powerrabbit

I have the same book in my collection of various old farming books. The picture of the D.B. ploughing is a 1945/46 VAK1A pulling a David Brown PUI 2-furrow plough, probably 8 or 10 inch furrow but could be altered to 12 inch.

Been down to Plymouth to trailer back a bright red '98 Ford Mondeo for a mate that bought it off eBay for 173 quid. needs a slight bit of work for MOT. Rear brake shoes and a headlamp bulb, or so he was told.

Sounds like it could be time for an insurance claim!

If the driver of the TEF doesn't take his eyes off the young girl on the planter he'll soon be off the end!

Most of these bruisers were made around the turn of the 20th Century and would have been part of the barn machinery driven by the belt pulley system that was in most barns at that time and earlierdriven by either a large stationary petrol engine or connected to the pulley and belt system of the barn thresher that would have been steam driven. Later ones had a kibbler mounted on them which when the grinding plates were set at various distance from each other would either just crack the corn or field beans, if the plates were set really close together would grind the grain down to dust or meal for pigs and would mill wheat down to flour. Bamfords of Uttoxeter and Albion in Lancashire made the majority of these machines and other manufacturers dabbled in making them. They come in all sizes from just a small basic 'two peck' hopper size to quite large industial sized ones. The most asthetic ones have very nice wooden hoppers. Notice in the second picture the handle under the frame below the driving pulley, this is a scraper that you would operate to scrape off any grain that was a bit damp that would stick to the roller wheels, these wheels would shine like mirrors if used regularly. The driving pulley on this one should be a flat belt type originally. When tractors came about with the belt pulley on them farmers tended to drive their bruisers from them a little bit too fast and if a stone went through it it and the leaf spring on the winding wheel tension was too tight to give enough sometimes caused the roller wheels to shatter and fly like shrapnell and many a life was lost because of this, the whole unit being made of cast iron. We always used a bruiser and I still have one with a kibbler, have put hundreds of tons of barley and oats through one over the years.

Its been pretty warm here on Dartmoor for several days now. Temperature has been hovvering around 25 to 29C and a moderate wind which coupled with the hot sun is sucking the moisture out of the ground and the grass is starting to yellow a bit. Soon be desperate for a good couple days soak of rain. Normally with these sort of temperatures as early on as this it usually ends in a violent thunderstorm that breaks it. If we don't have any thunder in April or May, when it does come the storms are usually more violent and being 1000 ft above sea level they can hit us pretty hard.

My copy dropped on the doorstep today. Again full of interesting articles, reveiws, auction price reports, show reports, new releases, Warner Hall on grain harvesting, collections and lots more in the 67 pages of yet another fantastic issue.

Deutz tractors from that era had a back axle problem when new. A local dealer had a lot of the ones they sold returned to them for new diff gears to be fitted as they all failed.

There is also the remote control JD 7930 that was brought out earlier this year at £49.95 from stockists.

No it didn't but his number is 01363 8418. And for the satnav EX17. 6AS.

I was a little worried that the date I read in said publication is wrong as it is usually a Saturday. So until anyone can actually confirm the correct date from the horses mouth, we're still no further forward.

Advertized in the South West Farmer paper as Sunday 5th July from 11.00am.

Seven Britains 'show' horses, 4 light ones, 2 light brown and 1 darker brown, from eBay for just over 6 quid. These horses are shown on page 65 of the new Britains Herald book listed as 2108 Suffolk Mare. Never see them down here.

Some very valid and pertinent comments, especially in the last few posts. If you are an employee, in whatever type of employment, it is the owners or employers responsibility to ensure that any equipment expected to be operated by an employee should be in a safe and useable condition, state of repair and complies with the safetey requirements and law of the land. As an employee, it is your given right to refuse to operate any equipment that you either suspect or know that is below the standard required under the law and theres sod-all your employer can do about it except fix it. You have to know your rights! Interestingly, the e-newsletter I have just received from the NFU has a report in it saying that throughout the country a number of farm tractors towing equipment on the road, particularly trailers, have been stopped by the Police for displaying a different registration plate than that attached to the tractor. The law states that this is perfectly legal providing that both tractor and trailer are registered to the same 'keeper'. This statement shows that a number of Police Forces are not up-to-date with the law. If this is the case, then what else are they getting wrong at our expence? My next Open University subject to study will be Agricultural Law.

I'm surprised no-one has answered this one. You can pull a tracked machine on a trailer behind a tractor quite legally providing the machine is no more than 3500kgs and it is only used for agricultural purposes.

On a full driving license which has the catagory 'F' listed as 'vehicles permitted to drive' on your licence which is the 'agricultural and forestry' catagory you are permitted to drive any other vehicle up to the gross weight of 7.50tonnes. Any weight over that you need to pass another test. The licence also allows you to drive any motor vehicle towing a trailer up to a weight, including vehicle, trailer and load (MAM - maximum allowed mass) of 7.50tonnes and now a seperate test is required in order to tow. Those of us that passed our test before 2002 are still allowed to tow a trailer with a MAM of 8.50tonnes. A towing weight of over 4tonnes requires the vehicle to be fitted with 'coupled' brakes, which by definition is either hydraulicly or air operated brakes. A trailer with a drawbar weight up to 750kgs does not require a braking system but trailers with a drawbar weight above this do. Drawbar weight is the measured downward weight of the towed trailer that is exerted on the vehicles towbar. You still see agricultural machinery being towed on the roads, like balers, by Land Rovers and other trucks but this is illegal as the tyres fitted to them are not speed rated.

I believe you're right on the combine one Marky and I also believe in addition, to drive a combine on the road you must have had a 'full' license for three years. Just out of interest, you can take your tractor test at 16 years of age but can drive a tractor on the road without having passed the test at 17 as long as you display 'L' plates but I think you have to pass your test within a given time period.

Under the law an agricultural tractor is defined as 'a two axle rigid body vehicle that exceeds no more than 20mph'. This is the main criteria but other criteria comes under the law and certain things have been added into the law as time has gone on and tractors have evolved and got more sophisticated and faster. Tractors that are classed as agricultural vehicles, by the law, are now required to conform to the added criteria and incorporates the 'construction and use' legislation. I won't go into the detail as it has been previously mentioned but for instance, tractors that travel over 20mph must be fitted with an appropriate effective braking system as do any towed equipment that is itself, or carries over a certain weight.

The rarest version is the yellow Vermeer baler with the black platic bits that was an export item for the American market. May not be as rare in the Country it was intended for but try finding one here in the U.K. Not to be confused in the future with the yellow one in the set that was brought out over the last year or so.

First day today. Our Devon Branch members of the D.B. Club are staging the Tractor Feature this year with a cross section of our tractors. I will have more time tomorrow and Saturday so will take some more pictures. Here's my 1968 Selectamatic 780 just to start with. She said she wanted to sit on it, I guessed she meant the tractor.

The farm cart with rubber tyres (same wheels and tyres as on the E27N tractor) was only isuued in the duck egg box. This was one of the last 'implements' or horse-drawn equipment to be packaged in the duck egg box and was then deleted. it was thereafter that the horse-drawn eqipment appeared in the sleeve box and stand and the horses were all then produced in plastic from the lead mould. The 'farm tipping cart' raves or lades were in plastic then as well. I think that this last item was the longest produced horse item as I have seen quite a few in 'window' boxes.

Ferrying or should I say trailering David Brown tractors to Westpoint in Exeter later today for the Tractor Feature section of the Devon County Show. A lot of shows and rallies featuring D.B. tractors around the Country this year being the 70th anniversary of the production of the first model, the VAK1. Anyone going to the show from tomorrow through to Saturday come and see us by the Lady Clinton ring , road 5. The Tractor & Machinery Bicton BOAT tractor will be there with us as well where raffle tickets for it will be on sale.

I think that the box sets are rarer because you could also buy the figures and animals seperately as they were supplied to shops in 'trade' packs of a dozen or so and its like all of it really, the further back you go in time. the harder it is now to find.

Received my copy today and thought what a brilliant book, about time someone catalogued the plastic animals and figures. Some of the figures and animals missing from it will probably be listed in the book that he will be doing on the Britains Floral Garden and then there will be the Zoo stuff. This book concentrates on the farm stuff. If I knew at the time the book was coming direct from the author I would of asked him to sign it.

A copy of the new Britains Herald Plastic Figures book by Barney Brown (who is also selling them on eBay). A fantastic book for the collector of farm figures and animals from 1955 to 1969 and on. I think there were a few posts about this book but couldn't find the topic.