't happen this time. First job was to remove the front linkage and then mask off the tractor and spray paint the rims JD yellow.

Anyone know what is a typical tonnage for an acre of Marris Pipers? 10 or 20 tons per acre?? I know the price is going up because the local lads are buying more new tractors. Garretts bought a new JD 7R330 last year plus a surprising black Deutz Fahr 7250. Well this summer they added another DF a 8280 machine and whilst photographing on spuds yesterday they rolled up in another new 73 plate DF, a Java green 7250!! That makes for three Deutz and three Deeres in their yard. And the Deutz dealer is 40 miles away!!!!! They wanted faster tractors as they haul upto 25 miles away from base and the DFs are 60kph and p*ss over their JD 6155Rs which only do 50kph.

New Fendt 700s at TNS Littleport. Green 728 and a very nice 726 in blackwhich I think I prefer.

I see Cyril was cashing in his pension plan after cornering the market for MF 300 series models😄

ha ha!🤣🤡

Well done Trig, you can buy them all back again at future auctions😄

The maize guys have left the area but will not be forgotten! Thats because there are two big piles of maize at two different roundabouts on the A10 where someone has unsuccessfully tried a Lewis hamilton style manouvre and lost the rear end and all its contents🙄..................and also a couple more big piles in nearby fields where someone got to close to the edge. Also I drove into a nice pile of glass on the road which I saw too late, and then 100 yards up the road was a front windowless NH T7.210 with its broughan trailer parked in a field. No shortage of entertainment when the annual maize circus visits the locality😄

I took this distant photo of the Pumpkin pickers at work out in the fens a couple of weeks ago, first time I have ever seen five JCB telehandlers in one field🤪

Gotta love these late October afternoons driving home from work, absolute tractor mayhem around the locality. The maize guys are in town with their brand new Jag 990 & the old stalwart black Jag 980 entering its 11th season. Working close to each other with a myriad of tractor trailers. JD, NH, Massey, Valtra & JCB pulling Kanes, Heron, Broughan, Stewart, Richard Western. And yes the Irish nutters are at the helm😄 Also the local farmers are lifting spuds too with lots of JCB 4220s, New Holland T7.210's everywhere, more JDs and Garret Seedings smashing new Java green Deutz Fahr 8280 hurtling along at 40mph with 18 tonnes of Pots in the big bailey trailer. Tractor heaven presently, but in a couple of days the maize will be cut and the circus in the field gone.

What is the best way (if any) to remove the "dirty" spray on specially sprayed dirty tractor models?? Sand paper?

If anyone bought the 2680 with the short fishbowl air cleaner on the bonnet you could swap the PAVT wheels off the 2685 onto it and then rebadge it 2720. And reposition the exhaust of course🙄 The only time I ever saw PAVT wheels on a 2680/5 was when one of the local farms took them off a 2725 which was being run on "carlos fandango" super wide tyres for fertilizer spreading and stuck them on a 2680 for ploughing. I still say that those MF PAVT wheels front and back were the best looking on any tractor in the 80s & 90s, especially on the 3650/55s😍

I dare say his boss will get to see the video now its gone viral and the police, so he might get the sack & a fine. Mind you that 6250R is some tractor!

Saw this trending on youtube today after the recent severe flooding we've had. Don't know what the driver🤡 was thinking but my favourite John Deere tractor was up to the task💪

I don't rate that model at all, it looks like they have used the wider TW15 bonnet and then got someone at Replicagri who designed the ridiculous TM roofs judging by the picture. Wheels tyres and decals look right though😄

JOHN DEERE 6R.185 As usual a lightening fast order delivery from G&M As far as Britains goes its pretty accurate and a decent model. Plenty of room for subtle improvements for us conversionists to entertain ourselves with. I will wait and see what Wiking are bringing forth from JD at Agritechnica before I go overboard with converting this model.

G&M have got the Britains John Deere 6R 185 in stock today Guys😎..............Just ordered mine off Grahams ebay feed, looks really decent.

Just goes to show what a lick of paint can do as far as the 4220 goes, looks much better. The 6R 185 wheels are fine, just like the real machines. But they need painting so just remove the tyres, mask off and bag the model so only its wheels are visible, wipe them with white spirit too remove any residues and then spray primer on them and then two top coats of JD yellow spray. Simples.

Maize is now in full flight and all systems are go!! The new Kemper header on the Jag 980 has notably improved outputs and is well matched to the harvester. Yields are down across the board for the second year running which was once again down to a dry June just when all the crops need moisture. And if the weather isn't enough of a challenge now we have our own government trying their best to hobble us further with more red tape and the threat of calendar farming. As a consequence our contractor Bill Legg is flat out spreading digestate with the aim to finish by the end of the month. He has put the two 8S MFs on the tankers and taken off the 8740 to do some cultivations for other customers. He also has traded in his pristine old Massey Fetguson 7495 VT for a brand new 7S 190 which he will be using to cart firstly maize and then digestate to various farms in the days ahead. Last week we finished lifting all our remaining 90 acres of sugar beet in perfect conditions, Northfield farms did the job with a very impressive brand new Grimme Rector beet harvester. A bergmann wagon serviced the beast and dropped the beet into a clever cleaner loader which was controlled by wifi. A healthy profit was earned for the crop as the £40 per ton premium was paid. Our drillings have gone well this year and we have swapped from the Fendt MT back to the JD 8410 wheeled tractor in the past week. We like the crawler but won't be buying it at the end of the hire period. However the other older Challenger 775E may be kept if the price is right as its useful to keep one in the shed. Or maybe we might consider a JD RX if a demo ever arrives. We have a few demo machines due to look at this autumn before considering any new purchases for 2024.

Final pictures taken today, plus the local farmers 7S.180 used as inspiration.

I used the farm models nl stickers for my Fendt 724/ 722's and they look super, but I like the idea above for even more control and accuracy. I was unaware that a self propelled green rogator had been made?

Another picture online of the John Deere 6R 185.......................Much improved on their poor earlier 6R models,

A few more random pics taken recently. Including the first Fendt 728 too arrive at TNS Littleport.

Thanks guys, and you are all right. Its annoying when they make a top job of some models and then only go half heartedly at the next one. And yes its expensive and I'm not that well off so I won't be repeating it.