The Fall and Rise of a 7710

[blackbob]

Ok so as this section seems quiet I thought i would tell you a story, and show you some photos..

I bought this tractor in about 2002, from Ravenhill (then Farm Services) our local New Holland dealer. It was on a sold-as-seen basis; 1983 'Y' reg, it needed a new clutch, there was something odd about the steering, and the position-control was also a bit imprecise. But it had something like 3500 hours on the clock, had been on one farm since it was a year old and was very tidy, and it had a Farmhand Gyro loader. I think the price was £4500 with no trade-in.

The steering was easily sorted, the thread on the end of the ram had unscrewed itself so it had very poor lock to one side. I thought the clutch might last until i had the crop sown.. so I widened the wheel-track slightly, and fitted duals (bought with unworn crossply tyres for maybe £180).

So this was probably its first day at work..


However.. there is a steep bank at the bottom of this field and the clutch was so bad we had to use a very small gear to get uphill so it was back to the shed and fit a new clutch. (without even taking off the duals - I'll post the photo when I find it)

Then everything went well for a while.. I often wished it had aircon fitted, but we in Scotland don't complain about hot weather..



But trouble was brewing.. oil was starting to appear in the radiator..

[to be continued]

[SkidRoe]

Do tell us more please!!

Thanks for sharing - SR

[blackbob]

Thanks SkidRoe, I'm missing some photos and I need to gather together negatives and scanner and see what I can find..

In the meantime I will back-track a little and explain one reason why I like the 7710 so much - it brings back happy memories from the late 80's when I worked for this guy, and drove this tractor (a 7910) when it was brand-new in 1985.. Here sowing grass seed (on our farm) with his home-brewed roller/seeder combo.




..and coming back to my own tractor, this was the best hay we ever made (2003?) I had intended to wrap it (like the photos in the previous post - I think that might have been the same year) but the weather stayed glorious and it was rough timothy grass anyway, so I left it for hay.



I promise I'll continue the story of the tractor soon

[SkidRoe]

Great pictures. The 7910 was not a model that we got here in Canada, or likely all of NA for that matter. The 8210 was the first 6-cylinder UK model that we got in the late '80's, although we never owned one.

Funny you mention 1985 - that was the year that we bought our 6700. Coming from an old Belarus 500, I thought that I had gone to heaven! Three years later, we needed a bit more power, but still loved the 6700, so it got an M&W turbo kit. That upped it to 90 hp on the PTO, dyno verified. That was when it had about 4000 hours on it, and we did not have to touch the engine until it was at the 8000 hour mark. The bottom end was in good shape, but it needed a overbore and pistons.

We still have it, although it has not been our main tractor since 1994, when we bought the 9600.

Look forward to hearing more on the 7710.

Cheers - SR