phil phoenix

Most have finished combining now around the east anglian fens, thats usually the case by the late August bank holiday. One of the last is A.G wrights whom harvest 3000 acres plus across a very wide area. Last year they replaced a 9 year old 780 Lex With a smart new 8900tt which I finally caught up with on Saturday as it munched its way into 200 acres of wheat. They also were hosting a demo of a Fendt 9T in another field, so I took a few pics of both harvesters.

I see Farmer Phil has a 5S on the UH style rear wheels. And seen a few online up for sale at different MF dealers. Maybe the early tractors (2021/22) were using up stock wheels left over from the previous shape 5 series.

CASE Quadtrac 715 Explained. Looks awesome when on the move.

The most obvious error they've made is on the length of the bonnet, you can see this when you look at the vertical silver stripe in front of the cab, its much wider on the model than on the real thing. And consequently the exhaust now looks to far forward & the bonnet slopes too much. They had to extend it because they were using the old 7726 chassis ,cab frame and fenders which are 6 inch higher up on the larger frame tractor compared to the mid frame 7718 (7S.180/90) You could draw a fairly flat line across the top of the rear fender and across the bonnet top on the real machine, but on UHs "abomination" its nearly a triangle!!! So much for that "all new tooling", its not, its a 7726 with new parts added to it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

7S model and the real thing from side view so you can appreciate UH's failure.

A few more miscellaneous pictures of harvest 2023.

All done Smithy?

In recent weeks the rain most affected the baler teams locally, they have gotten way behind. But after several dry days they are now on a tare. The local mega AD Plant owners Pretoria have bottomless pockets & have just added to their MF fleet with another 10 x 8740S😍 most of which are now delivered. 20 of these models now in their fleet😎 must make them europes biggest user of the 8700s. They also have bought 7 more Krone big pack 1290 balers to go with lots bought last year which I hadn't noticed. I only bought the NH 1290hd over the ROS Krone model because I thought there would be more of them locally! Got that miles wrong didn't I😄 There aren't any NHs working, but there are loads of Krones and they do look very nice too.

The one bright spot in the new releases is that CASE Puma 260, it looks spot on and shows just what UH can do when they get things right. And that surely means both NH blue versions will be of equal quality🙂

What UH have done with the 7S is the equivelent of removing the large frame 7726 tractors bonnet and then fitting a mediun frame 7718S bonnet in its place! From side view the bonnet now looks like a ski slope!! So if I wanted to make a decent 7S I have to buy a 5S.145 for cab & fenders, a 6S for wheels & tyres & chassis (which would need to be extended, 7S chassis is same as 7726 which was replaced by 8S!!!!!!) And a 7S for the bonnet if its right as I'm not quite sure if its dimensions are correct. Cheapest option? Buy a CASE 165 they got that right😄 Or buy a 5S remove bonnet and rear wheels. Buy a 6S put its bonnet on 5S (probably same dimension or v. close.) Put 6S rears on 5S and change over fuel tanks steps light indicators etc. What a hassle.

As you can see above the 5S (BOTTOM IMAGE) is way closer to the 7s real cab image top than the middle image 6S.

Puma 260 looks excellent.......................But as for those MFs Am I right in thinking they have used the same cab frame and rear fenders off the old 7726?? I think I'm right and its very dissapointing, especially when the 5S 145 cab & fenders are absolutely spot on!! All three cabs on the 5,6 & 7 should be identical and they clearly are not.

Unfortunately I passed a burnt out TX 34 in a wheat field today, only its rear end was untouched. Fortunately the remaining wheat crop was still ok.

Here's my latest purchase and this is the third time I've bought a Challenger 775E & I can't for the life of me remember why I let the others go! Maybe now they are history and not current production we can see in hindsight what a smart looking tractor they were. Each 700 series from A to E just got better and better looking. The new Fendt MTs are nice but the "E" with its black nose and slick bonnet vents takes the top prize😎

No Shrewsbury Joe.

Harvest update. A few more recent pictures. Including a brand new New Holland CH 7.70 hybrid combine.

The model I ordered 3 weeks ago finally arrived yesterday, after much chasing up! Its been a right rigeramole with very poor communications. When I think how professionally Peter at Brushwood models deals with "c*ck ups" I wonder why I bother with some of the others. On a plus note the Challenger model I have received is absolutely mint.

It should move two digits to the left imo, inaccurate cr*p!

Caught up with these beast recently, the new John Deere 9RX 640 with the fancy roof and impressive exhaust stack😎........have to admit it has finally overtaken the Quadtrac in the good looks stakes.

"Thats more like it"

"Get those damn cars out the way"!! Manns Lexion 8900tt demo combine muscling its way through a Norfolk village😎

Come on Schuco, get these green machines out pronto!!!!!

I had a parcel arrive today which I had been waiting for, unfortunately when I opened it they had sent me a Claas Axion by mistake Grrrrrrr!! So now I have the rigmarole off sending it back. Lord knows where the model I wanted has ended up, very annoying, and the service communications have been very poor!! Someone will be getting named tomorrow if they dont get their act together.

Nice batch there, and glad to see different tyres/ wheels on the JD 8400 from the ones on the 7810s. Thought they would just milk the cast & use the 7810 running gear so kudos to Schuco for going with R30/ R42s rims. And that 8280 Deutz looks great, in fact the best looking SDF tractor todate imo. Just hope they get them available before mid Sept when all hell could break loose🥴