britainswomble

Looking at the picture of this tractor; it is fitted with a "Selectospeed " gearbox. In principle the SOS gearbox was a brilliant idea, well ahead of its time but lacking in a suitable control system. Had it had an electronic control system as modern power shift gearboxes do; it would have been very popular. I wonder why it would have been fitted with this transmission, as opposed to the better manual one. Seems a bit of a waste of a County to me.

Bin doing the weekly shop at Tesco's. Took my 29 year old motor home out for the occasion. Been tenpin bowling at Tunbridge Wells and went for a meal at a pub called The Nevill Crest and Gun, between Tunbridge Wells and Crowborough. I lost both games bowling and the meal was spot on, so a good day all round.

My opinion.........for what it's worth. It would seem to me, without knowing the type of terrain you farm on and around, that you have two conflicting requirements. For your general farmwork you would be able to do what you want to do with (Quoting Ford) something like a 6610, or better still a 7610 4wd ( ). The fly in the ointment being the two big trailers. I personally wouldn't want to put more than 8 tonnes behind a 76, especially if you want to use it off road. The 20' bale trailer I don't have a problem with, but I wouldn't think of putting a 16t bulk trailer behind anything less than 150hp. You need the power to keep a reasonable speed on the road and weight for traction and braking stability. If you must tow this enormous trailer, and need to do it regularly, you are going to end up with a tractor that is ridiculously over powered and too heavy for the ground conditions on your farm and the type of work it will do most. Most of the tractors in the price bracket you are looking at are unlikely to have tyres much bigger than 18 x 38's and that will cause ground compaction problems. All you need is a 7610 4wd which will be great for general farmwork as well as a good loader tractor. Go and buy yourself a nice Ford 8730 with powershift as your runaround and toy, keep it in the shed polished and immaculate for the times when you need the power and pose factor, for heavy haulage.

Well..........it made me smile, more than laugh. Today, in the middle of my holiday I got called in to work to cover for a driver who didn't have time to finish his days work. I did the petrol round today and was sat at the traffic lights by Eastbourne railway station. Two gorgeous and quite sophisticated looking twenty something girls walked across in front of me. Both were wearing flimsy little mini skirts which they were having to hold down as the wind kept blowing them up. I sat there smiling at them, and when they looked up at me they smiled back. I watched them walk across in front of me and start walking down the road ahead of me. One looked round and saw me still watching, so she smiled at me and very kindly pulled the back of her friends skirt up.............little darling. Oh lucky me.........I wasn't expecting that, but it sure did make my day. Lovely legs, pretty girls with a naughty sense of humour, aaand sunshine, what more could a man want.

Glad it made you laugh................have you seen the one about the free items I received, the saga of the watches. When you read it, say it to yourself in your best Hong Kong Chinese accent. That was a really mad situation, and might make you chuckle yet again.

A nice simple straightforward and very practical conversion. Just imagine what it would sound and look like with a TW 10 engine. Great for ploughing matches,

No one is safe from this jolly old forum. It would appear that you are already infected with it. It starts off just looking out of idle curiosity or just to pass the time, and eventually you will find yourself leaving it on all day and just having a "Quick squint" just in case anything interesting is going on. The next stage is planning your day so that you can spend some time on here. The "I'll just do that and have a quick look" syndrome. Quick looks for ten minutes become half an hour, then an hour. Then the self loathing sets in when you've been on here for an hour and a half and you walk away disgusted with yourself as you could have done something creative with your time. Recognize any of these symptoms.............hmm? You know it's serious when you wake up in the morning and lean across and turn the computer on...........just for a quick look. If you have reached this stage it may be too late to save you. ..............May the Lord have mercy on your soul.

No......it was something from your 'era' that I bought for my stepson to use as a field bike. It was a Suzuki ZR 50........two stroke with six spoke alloy wheels. Would have been a pretty little runabout in its day. Shame really that it had to be scrapped as I fitted an oversize barrel and piston to it and new main bearings.

Mostly cos the little bu**ers roaming the streets have only one parent, few have fathers who are good role models, some have mothers who have no control over them, and the kids / adolescents / juvenile delinquents have few posessions, have destroyed most of what they had and been given more, and seem to think that they shouldn't have to respect the property of others. As they would say.."We were only sitting on it". They are too stupid or thick to realize that it could permanently dent a bonnet and that it would cost a fortune to repair a car you've worked your butt off to buy.

Bl*dy silly title............well its like this..........today I've been doing what I was going to get up to today, but now I've done it, its what I've been doing and not what I was going to do............is this the right section to put this in. Today.......what I've been doing is what really pleased me today, because yesterday it was what really annoyed me today, and I was going to do it today. What made me sad today was getting rid of something I've had for years.......an' before you say it Tris, I aint got Herpes. It had to go and wasn't up for general discussion. As this week is vacation time and I'm away for a while from work, I decided to sort out my garage and get rid of the scrap. This left me with a motor bike dilemma do I scrap my old Suzuki or keep it. It had to go, along with a couple of old engines, one from my Daimler I restored many years ago as well as lawnmowers, bikes, batteries, car doors, roof racks and a gearbox etc, etc. (P.S......that isn't text talk..........it means etcetera, or, and so on. )................

Finding out today that the water leak from above the bed in my motorhome was far worse than I ever thought. Now I've stripped it all out to dry the framework and will be putting in new panels soon.

Meeeee...............how could you think such a thing.

Know what you mean, but some of 'em are a bit skinny, some have attitude problems, some have Psycho ex boyfriends and drug problems........can't imagine Tracie would be too happy with that.

I think the gist of this one could be easily misunderstood, ie it isn't asking what are you doing now or what have you been doing............more a case of what are you going or hoping to do..... at the weekend. Depends on how you read it and what day of the week it is. Sorry................I'm pokin' me nose in again...............best go an' stick some stinging nettles down me pants to punish myself for trying to be helpful.

Now if that was owned by a dairy farmer; it would be covered with straw, sh1t an' string. Isn't it strange how many stock farmers have little regard, sympathy or understanding for anything mechanical. It's great to see a cab interior looking like that. When air con became popular, most drivers had the air con on full blast with the windows wide open so the air filters blocked and the cab filled up with dust. That's another good thing........at last air con is being used properly. Trying to educate drivers years ago was really hard work at times, there were some really stubborn sods out there.

Was going to the Vintage Show at Laughton today, but after the monsoons I would imagine that most of the exhibitors would have gone home already. It's a real shame as I had been saving this show as my end of summer treat and hoped to see .......is it G & M Farm Models ( Gordon someone, Nigel knows him) to make a few additions to my collection. I've bought stuff off of him before, a really nice genuine sort of chap.

Oh fu.......sorry, what a pain. Ever thought about getting a proper job? Ever thought that someone is trying to tell you not to have anything to do with grass farming. Was this a contracting job, and if so will you be able to claim on someones insurance? It's great to see all these machines with hundreds of horsepower covering hundreds of acres of grass with butterfly mowers and front mounted mowers, but all it takes to bring them to a standstill is a piece of two inch pipe dragged up out of the ground by something like a subsoiler and that's it. I presume this was a trailed mower, as we often read about tractors spun around and turned over after hitting obstructions, so at least that didn't happen. I expect many contractors cash flow is such that they can't easily afford a direct replacement for their existing mower. Imagine doing that with a Krone Big M? and having to repair that when the payments still have to be made. Trouble being too with contract work is that everything is flat out on unfamiliar ground, ie you don't see raised manholes, forgotten water tank stand pipes and concrete stands, or tree roots until it's too late to stop. Sooner you than me............

Went to the childrens parade of the Uckfield Carnival this afternoon. My oldest grandson Elliott (4 and 3/4's) won fourth prize in his class as a gnome fishing, my youngest grandson Sebastian (3 months) came second in his class as a Bassetts jelly baby, and my grandaughter Robyn (3 and a half) won two third and one first prize dressed as a Cadbury's Roses girl. My wife made most of the costumes, so she was well pleased too. We've been doing the carnival childrens parade for years, and it's rare that my wife doesn't win a prize with her costumes. I had great fun one year when I made a Wallace and Gromit motorcycle combination for my eldest stepson. It was made out of a small wheeled pedal cycle and the sidecar frame was made out of old exhaust tube.............Wombled of course. The engine was a cardboard cutout, the mudguards were made of cardboard, and I borrowed a seat, headlight and sidecar wheel from the motorcycle workshop next door to where I worked. The sidecar body was made out of an old oil drum with a big plastic flower pot taped on to the front of it, and the ladder was made out of roof batten. To complete the Wallace look, he wore the right type of clothes and had a large gobstopper (A large round hard sweet, well known in England) in each cheek................. He won of course

Supposed to be watching the Uckfield Carnival Procession tonight...........but its peeing down with rain, and it don't look like its going to stop.

Hi Sue, I hope you are better at tidying up cupboards than I am. I take it all out, remember why I didn't throw it away last time I had a tidy up, and then put it all back. Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a Womble.

Wasn't it Fortschritt that made the Leley combine from the late sixties and early seventies..........the one with the folding header.......if you can remember back that far.

Aren't these old books great to look at. Absolutely fascinating. When you look at many of the machines; it's a good indication that the designs were almost impossible to improve on when the current offerings are so similar. The main changes we see are in the size of the machines and how they are controlled. In spite of all the technology of today, they still did the job just as effectively. These pictures also bring back a lot of happy memories for me. The days of discing, rolling and harrowing to make seed beds, cabless tractors........great in the summer, spreading dung with a land driven dung spreader with the clicking wheels when you were cornering or reversing, spreading basic slag with an early Varispreader, watching grass and fodder rape being planted with a "Shandy Barrow", listening to the busy clatter of a Track Marshall 55's tracks pulling a trailer plough, the smell of well rotted dung and diesel fumes from a Fordson Major fitted with a low mounted old tubular Mil loader, and the hefty bang as the bucket returned to the trip lock. Watching a Caterpillar D2 pulling a mole plough to lay water pipes for water tanks in the field, rigid tined Nicholson cultivators with mechanical lift, courtesy of a rope operated wheel trip. Spreading grass on a silage clamp by hand, making sure there weren't any air pockets in the side of the clamp, and being told to build up the outside of the clamp well because thats where most of the wastage comes from........... :'( :'( sorry I get a bit nostalgic sometimes. My other favourites being the old pre "parlour" days of the old cowstalls. In the winter when it was very cold, the tops and bottoms of the doors would be shut and I loved the smell when the doors were open and the warmth of the air inside. The cows we had were Pedigree Shorthorns ranging from flighty first calvers to some very old sedate "Ladies of the herd'. I remember the sound of the milking buckets pulsators, seeing bricks being put on the clusters to speed up the slow milkers (It made the 'Draw' stronger), watching the cowmen tip the milk through a filter before it went over the crinkly corrugated cooler and into the churns. I remember washing udders before milking, using a "Strip cup" with the rubber disc inside held in by a circlip. We'd milk out a few squirts of milk from each teat to check for mastitis or any other irregularities which showed up against the black rubber. Milk went out in churns then and one of my jobs was to make sure each churn was topped up to the ten gallon mark before they went on to the milk lorry and made their way to Holes and Davigdor dairies in Hove. The farm cats used to sit outside the dairy waiting for their milk or some colostrum after milking. The churns went on a "Proper" milk lorry which had poles and chain sides. It was a green and cream Bedford 'J' type, and I often used to sit in the cab and imagine myself driving it. "Old Arthur" as he was affectionately known, didn't mind. I remember the A.I. man coming round (Mr Venice) in his 105E Anglia and Mr Teakle (Simon to me dad) the vet. Various other jobs like feeding the cows in the stalls were always a pleasure; going round with a half round tub, feed carrier, dispensing concentrates or sugar beet pulp which came dried in big hessian sacks. One of my jobs used to be to soak the sugar beet pulp for feeding. Eating linseed cake, oats and rolled maize from the barrow as we fed the cows. Putting hay in the racks, and getting a sly kick from a heifer when you were cleaning out the "Trough" behind the cows. Staggering up the "plank" to the top of the dung lump with a wheelbarrow of poo and hoping you didn't fall off on the way. Watching calves being born and later helping them on their way. All the problems we had with the new Charollais calves. Having a chase around and rough up with the older calves. It was a sad day when the old cowstalls went and the new three unit Alfa Laval tandem milking parlour was put in. I remember the carnage when all the cows had to have their horns cut off so they could get in the "King Yard Yokes" in the feeding area. There was blood everywhere from severed arteries in their horns. The veins were sealed with a hot iron and the stumps were coated with "Stockholm Tar" to keep the flies off the cows and seal the wounds. I remember the battering we all took trying to "Persuade" the poor cows into this new building for milking. We dragged them, surrounded them, cornered them with ropes, chased them in the door and got knocked for six when they panicked and reversed out. I got winded and bruised when one managed to turn around and bolted past me in the narrow passage and trapped me against the wall. Harvest was always a great time of the year, the arrival of the combines from the main farm at Iford, the grey Fergies with three ton Fergy Grain trailers, which we used to ride in while the combines emptied their tanks, watching a Massey 65 with a Massey baler baling the straw. (We used to call it the nodding baler because the packer arm went up and down on top of it) Watching the man on the sledge stacking the bales and letting them go with a full stack. The early sledge had a pole which was pushed through a slot in the floor and jabbed into the ground to push the bales off. The final bit of excitement came after the headlands were ploughed and the stubble burnt, This was almost as great a spectacle as bonfire night, as we often did it at dusk. A few weeks after harvest we all went back to school with new uniforms........yes uniforms.....and they had to last till next year. Christmas day we always went and did what we could to help dad get in for as much of Christmas day as possible. Christmas time was the only time; apart from special occasions when we used the "Front room", and that made it even more special as we had an open fire to keep it warm. Our house didn't have any heating. During really cold periods, apart from hot water bottles, we used to have the upright "Valor" paraffin heaters to take the chill off our bedrooms. Paraffin used to be delivered to the house with a Bedford CA van with a tank in the back. It was put in a gallon measure and emptied into your own cans. The coal suppliers did both types of fuel. The delivery man was known as "Popeye" for some strange reason. Meals were very different in those days too. Breakfast was always started with cereal followed by a fry up of some sort. We had dinner in the middle of the day with out fail, lovely stews and casseroles in the winter and usually home cooked fish and chips on Fridays. Pies and stewed friuit were quite common desserts. Everything was bought fresh as we only had a pantry..........no fridges then. If you wanted ice cream for dinner, one of us used to ride up the shop and get it just before dinner and bring it back carefully wrapped in newspaper to stop it melting. "Tea" was usually about six o'clock. All meals were eaten at the dinner table without question. We used to have a brew at about eleven in the morning and again at three, just before dad want back for milking. We were allowed a few biscuits with our drink, but never allowed to eat between meals. Sorry to go on a bit, but seeing all this old machinery brings back so many happy memories of my childhood. The good times outweighed the bad, and if you like me were a child in the late fifties and sixties, this may well bring a smile to your face too.

Realistically, an oversize engine wouldn't really allow a tractor to do any more than the original unit was intended to do. As an example, a Ford based tractor such as a 4100 originally 52 hp with the 4000 back end wouldn't normally have anything much bigger than a lightweight three furrow reversible on the back like the Ransomes TS 83, a TS 300 or the Dowdeswell DP 8? The weight on the rear would be the limiting factor for traction, although you could weight and ballast the back. A set of 1400 x 24's / 14 x 30's would give you a fair amount of traction, without overloading the transmission. Again PTO wise I wouldn't expect it to do more than the PTO clutch was designed to do. Appearances and the joy of owning something different are the main attraction to owning something like this. As regards modified vintage tractors go, I;m quite happy for people to make hybrids of them if there are plenty of them around and it's done in such a way that the tractor can be put back to original spec without any trouble. As regards your choice of the Perkins 640; I've never had any dealings with them. I've rebuilt a 540 and worked on 510's. Two of my favourite compact engines suitable for putting in tractors would be the V6 or V8 Detroit two stroke and the Cummins V6 or V8 that Fords fitted in their trucks in the early seventies. I also like the idea of something like the Cat 3208 that was fitted to the mid seventies Whites and New Holland SPFH's. That was a real little snorter. All I need now is another lifetime and a massive win on the Euro Lottery. (Read what it says on the bottom of my post about dreams )

For a long time now I've harboured secret longings to build a customised tractor. (1:1) We've seen Fordsons with V8 Perkins engines, and various industrial engines, but I have a few ideas of my own. I would like to build something that has a practical use, as well as one for fun. Here are a few of my ideas:- 1- To fit either a Daimler V8 2.5 litre engine, or possibly a Rover V8. The Daimler appeals to me more as it's a smaller more discreet looking unit, and also a very nice looking engine. It's quite powerful, about 140 bhp and sounds great..............Er, this one's for fun only, but I bet it would bark with a plough on the back. 2- To take a Ford 3000 or a 4100 with the bubble cab and fit a TW 10 engine into it. I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to do bearing in mind how interchangeable Ford parts are. I would want it still able to be used for agricultural purposes, and imagine the later tractors would be better to convert with the 4000 back end, which has wet brakes and a Hydraulic engaged PTO, and a better hydraulic system that would allow fitting of assister rams. I reckon it would be of great interest at a ploughing match. 3- A Super Dexta (Blue / grey) with a six cylinder Perkins engine. Something like the 6.354. There are loads of them laying around in old combines and can be bought cheaply. Most have done very little work. Again I would like to keep it standard looking so it could still work. The picture below was taken at Ardingly last year and has a Volvo Truck engine in it and combine wheels. The converters did a superb job on it. To me; that is spot on. Do you have any ideas like this................. take a seat and tell us your ideas.

Bl**dy air leaks again. Been losing air on my trailer for the last few days, so I had a good listen round it this morning and found an air tank has rotted through under the mounting bracket. And then...........in comes Adrian with the baby tanker and says, "Did you know the handbrake leaks air on the baby ". That just about pssssssssssssssst me off. More work than I know what to do with before my holiday and yet more things being added on the list. Gonna be some long days before the end of the week.