bluegreen Posted February 3, 2019 Author Share Posted February 3, 2019 I can remember Mark Weatherheads claiming they were the UKs biggest sellers of 8200 tractors after the latest fleet deal to Vestys in 2000, mind you when they lost the next fleet deal to DOE Power CASE in 2002 they probably only sold a couple across their entire region! Chris at work in his new toy 8270 and one of the Vesty Thurlow estates 8260s on the 7 furrow Dowdeswell. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted February 5, 2019 Author Share Posted February 5, 2019 More ploughing primary cultivations pics from Vestys, 8270s and 8260. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted February 5, 2019 Author Share Posted February 5, 2019 The final 8200 picture from Vestys was this 8220 drilling wheat on a cloudless blue sky day 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pingu Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 What a fantastic thread!!! I grew up in the era of 6200-8200 MF’s and still love them to this day and learning to drive on a early T plate 8240 and still have a soft spot for them despite being a definite Fendt man now just to annoy you haha! Then second reason is my other half is a farmers daughter from Newmarket/Haverhill area with her dad working for same farm his whole career in ag around the area plus her family farm backing onto vestys so fantastic to see the history of the area and picture the kit in there stories! And see some from pics from the fens as now helping manage a fen farm so it’s just a thank you from me for posting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted February 9, 2019 Author Share Posted February 9, 2019 Thanks for looking in Phill, Im not to down on Fendts I just don't like it when everyone thinks they have to have one, which makes it boring when when theres too many of one make! But to be fair, because Fendt have done so well for TNS it has allowed them to offer a very high quality back up service to all of their franchises which has actually seen MF increase their sales locally and also we are beginning to see quite a few Valtras showing up as well...…………….which is especially good news as these are replacing Fendts on some farms Where do you farm now Phill ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pingu Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 I get that, I’ve been Fendt since my first tractor was a 818 which at 17 was unreal and they’ve stuck since, spec levels and now as a manager it’s all about weight there 3 ton lighter then the rest! But we have blues in the fleet and Deere’s so not brand biased personally more dealer based. Farm not far from Wisbech at a well know farm previously owned by a super market/ I suppose banking firm.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted February 10, 2019 Author Share Posted February 10, 2019 Im not too knowledgeable on Wisbech farms, although I understand that Waldersley farms which farm around my village also extend thousands of acres all the way to Friday Bridge near Wisbech. Yes Fendt are more compact than JD in all classes except 1050 which is 100hp more powerful than Deeres 8400R so they really have outmanoeuvred JD. And of course we live in Fenland where front linkages are very popular and not an add on feature like in some other parts of the country, so if you buy a Fendt with front links as standard down here your not paying for a feature that wont get used. I do like to see the old guard of NH, MF, JD and CASE doing well but its good to see JCB, Valtra ,Claas and Fendt shaking things up a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted February 10, 2019 Author Share Posted February 10, 2019 In 2002, 2003 and 2005 Vestys switched brands too CASE having Maxxums and Magnums but the estate managers complained about the poor service of DOE Power when compared too Weatherheads! So in 2006 the accountants got overruled and once more Massey got the business. This time it was 7x 8480s, and a dozen 6485, 6490 and 6495s. These 6400s were Tier2 versions and the first sold in the UK too feature the new "shark gill" bonnet styling which imo are the best MF bonnets ever! I must admit I was surprised at the time as I expected that Weatherheads would probably sell the old tier 1 6400s as they would have been cheaper. MF got the deal again in 2008, then got half the deal in 2011 with 6400s only as CASE Magnum 335s were preferred for the heavy work. 2012 saw a major reconstruction as the estate went over to a controlled traffic set up seeing 3 x CASE Quadtrac 550s, 3 x JD 8345RTs...………….and they kept the 3 big Magnums too pull 30 ton chaser bins behind 3 new Lexion 770s over 12,000 acres!! Three MF6499s from 2011 stayed until a couple of years ago, think they may have bought a 7726 Massey just before Weatherheads lost the MF franchise. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted February 10, 2019 Author Share Posted February 10, 2019 The final two pics of the Massey archive and the also the last pics of Vesty MFs were the first ones taken with a digital camera that are stored on my computer, so that's why they are so much better quality than the others. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 I found a couple more old 3000 series pics whilst going through my photo albums. Both were only a few weeks old when I first photographed them. The 3080 was a spring delivered 1988 E plate, and the 3630 an F plate summer 88 machine. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 Well I found some time to dig out some more pics for the archive files, this time I cobbled together a few Fendts Back in the day their were very few on my patch, the ones I can remember from the 80s were toolcarriers and one sultry 612 on sandy root crop unit. It wasn't until the early 90s when I first took real notice of Fendt, that happened when I was visiting a farm in a village called Feltwell which I had photographed a very nice 2wd Ford 6710 and series 1 8210 on a previous visit. There sat behind a hedge with 7 furrow lemken behind it was a huge Fendt. I was a bit too shy in those days and didn't want to just walk in the yard and photograph it, and I never saw it again. However Im guessing it would have been an early 824 as the same farm has an 936 these days and surprisingly still runs a split Fendt/ New Holland set up with a 724/820 and T7270 BP and several other blues. I also remember seeing an 515 coming out of the farm gate in the late 90s. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 Most Fendts I saw were at Demonstrations and I snapped these nice 824 and 515 in 1996 I think. The 515 was a lovely tractor and Fendt had only just moved the bonnet mounted exhaust to a side stack that year I believe. The new 824 still had the bonnet exhaust, but whats that lurking in the background on the Amazone combi?? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 So the year was 1996 and in retrospect I was looking at Fendts most important single tractor release of modern times, the first Fendt Vario!!! The classic 926 The companies flagship tractor badged 926 wasn't much different from the 824 in the same field except for the rather eye catching side exhaust and air filter stacks which made it look very purposeful. As the picture shows it was getting lots of attention. Unfortunately for me I was still stuck on the old guard of NH, Massey CASE and JD and didn't appreciate just how ground breaking the 926 and its subsequent Vario transmissioned little brothers would be in the years ahead. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 Back in 1995 I had noticed one farm out in Essex that were running a pair of decent newish Fendts along with what was left of their previously all Ford fleet. They were both L reg 93/94 machines and fairly early versions as both had the bonnet mounted exhaust stacks. The 514 in the picture has just been released by Weise in 1/32 and its bigger brother which I never got to photograph was the MK1 818 and was identical to the 824s I put in the thread before. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 In 1997 whilst I was out an about near some very black fen soils I spied these two brand new Fendt 512 turbo shifts harvesting root crops. They had replaced a lovely pair of 1993 MF3120s so they must have been damn good tractors as the MFs were highly thought of in the trade. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Palmer Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 great topic Phil,get round to digging out other pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 Last couple of pics of the impressive old 926 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluegreen Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 Gen 2 Fendt 926 yr 2000...…………………….Fendt 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil phoenix Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Thought I would add a few Fendt pics taken in Thurlow Nunns yard March 2012 of the outgoing "last off the production line" 820s sat next to the ugly new machines ha ha!. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Palmer Posted June 4, 2022 Share Posted June 4, 2022 Any updates on this thread Phil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil phoenix Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 No plans Paul, I was going to do a JD one but just cant find the time to do it. Maybe sometime later this summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Palmer Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 20 minutes ago, phil phoenix said: No plans Paul, I was going to do a JD one but just cant find the time to do it. Maybe sometime later this summer. 👍👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Palmer Posted August 26, 2022 Share Posted August 26, 2022 On 6/10/2022 at 7:01 PM, Paul Palmer said: 👍👍 Come on Phil, carry on with this topic please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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