britainswomble

Memories.............Ford Force 3000 (New). .......turning with an Acrobat..............tedding/rowing up with a Lely Cock Pheasant, traded in for a fan ted. Did a good job too, fortunately very few stones on 'our' farm. Traded that in for a Haybob Sorry, I'm being old again

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FROM-BENYE-28HP-COMPACT-TRACTOR-WITH5-FREE-HYD-SPOOLS_W0QQitemZ290124919548QQihZ019QQcategoryZ92021QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MID-SIZE-45HP-FULL-SPEC-COMPACT-TRACTOR-FROM-BENYE_W0QQitemZ290125413640QQihZ019QQcategoryZ92021QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem An anover one. There's more!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ESTATE-8200-4-90HP-PERKINS-PETL-FROM-BENYE-TRACTOR_W0QQitemZ290127146953QQihZ019QQcategoryZ92021QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Never heard of these before Look at the price for what you get. Presumably another Chinese import, although this model has the Perkins engine and Carraro axle. Looks like the Chinese are out to ruin the Japanese market for tractors and kill off a a lot of the big boys worldwide.

It's probably only got a few hundred hours on the clock if it's ex M.O.D. Some of the kit they buy hardly ever gets used. My Albion ex army tipper, according to the Albion archive was built in 1953 and as far as they know, it was only ever used during the Suez crisis in 1956. It was used in a quarry for about fifteen years, and even now only has 36,000 miles on the clock. P.S. the speedo is still working to this day.

Getting a phone call at 8am this morning to say that our petrol tanker was stuck on a forecourt with no electrics. Great On my day off too.) Went out to it only to find that the isolator switch was fu- sorry- not working at all. Bypassed the switch to get it going and then the rest of the electrics started playing around. Went back to the yard and swopped it for my artic unit and went home co calm down. About midday the bottom hole rang up again to tell me he didn't think the brakes were right on my unit. I've oonly recently had the pressures corrected on them so I know they are right, but no, 'kin Neon (Cos he's a bright boy called Ian) knows better than me. He also thingied Friday too by poking his nose into how the deliveries were done. GRRRRRRR brown nosed git.

I don't know what's happening with seagulls. We're 16 miles from the coast and they seem to have appeared round here in relatively small numbers. I've lived here for forty one years and have never seen them around here like they are now. What's going on?

Down 'ere in Sussex we started the day with distant lightning and heavy rain at about 2.30 am. (On my way to Essex). Morning cloudy cool and overcast. Turned very sunny and humid this afternoon. Cool and cloudy evening.

God Bless America. Don't appen a lot ere in Sussex. Our ol' guinea pig gets a bit noisy sometimes, but thats bout as bad as it gets, cept we did 'ave some 'edgehogs matin' out the baaak the other noight. :D :D :D

GRRRRRRR >:(If I had been bidding on it, you wouldn't have won it. It would have been mine, cos I wanted it so badly I was going to whop in a biggy bid to make sure I got it, and in the last thirty seconds too. Spiteful little bleeder aint I? Still I'm glad it went to a good home and look forward to any pictures you post. No hard feelings , ya li'l bu**er.

That's the difference with a big V8 (Tis aV8 innit) and a smaller engine blown to bu**ery. When you going to have yours chipped. It'll go to 530 easily?

Spect the Renault is a bit more than 330. Mine would struggle even more without the 16 speed gearbox. The one I had before was an ERF EC 12, 340 with two axles plated at 40 tonnes and a 9 speed Fuller box. Performed about the same as the Daf, thanks to some very big horses in the engine... Much better cab than the Daf though.

Maybe more if it fails, You shouldn't be so fussy, thats what comes of being spoilt.!! Tell you what; I wouldn't mind one of them for a couple of days. Anything's better than my old Daf 85 330. The poor old thing struggles a bit at 41 tonnes. Quite like the look of the Renaults though, after all, they can't be that bad when you see how many there are on the roads

Howard had their own bale grab for the big bales. The Bale Packer was made by Mc Connel.. I think we ST's only sold a couple of them, one of which I picked up from their factory.

Sadly I missed out on it because I was down my stepdaughter's house building a compound for her cats, and forgot all about it. I was really annoyed about it. It went for one pound and one pound postage.

A Ford 3910H, low profile cab, four wheel drive, grassland tyres, towing a Petitt wooden sided 3ton trailer. The 3910 had the 4610 rear end with wet brakes and hydraulic P.T.O. engagement. Lovely little tractor in excellent condition but would look a million dollars with a respray. A real tough unbreakable Tonka tractor with a Carraro front axle that looks as though it would take a 1.5 tonne loader in its stride. Would love to get hold of this tractor and put a 4610 turbo engine in it. :P :P :P

How about the hitch ring? Does it fit in a Britains hitch ok or would it ned to be ground down to go on to a pickup hitch? Lovely looking trailer though and at a sensible price. :PNever liked the hay ladders on the real thing though. The bales kept getting hooked on the upright bars and they weren't the best of things to fall on to. Ouch!!! :'(

Another suggestion for rope is a twine used for fishing, called 'Dacron". Look for people selling fishing tackle at boot sales, or visit your local tackle shop. I think it is available in black and green and various strengths. when you look at it closely it has a very rope like appearance. I used some to rig a crane, looks ok to me.

Not to my knowledge ???

The problem is that if I wanted to display my UH Power Major with the spreader coupled to it, then it would not work. The Krone drawbar is designed for a tractor with the hitch point between the top link and PTO. If you hitch it to the tractor it will sit 'Nose down' with nothing to connect the PTO to. This design is unheard of in 1/32 and I thought this type of hitch disappeared long ago due to tractor stability problems, ie rearing up as it would do, towing from the top link mounting point. I would like to know what tractor they had in mind to couple it to, after all they wouldn't produce a Joskin trailer that couldn't be coupled to anything. Imagine it a Joskin dump trailer with the two rear wheels off the ground and a very "Nose down attitude.

We (Sussex Tractors) had an SF 60 cabless forager out on demo at the time when we sold the two to contractors, but I've not seen any pictures of them since. I think they were fitted with a 6 cylinder Mercedes engine. Would like to know if anyone has any pictures of one of these. As far as I know there was only the 60 and eighty although it was a long time ago and I could be wrong about the 60, it may have been a 70.?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230135755790&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013 Saw this on E bay and have been watching it to see how much it went for, bearing in mind that it must be as rare as the real thing was. My uncle had one in 1976, as did another local Contractor. Nigel Ford has some pictures of the real machine owned by Mike Cushing. (Related to Peter Cushing, the actor I believe?) These were the original Claas self propelled forager, fitted with a V 10 Deutz engine. It's likely that not many of you have seen one of these before and I have to say that they are quite a good representation of the real machine. It's sad that this particular model was made in 1/43 scale, not 1/32. Take a good look at this machine, as it wouldn't be the hardest in the world to make a scratch build of it bearing in mind that it is a very angular shape and it would be possible to use a grass header off a later model in its construction. I would like some of Nigel's pictures as I'd like to have a go at scratch building one myself. Anyone else fancy a go. It would look really great in a 70's diorama or collection.

Haven't ever seen a normal control Iveco, and didn't know they made one. Seen loads of Scanias. Are they a re badged version of something else. I'd be interested to know any details you may have.Thanks very much.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I used to use a Vicon Buffalo behind a Ford 3000. That must have been in the early seventies. We bought one to replace a land drive Massey spreader, and later traded it in for a Howard 100 rotaspreader. I would imagine the Krone one must date from around the same time I'll have to look for some better pictures of the Krone to see if it looks like a relatively easy conversion to modify it to a UK style hitch. The Vicon was like the Claas Rollant baler drawbar and had almost infinite adjustment so it would fit UK and European tractors.

I've recently looked through the April edition of the model magazine DIECAST COLLECTOR. In it is a picture of a Universal Hobbies Krone Optimat manure spreader. This is a 1/16th scale model which would look really good behind my UH Power Major. I couldn't believe what I saw when I looked closely at the picture. They have made it with the European drawbar setup with the PTO under the drawbar. :'( Does any market use this drawbar setup any more, because I certainly haven't seen it for a long time. Vicon used to have a similar machine which came with the "continental" drawbar, but that could be reset for what I call the conventional type. It would have looked the part behind a 1/16th Power Major, but sadly as it is, its about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Incidentally, the Vicon Buffalo manure spreader was a clever idea and almost identical to the Optimat. It was relatively easy to remove the rear beaters and then it could be used as a conventional trailer or bale trailer with a bale extension and ladders supplied with it . There were extra supports for the sides to make the floor wider. It was produced in the late sixties or early seventies and aimed at the small farmer. Its worst habit was that it used to pelt the driver with stones. Has anyone bought an Optimat, and have any knowledge of whether the drawbar can be adjusted in any way?