Tractor & Farming Heritage February 2015

YEARS OF THE CASE IH 0 3 No. 136 FEBRUARY 2015 www.tractormagazine.co.uk

AND FARMING HERITAGE MAGAZINE

WIN

A COMPRESSOR WORTH

£900

lOst in tiMe

UK tractors that didn’t make the grade

hub Puller s Work sh guide op

JOhn deere

FORD 6610 built to be relied on... and still is

◆ BRISTOL 25 ◆ CUNEO ART ◆ FE 35 ◆ COUNTY 1164 ◆ SUPER HUBER

the indestructible d

CONTENTS

TRACTOR AND FARMING HERITAGE FEBRUARY 2015

Regulars 3

Welcome

18

News

20

24 43

72

COVER STORY

All the latest news in the world of tractors and heritage.

Graham’s Grumbles

This month’s ramble is one of those that keeps cropping up now and again for Graham Hampstead – keeping bearings greased.

Tractor Talk

Your news, views and comments about the vintage and classic scene.

28 COVER STORY

32

In our regular feature we invite you to send in your tractor snaps – you never know, you might win the prize we’ve got up for grabs.

You’re never too old to learn

106 Next Month

Preview of the March issue of your Tractor & Farming Heritage magazine.

138 Last Word

Farmer Brown sees a newly made shepherd’s hut and decides to make one himself for a fraction of the cost.

36 COVER STORY

44 COVER STORY

48

Built to be relied on

COVER STORY

We visit a Ford 6610 that has just celebrated its 26th birthday and is still earning its keep as part of a working fleet.

PAGE 107

30 PAGE TRACTOR CLASSIFIED SECTION 4

TractorFebruary2015

54

The Cuneo Collection

My favourite toys

Dave Taylor has many tractors in his collection; here he gets to talk about his number one choice, County, closely followed by a Fordson Major.

82

Great idea from Australia

30 years of Case IH

With an anniversary soon on the cards, we celebrate the merger of Case and International Harvester.

Back on the farm

John Deere Model D

COVER STORY

54

The Cuneo Collection

COVER STORY

58 62

Get in touch

Write in (address is on page 24), email or Facebook us.

Workshop 84

Heading in the right direction

Ben Phillips tackles the cylinder head on a Massey Ferguson engine, which has evidently not seen any basic maintenance for a long, long time.

Plucked from obscurity

The postwar demand for tractors in Britain saw numerous new makes and models appear on the UK market – here are some of the more obscure machines.

The rugged and reliable tractor that still stands the test of time and put the ‘D’ in Deere!

YourTractors 6

The chequered career of the company that eventually produced the “lightweight crawler with the heavyweight pull” is revealed.

Heritage

A Fergie abroad

Jo Roberts hears the story of an American tractor collector who’s just discovered the joys of Ferguson tractors.

Bristol 25

Ian Denton recalls the development of the Ford 8401 from his days working at a dealership at Farrell Flat, South Australia.

Show us yours

Graham Hampstead finds the wise old adage here to be true as he goes through the book to discover the persistent fault on his restored Super Dexta.

76

12

In the late 1940s/early 50s, Massey-Harris was keen to establish itself in Britain – part of its campaign was the work of renowned artist Terence Cuneo.

88 COVER STORY

Huber Super Four

COVER STORY

Huber described its 15-30 Super Four as the most powerful tractor for its money; Stuart Gibbard explains.

63

Tractor Archives

68

A controversial candidate?

More heritage memories from the farming literature of yesteryear.

Our workshop expert Ben Phillips selects his tractor of the decade for the 1950s – it may seem an odd choice, but here is his argument.

One of the toughest jobs undertaken during restoration work on tractors is the removal of various gears and hubs.

Richard Lofting shows us the tools for the job.

Marketplace 94

Home Farm Diaries

It’s February and come rain, snow or frost, someone still has to get the work done.

Taking the strain

99

Massey Expo 2014

Well-known Massey-Harris collector John Farnworth reports on his findings at the Massey Expo held in Rushville, Indiana, at the end of July last year.

New Products

All the latest tractor and farming heritage related releases.

100 Sales & Marketplace

Fog, Fordson and Frolics at the Cheffins Bristol Vintage Sale and H J Pugh’s Letton Court dispersal sale marked the end of a busy season.

SUBSCRIBE! Only £3 per issue ✦ see page 22 for further details

tractormagazine.co.uk

TRACTORS FEATURED THIS ISSUE

12

The Bristol 25 crawler

84

Heading in the right direction

100

Fog, Fordson and frolics

Allis-Chalmers C........................................76 Bagnall-Burns BB90 crawler................44 Bristol 25 Crawler.....................................12 Case IH ..........................................................38 County 1164...............................................28 Farmall M.....................................................76 Ferguson FE 35 .........................................68 Ferguson TO-20........................................76 Ford 6610 .......................................................6 Ford 8401 ....................................................32 Fordson Major...........................................30 Fraser crawler ............................................44 Glave crawler .............................................44 Huber Super Four ....................................62 John Deere D .............................................48 Lister Goldstar ...........................................44 Massey-Harris ............................................94 Mather and Platt MX viner...................24 OTA.................................................................44 Rollo Croftmaster.....................................44 SB 8000 viner .............................................24 Super Dexta................................................72

Having trouble finding a copy of this magazine?

Why not Just Ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy each month?

28

Playing with my favourite toys

WIN

A SIP COMPR ES WORTH SOR £900

88

Hub & bearing pullers

Page 9 3

36

30 years of Case IH tractormagazine.co.uk

76

A Fergie abroad February2015Tractor

5

YourTractors

The lightweight

crawler with the

heavyweight

Pull We look at the chequered career of the company that eventually produced the Bristol 25 crawler, and visit an owner with a passion for crawlers and tracked vehicles.

WORDS & PICTURES Bernard Holloway

B

ristol, now there’s a name to conjure with. It has lent its name to many engineering companies and projects. Bristol Cars Limited; e Bristol Aeroplane Company who hived off the car makers in 1959 and when amalgamated with three other aero companies became BAC one-half of the Anglo-French consortium which built the illfated and thwarted progeny Concorde at nearby Filton. en there’s Bristol Docks and Brunel’s ‘SS Great Western’, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic in 1838. And of course, for those of you who follow the code of the round ball, Bristol City FC. e list goes on.

All great names. I’m willing to bet for most of you though Bristol Tractors and its range of crawlers from the early 1930s was not the first thing that came to mind, but this too has roots in the area.

Like many new ventures, the early days of Bristol Tractors did not run smoothly. It was dogged by changes of administration, relocation of head offices and factories and alterations to the specification to accord

About the Bristol 25’s owner Leaving school at 15 some 50 years ago, Bill Thorburn took up a position as an apprentice plant fitter and is now semiretired after having run his own North Kent based plant repair business for some 27 years.

He has worked on just about every type and combination of plant and civil engineering construction site including the Thames Barrier.

with changes of ownership, which all had an adverse effect on production of their crawler tractor.

Space dictates that we skip a huge amount of history and development which has been well documented elsewhere and we arrive in the early 1930s and the Bristol tractor.

Waiting in the wings about this time was the new rubber jointed track invented by e Roadless Traction Company based in Hounslow. Over a two year period under the guidance of George Pullin and Walter Hill they designed and built two small lightweight crawlers of 10 and 12hp running on the new track.

Pioneer

Douglas Motors, a family owned company, was a pioneer of horizontally opposed aircooled engines, which it installed in its motorcycles and in a small number of light aircra. Unfortunately, the company was going through a tough time, plagued by internal strife and poor sales. e board saw the new crawler tractor as a way to take up slack in their capacity and improve profits.

Aer a buy-out, Douglas Motors (1932) Limited was founded and an agreement drawn up with Roadless for the production of the Bristol tractor, the Bristol 10 a small, lightweight, agile tracklayer suitable for working market gardens. e price was £155 and it would be sold under the Bristol name and marketed in 1932 by e Bristol Tractor Company of James Street London and built at Douglas Works, Kingswood, Bristol.

Douglas Motors was to manufacture the tractor installing its newly developed 1200cc air-cooled engine, which would make them one of the first and certainly the largest mass producer of tractors in the country.

However, there was a hiatus in production due to financial difficulties and no tractors were built. ➤ February2015Tractor

13

FarmingHeritage

Merger of the decade

30 YEARS OF

CASE IH When two large and long established tractor machinery companies form a merger it is big news, but perhaps none caused such a stir at the time as when 30 years ago Case and International Harvester joined forces.

Thirty years ago the Case and IH tractor ranges became integrated under the same name – Case IH. Here the 1594 sits next to a Case IH 1056XL showing the dierences and similarities between the Meltham built Case 1594 and the German built 1056XL.

The very popular 95hp 956XL used a very smooth running IH six-cylinder engine and was built in Germany.

The 61hp Case 1294 was previously the David Brown 1290 and was still built in the Meltham factory in Yorkshire.

WORDS & PICTURES Jonathan Whitlam

I

t was announced in late 1984 that Tenneco, the giant oil based corporation, had purchased the agricultural operations of the American based International Harvester. is meant that 1985 would prove to be an interesting year for the new Case IH company and 30 years on it’s very interesting to look back on what happened and how it affected the tractors themselves. e 1980s had been a difficult time financially for all farm machinery manufacturers and mergers and takeovers were becoming quite common. International Harvester had fared worse than most in the economic climate and was ripe for a takeover by the mid-1980s. With farm machinery manufacturing plants around the world, tractor production was centred mainly in the US, the UK and Germany by 1985, with the Doncaster plant in Britain supplying a number of models from small three-cylinder tractors up to the 885XL.

Six-cylinder tractor production

Germany saw mainly six-cylinder tractor production with the likes of the 956XL and 1455XL, while in America the bigger six cylinder 30 and 50 Series had been the mainstay of production for the large acreage farming operations and also included a novel articulated tractor range. is gave a spread of models from 45hp up to 200hp wearing the IH name and red paint. e purchase of IH by Tenneco would lead to many changes as the oil led company already owned J I Case, a company which like IH, had a very long and illustrious history of farm machinery manufacture. Tractor production was once again centred on the UK and the US with the big six-cylinder tractors produced in the States, while here in the UK smaller machines were built at the former David Brown factory near Huddersfield. ➤ February2015Tractor

37

FarmingHeritage 1

2

3

4

The Cuneo

ColleCtion

In the late 1940s/early 50s, Massey-Harris was keen to establish itself in Britain – part of its campaign was a series of magnificent paintings by renowned artist Terence Cuneo.

WORDS Peter Henshaw PICTURES Massey Ferguson, global brand of AGCO Corporation

B

ack in 1945, Massey-Harris, Canada’s biggest maker for farm machinery, looked to be in a very strong position. It was a world leader with self-propelled combines (of which it was a pioneer) and very strong in other implements.

It dominated the huge North American market for combines and had wisely spent a lot of money expanding production in 1944-45, just in time to take advantage of the

54

TractorFebruary2015

postwar boom, as farmers deprived of new kit during wartime grabbed the opportunity to put their orders in.

But looked at more closely the picture wasn’t so rosy. By US standards, M-H wasn’t that big, certainly smaller than International or John Deere, and claiming just 3% of the US tractor market. ere were also obstacles to growth.

Despite its pioneering lead in combines, rivals were starting to muscle in. M-H did do well out of the postwar sales boom, but by 1949-50 the main opportunity was over.

Tractor and implement production in

5 Europe as well as North America was getting back to full speed, and many farmers desperate to re-equip aer the war years had now done so. e company was also very dependent on North American sales, and really needed to get established in a reviving European market.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to M-H’s growth and survival was the weakness of its tractor range. In truth, M-H was an implement and combine manufacturer for which tractors were a sideline. e tractor line launched in 1946-47 was little more than an update of the old 102 tractormagazine.co.uk

1 This one was titled British Harvest, underlining Massey-Harris’ desire to build the image of a home-grown manufacturer.

2 What could be more English? PB Bettinson of Holbeach, Lincs, with a full range of M-H implements on display. The curious dog is a typical Terence Cuneo touch.

3 M-H 744 and trailed combine squeeze their way up a narrow lane, on the way to harvest.

4 Perkins-powered 744PD was MasseyHarris’ great white tractor hope, but few sold in Britain.

5 Shop floor at Kilmarnock – workers about their business, engineer and manager in deep discussion, overspill from the spray booth. Again, it’s all in the detail.

6 It wasn’t all about England, as a 744 charges through Africa with a full load of timber. Dramatic steam locomotive (a Cuneo favourite) looks as if it’s being overtaken!

7 Royal Show, 1952, and the chap in the trilby with his back to the viewer is said to be Cuneo himself.

6

7

Junior and Senior, machines that had their roots in the 1930s. ey still used separate frames, and didn’t have hydraulics until 1951, which even then didn’t offer depth control. ey weren’t cheap to make either, as many major components such as engines were bought in, adding to someone else’s profit margin, but not M-H’s.

Compare these tractors with the Ferguson and Ford, both thoroughly modern little tractors with full hydraulics as standard. Most buyers voted with their feet, and walked straight past the door of the Massey-Harris dealer. e American-made Pony sold so tractormagazine.co.uk

poorly that production was stopped for several months while unsold stocks were cleared and although the mid-range 44 did better, it was still outsold by Ferguson by five to one.

European target

e only answer, if Massey-Harris was to survive and grow in the postwar world, was to invest in new tractors and expand production overseas, specifically in Europe.

It already had factories in Germany and France, but it soon became clear that M-H would also need a big presence in Britain.

Most of its big American rivals were doing

the same. Ford had been making tractors here since the mid-1930s, International was building its new factory in Doncaster while Allis-Chalmers was in Southampton. John Deere, too, was looking at setting up a factory in Britain (though in the event, never did).

Why did they all love Britain? e country’s infrastructure was still largely intact, unlike much of Europe in the late 1940s, it had a stable government and essentials such as rubber and steel were available, though in short supply. Britain also had a healthy home market for tractors and was close enough to Europe for cross-Channel exports. ➤ February2015Tractor

55

Workshop

Sometimes a sharp blow to the end of the puller thread can help to release a stuck ywheel.

88

TractorFebruary2015

tractormagazine.co.uk

A 6in (150mm) puller set, with the option of using two or three legs. Keep all the parts together; hunting for the missing parts in the middle of the job will be annoying.

Taking the strain with

Hub & bearing

Pullers One of the toughest jobs during restoration work on tractors is the removal of various gears and hubs, not to mention heavyweight flywheels, especially on single-cylinder tractors. richard Lofting shows us the tools for the job.

WORDS & PICTURES Richard Lofting

S

ome gears, hubs and flywheels will never have been removed during a tractor’s working life. It is only now, years later, that things need to be pulled apart to renew seals etc. that are located behind such things.

Pullers come in all shapes and sizes, the most common are the two- and three-legged variety. Where possible the three legs will give a more even pull than the two, but sometimes there is only access for two legs, through two holes in a gearwheel.

Some pulleys and gearwheels have holes drilled and tapped into them especially to aid their removal. In this case, a different type of puller is used, studs or bolts are screwed into

tractormagazine.co.uk

the threaded holes and these go through a slotted bar on the puller body to allow for adjustment. A threaded bolt winds through the centre the same as the legged puller to create the pulling force.

Principles

Whatever puller is being used, the principles of operation are the same. e hooks on the legs of the puller are located behind whatever is being removed and the central threaded bolt located on the sha. As the thread is tightened against the sha, the hooks exert a force on the item being removed. is sounds straightforward, but be under no illusions, sometimes it can take a while to move a stubborn gearwheel or in particular a flywheel, especially if it is fitted on to a taper

on the sha. Recently I took a whole aernoon removing the clutch housing on a single-cylinder tractor. e puller was a twolegged affair as the housing had only two round holes for puller access; this was a heavy duty tool with two sliding legs that could be reversed for an inside or outside pull. In this case it was an outside pull, as the central boss which would have been ideal to pull against had curved sides; not good for holding on to. e legs were indeed reversed for an outside pull, the end of the threaded central rod had a hardened ball of some 10mm diameter to reduce friction when pulling. To avoid damage to the grease nipple thread in the centre of the cranksha, I placed a scrap of 10mm thick plate between the cranksha and the puller ball. ➤ February2015Tractor

89

Tractor of the decade

The tractor of the decade, 1940-50, would still be the Fordson N. Many were still at work and didn’t need fancy new implements, unlike the Ferguson T-20. To be totally honest, as a tractor, in my opinion the T-20 was next to useless.

As part of a farming system, it was unbeatable, and there lay its downfall, without all its bespoke implements, it couldn’t do the work. My grandfather had two, one a Continental-engined petrol, later to be replaced by a diesel. He also had a Fordson, kept to do the heavy work.

As delivered, they could not have been used; even the drawbar was an option, which as we had no mounted implements was something of a problem.

The main job done by the T-20 was to take the milk down to the stand and bring back the empty churns, and in winter the diesel could not be relied upon to do even this, being so hard to start on cold mornings. The starting routine involved two men on the handle and one on the starter.

For traction, the early petrol was by far the best. I have been unable to move a small (iron-tyred) wagon of hay in July with the diesel. Another problem was the hydraulics rusting up. Most of the time the five-holed

bar was in the linkage; but to go mowing, the Bamford trailer mower had to be hitched closer, which needed the lower arms lifting out of the way.

When we came to lower them after haymaking, they would not lower. My father spent many days before they finally returned to the winter position and there they stayed, the Fordson taking over the mowing in the following years.

Harry Dodd, email.

Putting it down to experience I have just read the January edition of Tractor and as always it was a really good mix of interesting articles.

The one that brought memories flooding back was Tinplate Tractors (page 62); it took me back to the early 1950s when as a child I had several such toys and

The identity of the tinplate tractor that caused Alec’s injury may remain unknown; meanwhile here’s a crawler from our feature last month that would be representative of the era.

although it’s 60-odd years ago, one in particular sticks in my mind.

It was Christmas and I had just been given a red tinplate crawler tractor, which was clockwork and had rubber tracks. My father would wind it for me and off it would go climbing over anything in its way. As I was only about four at the time, the next bit is a bit hazy. I may have been letting it run over my hands or I could have been trying to wind it up myself, but I distinctly remember it grabbing hold of my little left hand and cutting it as it tried to drag my fingers inside it.

So there I am screaming, blood everywhere, and my mother desperately trying to turn the tracks backwards so it would release my hand, which it did in the end. I do remember it being shown to me afterwards and you could see a big cog wheel, completely unguarded, sticking out of a hole underneath between the tracks, and it was this which had grabbed my hand. Needless to say, I never played with it again and I can only assume it was ‘lost’ somewhere.

I dread to think what would happen today with health and safety, risk assessments and the suing culture; back then we just put it down to experience and got on with life.

Alec Pullen, Devizes

Mr / Mrs / Miss / Ms (please circle) Surname

Address

Postcode Email

Closing date: February 3, 2015

Send your entry to: Tractor Feb-15 Little Grey Fergie Comp, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ On occasion Mortons Media Group Ltd may decide to contact you by post/phone regarding information relating to current offers of products or services (including discounted subscription offers) which we believe may be of interest to our readers. If you do not wish to receive such offers please tick this box ■ On occasion Mortons Media Group Ltd may permit third parties, that we deem to be reputable, to contact you by post/phone/fax/email regarding information relating to current offers of products or services which we believe may be of interest to our readers. If you wish to receive such offers please tick this box ■

26

TractorFebruary2015

Editor Tony Hoyland thoyland@mortons.co.uk PublishEr Julie Brown dEsign Fran Lovely rEPrograPhics Simon Duncan grouP Production Editor Tim Hartley divisional advErtising managEr Sandra Fisher sfisher@mortons.co.uk advErtising rEPrEsEntativEs Chris Heaton cheaton@mortons.co.uk tEl 01507 529354 Nathan Pendregaust npendregaust@mortons.co.uk tEl 01507 529355 subscriPtion managEr Paul Deacon circulation managEr Steve O’Hara markEting managEr Charlotte Park Production managEr Craig Lamb Publishing dirEctor Dan Savage commErcial dirEctor Nigel Hole Editorial addrEss PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ WEbsitE www.tractorheritage.co.uk gEnEral quEriEs and back issuEs tEl 01507 529529 24 hour answerphone archivE EnquiriEs Jane Skayman jskayman@mortons.co.uk tEl 01507 529423

subscriPtions

Full subscription rates (but see page 22 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £45.60. Export rates are also available – see page 22 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax. Distribution COMAG, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7QE, tEl 01895 433600 subscriPtion agEnts Australia: Greg McNiece, tEl 3-58241734 New Zealand: White Bus Family Productions, tEl (064) 027 221 7763 PrintEd William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton PublishEd datE Second Tuesday of every month advErt/Editorial dEadlinE January 26, 2015 nExt issuE February 10, 2015

Independent publisher since 1885 © Mortons Media Group Ltd.

Member of the Professional Publishers’ Association

© Mortons Media Group Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

ISSN No 2050-0998

LITTLE GREY FERGIE COMPETITION 5 First name

A N D FA R M I NG H E R I TAG E M AGA Z I N E

Get in touch

Write in (address is on page 24), email or Facebook us.

✦ editor@tractormagazine.co.uk ✦ facebook.com/TractorMag

tractormagazine.co.uk