Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i Tractor & Machinery

Hello and welcome to the June issue of T&M. It’s nice to small-scale gatherings of like-minded friends taking place, but plans are afoot for some events to return later this year You’ll find more details in our news section, as well as ‘Last word’, and I have to say that I am thrilled at the prospect of being able to get out and about once again. The framework for these events will be determined by government guidelines, but with more and more of us having received at least one dose of the vaccine, myself included, things look promising. Face coverings and social distancing may not have disappeared, but if that’s what’s required to help us return to pre-pandemic normality, so be it! We’ve got a good mix of original, converted…

We’ve all done it – thumbed through the pages of Tractor Mart, or scrolled through the listings on Internet auction sites and found a bargain, only to question whether it’s too good to be true. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is, but you tell yourself that at the price it has to be worth a punt. Doesn’t it? There are, of course, occasions when buying a tractor like the one pictured above isn’t a gamble – such as if you intend to fully restore it and strip it back to every last nut and bolt along the way. If replacing parts as a matter of course is your intention for such a project, then buying ‘cheap’ is probably the way to go. What if your…

Introduced in 1965, the IH 523 hit the British market in 1967 and despite a host of impressive features it did not sell particularly well. It wasn’t cheap, but the fact that it was a ‘foreign invader’ did not sit well with prospective buyers either. In short, for many it was fear of the unknown. The tractor featured a brilliant, direct-injection, three-cylinder engine, rated at 52hp, and a competent hydraulic system, but it’s the transmission that is our focus here. Fitted as standard with an eight forward, four reverse synchromesh unit, the 523 and its siblings were a pleasure to drive, but there was an optional party piece for those looking for added versatility. Agriomatic-S was the successor to Agriomatic on the ‘D’ line of tractors and incorporated the synchromesh…

This tractor was originally bought brand-new by our neighbours, in 1951. I used to watch it at work over the fence during haymaking season and marvelled at its sheer size. We had Ferguson and International Harvester tractors at the time that looked small, even to a five-year old, compared to the Nuffield. It’s a Nuffield DM4 with the factory-fitted, 3.15-litre Perkins P4(TA), developing 45bhp and 130lb/ft of torque at 1,300rpm. This is not much more than an MF 35 or IH B-414 but, apparently, Morris Motors Ltd. urgently needed a diesel to keep up with the competition, so fitted this engine for a few years before the BMC OEA diesel unit was produced. The engine is, perhaps, a bit underpowered on the road with the high top gear. It slows…

HARVEST HEROES It’s great to see a blue tractor sharing the workload! Dear Junior, These are pictures of har vesting in Norfolk. I love looking at my granddad’s Tractor & Machinery. I hope that you like my picture. Alby Cantwell (aged 7), Norfolk FUTURE DESIGNER You’ve done a great job! Dear Junior, Here is my latest tractor picture. I love your tractor magazine. Henry (aged 6) TRACKED TITAN Great detail… especially on those tracks! Dear Junior, This is a Claas Axion tractor with tracks. It’s my favourite tractor. James Martin (aged 10), Co. Antrim FRESH CROP Fantastic – well done! Dear Junior, Here is a drawing of a Massey Ferguson in a field of fresh crop. I would love to see it appear on a future gallery page in your…

Steamfest is the largest working display of steam and agricultural heritage held in northern Tasmania, Australia, at a small town called Sheffield. This year was one of the best held to date and a good crowd was in attendance, with Covid-19 restrictions maintained at all times. There were 11 working steam engines, which were a mixture of agricultural traction engines, road haulage engines and road rollers, as well as the narrow-gauge railway. Not to be outdone, the Ferguson TE-20 was celebrating its 75th anniversary and these made up a total of 100 tractors on site for all to enjoy. Steamfest was run over three days, on 6-8 March, by the Redwater Creek Steam and Heritage Society. The event was very well supported, with more than 7,000 patrons coming through the…

I am lucky enough to own a 1976 Massey Ferguson 16 tractor. It is one of the smallest fully-formed Massey Ferguson tractors that I am aware of and is part of a series of Massey Ferguson garden tractors produced in the United States during the 1960s and ’70s. The first tractors in the range were the 7, 10 and 12 models, designed to look like the full-size farm tractors built at the time, but they were not built by Massey Ferguson. Some were made by Badger Northland in Wisconsin, as MF owned the company at the time, but others were produced by American Machine & Foundry (AMF) in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The initial models were later joined by the 14 and 16, with the model number indicating the horsepower…

I bought my pre-Implematic David Brown 950 about eight years ago, and apart from replacing the rotten mudguards and cross-box, and tidying up the bonnet, I haven’t done very much with the tractor. I have, however, felt for some time that I need to get the tractor up to scratch and into a more usable state. Soon after purchasing it I experienced some clutch slip and attempted to adjust the clutch pedal free play, but the result of this was the inability to engage the power take-off. After studying the layout of the dual clutch and reading various articles, I was aware that if the traction clutch plate wears to a certain point it prevents the PTO clutch from disengaging, so I knew I needed to act. I had noted…

Dromore-based Euro Auctions, one of Europe’s leading auctioneers of industrial plant, construction equipment and agricultural machinery, hosted a one-day collectors’ sale of classic and vintage tractors, plant, machinery, motor cars and commercials on 1 May at Castle Irvine, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. This eagerly awaited one-day auction was held as a physical sale at the stunning Castle Irvine, with more than 1,000 attending on the day to view the excellent collection of machines on parade. On the day, more than 1,000 registered online bidders took part in this sale from more than 50 countries, including the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Europe, the USA, Canada, South America, the Far East, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. With more than 300 lots for sale, not since the private tractor collection…

Sun and dust were some of the main ingredients at the Cheffins Vintage Collective Sale on Saturday 24 April, at the company’s Sutton, Cambridgeshire, site. At last, bidders could attend in person and 2,000 lots were entered for them to consider. People are investing in tractors, rather than putting money in the bank, and it was the original tractors and classic models that proved to be the most popular. As I mentioned in my ‘Welcome’, the ex-Peter Fordham 1962 Fordson Super Major was a prime example. The tractor features a Howard reduction box in it, but that is not the reason why people wanted 748 JBM. It is straight, if a little unglamorous paint-wise, but the winning bid of £6,000 proved that unmolested, original tractors are what people want. As…

When it comes to buying tools and equipment, Machine Mart has a range that will suit anyone maintaining or restoring tractors. With 65 superstores nationwide, a dedicated mail order department and a 24-hour website offering items at competitive prices, Machine Mart can help you keep your project moving. Despite the approach of summer, the weather is unpredictable and so to give you the freedom to continue working on your tractor or implement, or protect your finished project from whatever Mother Nature throws at it, we’ve teamed up with Machine Mart to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a Clarke CIG81015 Garage/Workshop, worth more than £300. At 4.5m long, 3m wide and 2.4m high, it offers the protection of traditional buildings at a fraction of the price. The workshop…

Runaway Allis Dear T&M, The photo shows a new Allis-Chalmers U tractor, delivered by Brooks of Hereford to Tythegston Court Farm in Glamorgan, in the spring of 1949. The binder on the back was an Albion land drive. The young lad on the tractor was Phil Davies, one of the stockmen and my best man the following year. The gent on the binder seat was Ned Rowden, who was knocking on a bit in age, but was one of those people who had all his remedies for all ailments, taken from the hedgerows, trees and bushes. On the farm at that time we had the model U and also an A-C WF – a first-class tractor in its time – and an early David Brown Cropmaster. The model U was…

In the last issue we showed you four of eight new 1:32 releases from Britains and this time we’re bringing you the remaining four First up is a John Deere 3050 and, like the 3640 we reviewed last time, there are question marks over the sturdiness of the air pre-cleaner and exhaust. The detail is great, but will they withstand the hard graft of the carpet farm? It’s priced at around £27.99. The big brother of the 3050, the 3650, is also available at the same price. The main difference between the two, aside from the decals, is a lack of front mudguards on the 3650. Next is the IH Farmall 1066 – one for fans of older tractors. With an open station, rather than cab, it’s a great-looking model…

The history of New Holland is a long and interesting one and, like so many companies, it started with humble beginnings. In this case, it all started in New Holland, Pennsylvania, when Abram ‘Abe’ Zimmerman opened an equipment repair establishment in 1895. Abe was a talented engineer and machinist and repaired whatever was brought in, as well creating a range of feed mills, that were sold under the Fairbanks Morse line, and servicing engines in the area. This led to Abe creating a small, 1.5hp open-crank stationary engine that gained a patent for its ‘freeze-proof’ design. It was an instant hit and a corporation was formed to build the new engine in a new, brick-built factory, from 1903 onwards. The company prospered and developed a range of new machinery, including…

On the last Saturday of March, a ploughing day took place close to Bally-quintin, Co. Down. Five classic Ford and County tractors, built in the 1970s and ’80s, were used to plough approximately 15 acres of stubble ground on a bright, but bitterly cold day. The land that was ploughed extends down to the shoreline of the Irish Sea and is close to the entrance of Strangford Lough. It was very pleasing to see two County 1164s at work, one of which belongs to Melvin Thom. He had teamed his 1975 model with a Fiskars three-furrow, spring-release plough, made in Finland. Sidney Scott was using his 1972 model with a Kverneland four-furrow, spring-release plough, while a five-furrow version was being pulled by the youngest tractor used on the day –…

KNOW YOUR CLASSIC TRACTORS Old Pond Publishing Paperback, 178x127mm 90 pages £6.99 + delivery oldpond.com Chris Lockwood is a Suffolkbased tractor enthusiast and photographer, as well as the driving force behind Anglian Agri Media Ltd. He has also produced several books, including Know Your Tractors and Know Your Combines. The ‘Know Your…’ series encompasses everything from combines to cows and diggers to ducks and the latest in the series sees Chris presenting a sample of the popular makes and models of classic tractors that you might see when out and about in the British countryside, including steel-tracked crawlers. Many of the photographs show tractors at work and Chris has accompanied these with simple, but informative, text regarding the history of the manufacturer and the model shown, including basic technical specifications…

Ferguson TE-D 20 Q I wonder if you can help with my problem. Being, until now, the happy owner of a Grey Fergie of 1950 vintage, which now runs on a 12-volt electrical system, I am faced with a peculiar problem. peculiar problem. Until recently it started easily, as it still does, and ran well, but suddenly whilst driving on a main road in top gear the engine started to surge and run very unevenly. I stopped and switched off for a short time and then restarted and progressed for, say, one hundred yards before the same surging effects returned. Thinking that it would be a fuel problem I have replaced the entire system with a new fuel tank, carburettor, copper fuel pipe and filters. This gave no solution. I…

April was a very solid month for sales and what is clear, as we have been saying for some time now, is that original, low-hour tractors are in demand – as was proved in late April and early May at Cheffins’ Vintage Collective at Sutton and Euro Auctions’ Vintage Sale in Northern Ireland on 1 May. One example from the Cheffins sale was the ex-Peter Fordham, late Fordson New Performance Super Major, that sold for £6,000. It’s paintwork was not that good really, but it was the one that everyone loved. If you are painting a tractor now, it needs to be correct and this was again proved over the two sales mentioned. What is clear is that the following for earlier tractors is, sadly, slowly slipping away, which is…

On Saturday 17 April, David and Tim Kivell had a superb day – with the company’s Devon auction yard full of equipment, including three part/full dispersals. It was witnessed by more than 730 registered buyers, including 570 online from as far afield as the Republic of Ireland. Top price on the day was for a Zetor Proxima with loader, on behalf of Mrs Hill of Blisland, which sold for £23,200. A McCormick X60.40 with loader sold well at £21,300, whilst the dispersal of tractors and machinery from Ken Boundy of Morwenstow went very well. All three tractors were original and the highlight was a 1991 Ford 7810 reaching £11,500. The same purchaser bagged the Ford 6600 at £6,050, but the Ford 3000 didn’t meet its reserve. In the non-VAT section…

DEERE’S LEAP Following a career with John Deere spanning more than four decades, Peter Leech explains how the company had an enviable position in the high-horsepower, two-wheel drive market, thanks to innovative design. TOOLBAR TIME The latest reader’s project sees the International Harvester Heritage Association’s Andrew Carpenter tackling something a little different – a 30-112 toolbar. SMALL TRACTOR? NO PROBLEM! If you had an 80hp tractor back in the ’80s, there was a trailed forage harvester for you – the New Holland 400. Jonathan Whitlam was lucky enough to see one in action. PLUS Junior, Lost treasure, Machinery milestones, Model corner, News, Tractor Mart, Workshop & more……

The McCaughans of Ballyversal, near Coleraine in Northern Ireland, could see the benefits of tractor power and in 1938 they made the decision to purchase a Fordson N. It replaced Clydesdale horse power on their 62-acre farm with dairy, cereal and potato enterprises, spending the next few years on tillage and harvest operations, towing the binder and powering the belt-driven barn thresher. This was to be the first of many purchases from the Fordson family. In 1958, a visit to T D McFarland, of Church Street in Coleraine, resulted in the purchase of a new Fordson Dexta which, with a hydraulic linkage incorporating draft control, 32hp from the new F3 144cu in engine and a ‘Live Drive’ PTO, was at the forefront of farming technology. Soon the Dexta was sharing…

Father and son Andy and James Smyth, from Dungiven in Co. Derry, are Case International enthusiasts through and through and saw their dreams become reality when restoration specialist Cyril Hanna and his team transformed their tractors into the stunning examples they had craved for some time. The first of these, a 1988 Case IH 956XL was purchased by Andy Smyth when it was five years old, with 4,000 hours on the clock. The tractor was originally sold by Rickerby of Carlisle to a dairy farm, where its main duties were cutting silage, spreading slurry and general farm work. Once in Andy’s ownership the tractor immediately started work on a water main ploughing contract over an 18-mile stretch from Caughill to Limavady, but with that job completed the 956XL was used…

Throughout the history of agricultural mechanisation there have been numerous advances in technology and operator comfort, including the introduction of regulations limiting the amount of noise operators should be subjected to whilst driving a tractor. On 1 June 1976, new UK noise level regulations for tractor cabs came into force that saw manufacturers scrambling to meet, in order to be able to continue selling their machines in this important market. Ford and Massey Ferguson, both building tractors in the United Kingdom, needed to offer machines that were productive, offered good value for money and conformed to regulations. Ford had introduced its 7A line, commonly known as the 600 Series, in late 1975 and so set about altering the range to include a cab that would meet the noise level criteria.…

I am trying to trace a Massey Ferguson 135 that we once owned, with the registration BIJ 2188. I discovered that it is taxed until June 2021 and I would really like to know the history of the tractor since it left our farm. It was purchased new by my father, John, in 1969 and traded in when he bought a new 135 from Thompson Reid Trac tors, Belfast, in 1977. I still have this tractor and have included a photo, as the trac tor I am trying to trace looked very similar. It was traded in with a Sekura cab fitted and one of the cab supports was modified to accommodate the rear wheel when using a potato planter. Noel Fearon If you can help, please write to the…

With many shows and road runs already cancelled, I was pleased to be invited to a working event on 17 April, in Ceredigion. Dai Penffos Thomas had set aside some land to be worked by vintage tractors, in preparation for the sowing of oats, and was using some of his own machines, as well as inviting friends along to use theirs. The four acres of land at Rhydlewis proved ideal and gave the operators a chance to put their steeds to the test with various trailed and mounted implements. Dai said: “They may be slower than modern tractors, but they do the same job at the end of the day and with no hi-tech electronics and computers on them, they are far easier to work on too.”…

DIFFICULTY RATING After the frustrations of the wet, long-lasting winter weather, we now live in hope of some warmer, drier, more spring-like weather, which will enable the David Brown 780 project to move towards a finish. As much as I like David Brown tractors, I find that their skid units are full of nooks and crannies, which makes paint preparation much more difficult than, for example, a Massey Ferguson or Ford tractor. The areas I am referring to tend to harbour much dirt, grease and other detritus, making it a tedious task to remove and clean up in readiness for painting! I could have chosen to have the whole skid unit shot or bead blasted by a specialist, which would have sped up the operation and made life a lot…

Stroud Auctions, of Gloucestershire, will offer the Andrew Hinman collection of tractors, engines and a steam roller at auction on 10 July 2021. The collection includes some real rarities, many of which have been sourced from across the globe. For those after a single-cylinder diesel there’s a Marshall M, Series 3A and also a 48hp Lanz, as well as a Field-Marshall project. Roadless 95 and 115 models also feature. Most are in running and driving order, although there are some that would suit those looking for a project, including a part-dismantled, David Brown 50D, with new boxed liners and pistons. In the stationary engine line there’s a Ruston Hornsby 6AP on a road trailer, Bamford diesel on a hand trolley and a large Tangye engine project. The Wallis & Steevens…

The prices are based on tractors sold at sales, on the Internet, privately and in some overseas markets too. Naturally, prices change as time progresses and it’s not always an upward trend, but you will get a good indication of what’s going on with the current market by referring to our guide. Here are a few pointers on buying a tractor to help you. If you are looking for a tractor to buy for restoration, or work, there’s a vast choice. However, if you are looking for something specific, do weigh up your options first, particularly if you have a limited budget. If it’s a popular model, then it’s not always to your advantage to go for the first one you see. Whatever is wrong with the tractor, make sure…

SEND YOUR PICTURES FOR THIS FEATURE TO: Readers’ gallery, Kelsey Publishing Ltd., The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent ME18 6AL or e-mail them to tm.ed@kelsey.co.uk…