The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Things are starting to dry up now on the land so it is time to get some muck on the land so, for the first time this year the team got into the field.

This is my Ferguson collection!



Harriet came to me as a heap of bits from a shed on Swaffham allotments. The previous owner had split her to do the clutch and could not get her back together so he started stripping her out for parts. I felt sad to just see the bits laying there so I bought her and collected them on my friends low loader trailer and Henrietta. The words that greeted me when I drove into his farm yard was “Going in to the scrap business now are we”? Within two hours and with the help of his rear loader and a couple of gallons of petrol we had a running tractor. Not pretty but a runner all the same. All this was over thirty years ago and she was a very expensive tractor. £40.00!

Note the John Deere yellow on her rear wheels. These came off Dotty, they are water loaded and sprayed yellow so they had to come straight off. I bought a pair of Dexta wheels with good tyres and fitted to her and Harriet got the water loaded Ferguson ones.

A few months later we moved to Black Horse House which, at the time, had few walls downstairs and a massive wood burner. To keep warm that first winter we needed masses of wood which we bought in lengths from the forestry commission. To cut this up I bought a saw bench, dated about 1890 which we collected again with Henrietta and with it came a MIL Loader for a Ferguson, this quickly got mounted on Harriet.

She shifted many tons of builders rubble as we worked on the house, loading 15 12 ton builders skips, trailer loads of brick rubble that went to a local farmer to fill in ruts in his gateways and, of course, loading tons of muck that we spread on the land.

I have not looked after her very well but she runs well, I keep the oil changed and she is always ready to start and work. I have done a few jobs on her over the years like a new radiator and water pump, a second hand cylinder head and a second hand manifold when this rusted away. As I said, she is not pretty but I would not be without her, the loader is slow but it is far better than throwing stuff on trailers with a shovel and fork.




Nuffy is my main tractor and is perfect for this job with Independent PTO. Independent PTO is not operated by the main clutch but with a separate lever like a hand brake. The only problem is it also controls the hydraulic pump so with the clutch disengaged you have no hydraulics or PTO.
The Ferguson connection is Harry Ferguson Design, the company Harry set up after leaving Massey-Ferguson, designed these tractors for the British Motor Corporation. The tractor was not a success and suffered from hard steering and engine vibration but Nuffy is the second generation and some of the problems had been sorted by the time she was built in October 1968. The 3/45 and 4/65 only lasted two years before BMC became British Leyland and thye tractor had tinwork and colour changed and a balancer fitted in the 4/98 engine.

Mobile Wind Direction Indicator? The Howard Rotospreader! Get it wrong and in a strong wind the driver gets large lumps of muck thrown at him.

Nuffy finished the muck spreading and then was hitched to my “new” three furrow, deep digger Ransomes plough and ploughed happily on Sunday. No worries about smuts from the exhaust or “oil slobber” after that workout.



The Ransomes Plough, still need a few parts like one skimmer. I used one that I had from a TS82 but it is not the right one.



These bodies are digger ones and completely turn and shatter the soil.



As compared to the "stood up" furrows of the EPIC. The EPIC is great for over winter ploughing as the high crests break down easily and dry well. The problems with EPIC are you need good skimmers to put the weeds under the furrow slice and, If the land is heavy and a bit wet, the furrow slice can fall back into the furrow.

cool

finally got my SKH 2 furrow reversible out of the shed and mounted to a tractor .
nice to see the sun isn't it .

Speaking of Leyland, I have a friend with a pair of 154's. He had trouble with the tractors loading up with petrol all the time. Took me a bit to sort but I found that the replacement fuel pumps had too strong of a spring on the diaphragm. I replaced it with a lighter one and it stopped pushing the carburetor needle off of the seat when the float was up and level was correct. I bet this has drove a lot of folks batty. Dandy Dave!

Upwind of Muck, down wind of wild animals!!
Good to see older equipment still earning their keep.
Cheers
Jerry

Lovely to see them like that Brian - thanks for posting.

Have you seen 331160425861 on that famous auction site ? - at Downham Mkt too I'd like to risk a quid but haven't got trailage atm

Was hoping to meet up at the week end but may not be able to make it now

Hope the weather holds

Yes, I saw that! I was looking for a digger a couple of years back and ended up borrowing a Case digger from my friend Charles Atkin. Don't know whether the pictures are still on here as it was a few years ago.

the plough info is very interesting mate .

is that y epics get a bad press ?

what are the bodies called on the new plough ?
how deep were you able to plough then ? I don't think my yls are capable off that depth .

The finish with the EPIC's is not esthetically pleasing to the eye of a person wanting to see "pretty" ploughing but, given the right conditions I can get a perfectly square forrow which looks good to me.

The two ploughs were ploughing at around the same depth, 8" to 10", the YL is designed to plough at a maximum of 4".

The bodies on the 3 furrow are UDM and, at the moment I have not identified the plough, it could be a TS59 or a TS64. Wish the plates would stay without disappearing. Still I suppose she is about 62 years old.

Think from memory Huard were a French company and their ploughs were badge engineered for SKH, IH and Massey Ferguson. Fathers boss had one for a few years behind a B450. Not a bad plough but I always thought the name "Huard" was a bit strange for a plough manufacture. (Hew Hard)

I've not heard of UDM s before , yet another plough body design to confuse me

I agree huard if a odd name , sounds to close to howard to me

i'll get mine out next week all being well , the only land on my neighbours farm not already sown (winter cereals) if drifting to moss land ,so not ideal of cleaning . not done much ploughing on the moss yet so might be fun.
last years ploughing match was on BLACK soil , under moss I think my dad would call it.

Brian wrote: The bodies on the 3 furrow are UDM and, at the moment I have not identified the plough, it could be a TS59 or a TS64.

I have a classification list that say's UDM are only mounted on TS64. Although the frame looks like a TS59.
The plough body looks a lot like mine. I have DMD's. The same list tells they were only for export. It was classifide as a semi digger.
I wonder if the New Major could cope with a three furrow on heavy soil.

I have a single furrow with a UDM body and these look the same, Henk, but until I can find a marking I am not 100% sure. The UDM was available on the TS64, TS55, TS1014, TS1015, TS74 and TS75 so it was quite common. The problem is clearance, the only difference between a TS59 and a TS64 is the length of the legs to take the bigger body. I have not checked the plough over yet, just wanted to see if it would work. When I got it, one furrow had been taken off but I had a complete leg and body on my scrap heap so just cobbled it together. It made black smoke come out of Nuffys pipe for a while.

I want to try the plough behind Henrietta just to see if she will move it! Many years ago there was a cultivator on the allotments which had not been used for many years because people claimed that no tractor then available would pull it. That included Ford 5000 s which the owner borrowed. I was joking with him one day and said Henrietta would pul it so we cleared the nettles and put her on it. Lo and behold she stormed away with it to the surprise of all, so I bought it from him for £20.00. I still use it today.

Please let me know the lenght of the legs when you find out.
There's not much difference between the ploughbody's. Looking at both pictures I think you can see that the UDM body's are higher.

Very nice

Is that a disused railway at the end of your ploughed land Brian or are you fortunate enough for it to be the MNR ?

Rick, no that is the A47 Dereham bypass built along the old railway line from Dereham to Kings Lynn.

Henk, we were both wrong about the bodies on the plough. I have a UDM on my single furrow digger but had not had it alongside the 3 furrow to check and was going by eye. Problem is, the bodies on the 3 furrow are even rarer than hens teeth so I shall have to be careful, they are UDC which was possibly only used on three export ploughs so how they found their way onto this one I do not know. I did get the plough from a dealer/farmer who had a lot of ploughs he bought in so it is possible it came from overseas.

I planted the potatoes yesterday and the land broke down easily behind the plough so I am very happy with the job it does, will have to try not to wear it up as I bet parts will be very hard to find.

Looks pretty rare indeed.
I have a list from Ransomes plough body's. The UD, UDM are on that, but could not find the UDC.

Do the letters stand for something and what system is in it? One could assume that the D stands for digger and the U for universal.

Here's the list I found somewhere on the internet a few years ago. I think it's from the book Ransomes and there tractor share ploughs. Hope the writer does not mind using it overhere.







PS: I hope the studs grow in some nice patat frites.

DMC is on your list under Utrac and is listed for export. I took the details from the back of the mould boards, stamped in above the "Kristeel" emblem.

Your list does not show all the bodies that are in my list, it could be yours is a more up to date one, a lot of the bodies were deleted over the years.

I think the difference is in the cutter at the throat. Parts could be similar to the later SCN bodies.

Hey that's a useful listing Henk,

probably worth editing the topic name or copying into one titled Ransomes Plough Bodies for future searchers benefit ??

Now we have moved from flood to drought Brian will need to add a well-boring rig and pump to the collection