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Richard's Countys......


RichardJW1

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Hi Simon, no, not Torquay, its the Monte Carlo of the south coast - Salcombe

cheers

Richard

:o :o :o Wow what a tractor! Oh and so many happy memories of holidays in Salcombe! Thanks for posting.  :)

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Hi Simon, no, not Torquay, its the Monte Carlo of the south coast - Salcombe

cheers

Richard

thought they looked familair, seen them beavering away before, just never had my camera,,if you go down to loddiswell way, along the bottom road to the garden center, in summer you can usally find a fleet of 3 countys grass cutting tedding and baling away on the steep hill to your right, before the garden center, county 4 four , 1004 and another i cant remember, well worht a trip, the area seem full of old countys and mf's

oh and welcome to the forum to mate,

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Don't know why exactly but the 1174 is the ultimate County to me.

That's a really nice one you have there Richard.

Well Adam you should see plenty of County's at the BA working event when you are accross in May. There is a Scottish County Club with a strong contingent and most of the team Chairman etc are based in Aberdeenshire.

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Thank you for the warm welcome fellas!  :)

So to start with I'll give a bit of history on the 1174......or at least the best I have managed to find out.

It was produced in Dec. 1978 and apparently was sold in around April 1979 by R.C. Edmundson in Norfolk to a farm in the area.

They traded it in after about 18 mths/2yrs where it came back to D.T. Gittins yard.....at this point it had the 12x38 wheels & tyres exchanged for Michelin BIB X 16.9x34s. This photo was taken a couple days after they were changed.

11741980.jpg

After that it went to work somewhere in the Shrops area on an arable farm where it did ploughing & power harrowing. It then changed hands in Sept. '99 to its third farmer owner, again in the Shrops. area.

In July 2004 he decided to sell it and at this point I became the fourth owner.

Here it is just after it arrived in Salcombe alongside the 1004 in July 2004.

pair1.jpg

I've fitted new Firestone tyres to it recently & touched in the paint in the odd place or two, but prefer to keep it as original as poss.

The interior of the cab needs a bit of work in terms of cladding but the wings aren't so rusty as you'd probably see on a tractor this age.

We don't really have a bustin' amount of work for it to do with it at home. Its only 140 acres of mixed arable & pasture land and as you can see we've got a couple of completely serviceable Cases - more about them later.

fridayfinished.jpg

More to follow.....

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So she is original  :o :o :o

Nice fleet mate but one thing - please please put the cab back on the 1004.  ;D

After the 1174 I think if I was buying a County the next choice would be a 6cyl with Duncan cab and a 3/4f reversible Ransomes/Dowdeswell  ;D ;D ;D

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So she is original  :o :o :o

Nice fleet mate but one thing - please please put the cab back on the 1004.  ;D

After the 1174 I think if I was buying a County the next choice would be a 6cyl with Duncan cab and a 3/4f reversible Ransomes/Dowdeswell  ;D ;D ;D

we are hardy boys down here colm mate, no need for a cab ;):D :D :D :D

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I hear what you're saying about the cab but basically its in a bit of a state and not easy to get parts - as I'm sure you know. The doors and window frames are rusty and the actual frame itself is not the best and to be brutally honest its noisy inside, by this I mean it 'drones', not at all like sticking your ear-hole near to the exhaust when its pulling down through the revs.

So to give a bit of background on the tractor.

Its a 1973 model, spent the first 3 yrs of its life in Taunton area then came down to Kingsbridge on a 80 acre beef farm, along with about 3 or 4 other tractors. In fact I remember when I was at school [back in the early '80s] seeing it being used with a Howard 250 spreader. Anyway, cut a long story short the farm sold up in Sept. '96 and this was in the auction and when I got my paws on it.

Photo taken in Dec. '96

1004December96-1.jpg

As you can see the wings were rough and tyres perished so had to replace....along with some other bits & pieces.

I got hold of a Bomford angle-blade for the front and we also found an ex-Council Twose back-hoe which spends most of its time attached.

Monpm.jpg

I'm a bit pushed for time, not working at home so don't get much chance to work on them, however in Dec. 05 I whipped the cab off, made new foot-plates and gave the wheel centres, wings & rear chassis a coat of paint

gasstandby.jpg

DSCN1960.jpg

DSCN1968.jpg

To restore the cab will take some time, along with the other jobs that never seem to go away.....but never say never.

Must admit I did some flail topping with it last summer and it was gorgeous sat out in the fresh air & sunshine listening to the engine

1004flail.jpg

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Marky,

Sorry haven't got very many good pictures of the 165 on my hard-drive. Here's a couple anyway.

Taken 1985

1985.jpg

Its got that rare "rigid" cab instead of the "flexi" version.

So to sum up, father bought it brand new in June 1972 after a bad run with a couple of Power Majors & Super Majors. It was the main tractor on the farm through until the early '90s alongside a Dexta, again father bought that new in the early '60s....then in '84 we increased the fleet size by another 50% and bought a s/h '71 Ford 4000 and put a loader on it....well we started to do round bale silage at that time and the Dexta wasn't up to moving the bales .....have to say the 4000 was not the best buy.

Anyway digressing from the 165, yes, it was & still is a top tractor and never let us down in all those years....we still have it and intend to keep it as a family heirloom....although now its relegated to link-box work, log splitting & bale wrapping [after I mounted a higher cap. pump in the place where the power steering pump should fit]

Taken 2002

1999.jpg

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