powerrabbit

I find that sheep netting, the electric fence type put around the garden keeps the dogs off, and children. No need to hook up a fencer unit to it unless you get trouble with badgers.

Still a bit early in these parts for tilling up the garden as there is still a month or so to go before the risk of a frost gets less but I have planted my spuds in the garden today, 3 rows of second earlies and 5 rows of main crop. Next week will be planting up runner bean seeds in pots in the greenhouse to plant out second week in May. Last week in April will be the time to put in the broad bean and pea seed in the garden and plant sweetcorn seed in pots in the greenhouse. Also at this time put in the onion setts and till all the small seeds like carrotts, beetroot, spring onion and parsnip in the garden.

Asking price at toy fairs are between £75 and £85 as they are considered quite rare but not as rare as the Marshall, the E27N and the Lanz which are seen occasionally for over £100. The D.B. 900 seems to still be the cheapest to obtain and more plentifull at around £55. The issue price for these models in the 'vintage series' was £43.

There were several empty tables and if you happened to be beside one or two or could re-arange a little, they were offered to the stall holder foc to spread out a bit more and those that did were very happy with that. The concensus was that with the good weather and being the school Easter holiday and the Grand Prix being on that a lot of people stayed away, coupled with the 'credit crunch' as well. A lot of people I knew who were there as buyers were saying that a lot of the dealers were still trying to charge too much for this part of the country and still have not learnt that people here have not got the disposable cash. Saying all this though, there were some good deals to be done and there were some bargains early on. On the other hand and going back to prices, I myself would not be prepared to pay £20 for a Britain's un-boxed MF6290 with no cab and a broken mudguard. These are the dealers that moan and complain that no-one spends anything. A very good toy fair though as usual and seems a lot more casual and freindly with a very pleasant atmosphere under its new 'management' with a far greater presence of farm related stuff every time.

The blue chequered Deutz was the Bayern anniversary tractor liveried in the flag of the Bayern region of Germany. £16 was the original price and have not risen like most other limited models.

Very good haul today from Westpoint toy fair at Exeter, spent too much as usual. Britain's. Popular, apple, Scots pine, and Cedar tree. All in original sealed poly bag/carded packaging. Mint 1970 catalogue. Old Triang No. 3 large clockwork tractor. Professional restoration. In good original box. Border Fine Arts. 'Loading Up'. MF35 & trailer, men loading bales of hay. All original packaging. U.H. 50th Anniversary white Massey Ferguson. (found one at last!). Corgi David Brown 1412. All there minus exhaust. (may convert).

That sounds just the job Nathan. Looking forward to having a good rummage already.

Not heard anything about a 1:32 5000 but wouldn't be surprised. A 1:43 5000 is available from the 'Hachette' series of UH made models, Martin Smits had a heap of them last October at Toytrac.

Going down to Bicton College today to watch them make a pigs ear of the 24 hr rebuild of the D.B. 880. It's apparently all in bits on the workshop floor laid out, be interesting to see if they can work out how it all goes back together again!

Now that is good! Looks quite a straigt forward and quite a simple build, wonder that no-one else has done one, or perhaps they have but kept it to themselves! What next then Cerin, cement mixer perhaps?

Just a short update. For anyone interested in following the 24 hour rebuild of this tractor over the coming weekend, follow the link. http://www.bicton.ac.uk/about/newsInfo.php?id=27

Nathan. Stocking the likes of grilles, decals, exhausts etc is good as these tend to be of a good quality nowadays and not easy to get down here. Mind you, that doesn't mean to say that any replacement parts are not any good as yet again, hard to find down here and since Brian Holmes stopped coming a few years ago he has left a big gap in this market so I'd say that if you were thinking of going into the spare parts side you would do very well indeed especially if you could supply them a reasonable prices, you know how tight we are in the SW.

These are exactly the sort of things Nathan. I myself and a few mates have a load of the 1960's, 70's and 80's Britains stuff that all need parts for either rebuilding or converting and it would be nice to be able to find parts to do it as they have all seemed to dry up and dissapear. Cabs and mudguard/floorpans seem to be the most difficult to find and the new ones being produced just don't cut the mustard.

As far as I know the 333 was the industrial 3000, the 555 was the 5000.

I will be there Nathan as Spalding does'nt really float my boat at this time as it's rather a long treck and I've already over spent this year. If you've got any Britain's parts and spares bring it all as there are a lot of people looking for parts.

The little MF550 was all hand-built here locally and was at the last Colridge collection day. Created a lot of interest. That was its first outing, even smelt new.

Its going to be a total full rebuild. They will probably put new mudguards on but the bonnet will be repaired. Some of the work will have to be done before, such as the bonnet. The crankshaft has already gone to be polished so things are getting prepared but I'm very sceptical that it will be all back together in the time.

It was my tractor. I bought it from a dealer about 10 years ago and used it for a year but laid it up as the clutch was nearly out, never touched it since as other projects have taken priority. I know several people locally with connections to Bicton and also some of the Tractor & Machinery mag people and when they said they were looking for a David Brown for 2009 I suggested that I had a suitable candidate so they came and veiwed it and give it a run. Mechanically the tractor is pretty sound but those at Bicton are going to give it a complete rebuild but seeing the 2 & 1/2 pages of the list of parts they want I think that the 24 hours in which they intend to do it is nowhere near realistic as they will have to refurb parts that are not available which will take up time. They don't seem to know a lot about doing up a D.B. tractor as one time consuming mistake they have already made was when removing the right-hand final drive to get at the brakes, they did not engage the diff-lock to compress the mechanism and its all dropped into the botom of the axle, this will take quite a bit to fish out and reinstate and I'm going to have to supply them with a print out of such things like crank bearing and end cap torque settings, tappet clearance settings, engine timing and the like so I'm going to be there at some stages to make sure they get things right. This is going to be one very interesting 24 hours. (Plus)

There was a couple page article with some pictures in one of the now defunct 'Site & Model' magazines a couple of years back. Also contained a list of models of David Brown and related models produced with dates. They missed out a few as some were produced between those dates that they did not know about.

So does that mean the new tractors can't be used with the old controler then? You can run 4 tractors on the old ones as there is a switch on the underside of the tractors.

Classic Farmer, (sorry to be formal) so how many David Brown and D.B Case and related models do you have in your collection? I have a fair collection of them myself being my principal favoured marque. I have around 52 up to now, production and conversions. The Meltham made Case IH models come in this catagory as well up to 1988 when the factory ceased tractor production and switched to Doncaster when the first Maaxum was produced (Case Cummins engine & transmission).

For those of you that are interested you can follow this by live webcam from the link on www.vapormatic.co.uk

Know what your saying. thats the only thing with a quarterly, some stuff like 'new releases' etc is way out of date. Still, if its going to be more regular this will disolve.

Looking good. Really lucky find there and mostly complete, well, all important parts anyway. As I said would date from 1947 noticing that it has a split fuel tank. Someone has fitted the wrong radiator at some time, looks like from a Fordson. Heat plate is missing from the manifold as are the engine side panels. I hope that you will be lucky in that the engine will not be stuck or seized. Grab it!

Will probably have the Cropmaster (VAK1C) petrol/kerosene engine then, 1947 to 52. Rough but running, with blade around 3K.