John Deere 3130 OPU

[Valley Axe Man]

Now then Alastair, that brings back a few memories,  id be about 5 or 6 years old and local farmer did a bit of contracting, he'd a pair of Duncan cabbed 2130's, a 3130 with opu and a 4240s ran a what could have been a 3670 with a couple of homebuilt silage trailers (by my uncle in the workshops at the local quarry where he worked), during the summer holidays i spent a couple of days sat in the cab of the 3130 with my uncle carting grass, dont remember much, one of the trailers was a tandem axle, other two were singles, one painted blue with a red-leaded top..  i vaguely remember going to a farm on the outskirts of Blackburn again riding shotgun in the 3130, some years later in the early 90's that same 3130 ended up in my uncles ownership, well worn by then mind after a handfull of owners since the early 80's, he used it for a while but re-occuring hydraulic faults caused by the brake lining wearing away and metal to metal contact in the brakes causing iron filings to work their way through the whole hydraulic circuit, forced him to move it on after percivering with it for a few years, that got replaced by a 1060 bray (which the silly bugger should have kept but i can remember driving a bit during study leave for my gcse's),  Happy times