powerrabbit

Took my Discovery to the local Landy man today, have a problem with the engine cutting out. More details in the 'Land Rovers' posts.

David Brown offered a lap/seat belt as an option from around 1972, listed and pictured in the parts list books under 'optional equipment'. I believe that a belt is required on any tractor that travels over 20mph on the public highway.

Bagk to winter here today, gale force winds last night and all this morning, woke up around 5.00am to blizzard conditions with heavy driving wet snow but didn't last long and the wind dropped and then the sun came out but still frequent squally sleet/snow/hail showers. It was very bad out over Dartmoor this morning, a Council gritter slid off the road and overturned, driver was lucky to just walk away. Don't know if this link will work but here is the story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8597000/8597038.stm

As we know, Britains are predominantley a 'toy' manufacturer so cater for that market. Reintroducing or completeley revitalising a 'power farm' series would probably be quite expensive and be out of the range of most who buy farm models as toys. Th RC JD 7930 when released was priced at around £50 and have I've been told, not a terribly good seller. I think that the cheap non-descript friction motor tractors that are available are a better buy in the eyes of parents rather than spending ten times the price for something that is only probably going to last a few weeks at most in the hands of a small child.

I picked up a very similar plastic MF165 up at Malvern, also plastic, cabless, no decals, never was, and is 'motorised' switched on with the gearstick. Made by 'Scalecraft', I have the box, it's a 'snap together' model. Looking at the one listed here there are many similarities so could be by the same manufacturer.

Look at your link again Mandy, I think you're a day early.

A bit better here today, still overcast but the sun is poking through but colder than the last few days. We've had continuous rain for the last 4 days amounting to 50mm, that's 2 inches.

It's in the latest T&M Mag in the model section, says that just 600 of these 1:43 Field Marshalls are coming to the UK.

Did you see in the model section of the current T&M Magazine that they've only done 600 of these?

Is this the UH 1:43 Field Marshall?

Not very many farms down here do tours and talks now. NFU would be the organisation that would give you a list of farms that do most likeley. Vapormatic do a good tour of their Exeter warehouse, they can accommodate around 40 people at any one time and you all go round in smaller groups. I had a personal tour last year with the UK and Europe manager, took about 3 hours and was very interesting.

He should have took it, probably worth more than the Jag!

I agree with Simon in what he says about so many 'limited' tractors being in essence just a variation on a theme. A true limited edition should be a make or brand that has not been produced commercially before by another producer or manufacturer, restricted to 1000 or under in number and be 'copyrighted' so that either it or variations of may not be further produced by any other manufacturer. The 'bandwagon' is getting a little stale now and the 'desire' is wearing a bit thin.

A lot of people, local authorities, police and the Government have been salamming it and considering getting it scrapped. The general public are saying that it is an invasion of privicy, police are saying it's helping criminal activity and the Government are saying that it could help terrorism. Myself I don't see the point of it, about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

I myself have never seen any of this specific type other than those Lone Star ones.

Here are the set of 5-lap drag harrows I got from eBay a couple of years ago. I don't know who made them but they did'nt know how to connect the sections to the pole or how to make the tractor towing rods so having used sets like this in real life I made these bits myself, the silver bits.

If you mean zig-zag type harrows, very difficult I would say. The best way would be to build the lattice type frame from flat brass strips and solder together and then drill a tiny hole where each cross and solder in a wire 'pin' for the tines and it's possible. You would have to solder 2 hooks on the front of each section of the drags be it 1, 2 or 3-lap drags and then make a towing 'pole' with corresponding chains, 3 links probably, fitted to the pole with an eye for each to hitch each section of the drags to and 2 eyes about a 3rd in from each end of the front of the pole to take 2 long rods with an eye ring at each end, one end to link to the pole, the other ends connected with another ring to atach the towing chain to the tractor. I bought a 3-lap set of drags off eBay a couple of years ago that had been built like this but was minus the front pole rods and eyes, which I made myself. I'll post up a picture if I can find them in the pile. If you want to go more modern and make folding 3-point-hitch drags there would be a bit more involved as you would have to construct a tubular 3 section frame, probably from small bore copper pipe, like car brake pipe, then you just suspend your drag sections under the frame with 3 link chains, 2 each side and 2 in the front and rear of each section as in the 'real' thing the sections need to move around. I've often thought of making a set of these myself as the sections from a set of Lone Star drags lend themselves perfectly for this.

I do purchase this when any farm related articles appear in it but not on a regular basis as it seems to be mainly for the 'other' model mediums. Looking at the link though I'm tempted to join their Forum and educate them on farm stuff. Could be interesting. Can't remember where I heard it now but was informed that there is now more interest in the collecting of agricultural and plant related toys and models than there is in any other model collecting, haulage transport (including vans) comes 2nd, railway related 3rd, busses 4th then cars and motorcycles 5th.

Can't resist putting this link up. What a good way to sell a car, read on! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230451057921&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2F%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp3907.m38.l1313%26_nkw%3D230451057921%26_sacat%3DSee-All-Categories%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1

In a word, no.

Didn't realise it was on eBay. The seller is a little inventive in his description hoping to 'cash-in' on the vintage tractor aspect, it's nothing to do with a tractor, it's as I said, a parking light for older cars of the period. Hangs on the top of the drivers door window with the 2-pin plug in a socket that would have come with it originaly, has a low voltage bulb in it so that if you parked your car on an unlit street or road you used it instead of leaving your sidelights on all night and draining the battery. You still see them quite regularly at autojumbles, rallies and car boots.

These 'marker' lights were also made by Lucas to clip over your car window to use as a parking light back in the 50's and 60's. Is 'FoMoCo' on the light or the metal base? The 'logo' stands for Ford Motor Company.

Went to the local market and bought 5 hens for £2 each. Very cheap for point-of-lay. They have a poultry market every fortnight from March to October.

Probably a dealer box Arion 640.

The auctioneers at Malvern, H.J Pugh have a list of the price results of the auction items on their website, click on 'results' on the home page and it comes up in a seperate pane as a PDF file.