Diesel Major with spade lug wheels

[AdrianNPMajor]

Just looking through my photos and found some images of my old Diesel Major wearing its spade lugs.
Miss this tractor.
Best, Adrian.

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[Brian]

They look like J. J. Wright and Sons Super Steel wheels.

[Daves rusty bits]

I didn`t realise they got punctures!

[AdrianNPMajor]

Dave, you're a very silly boy, rather like me. The way the world's going, it needs a few more of us!
Brian, your dealership was more than just a dealership, it seems. Being a Ford main Dealer must have produced a lot of work, yet your company was obviously keen to branch out into spin-off opportunities. Was this usual?
Our local Ford Main Dealers were Potters of Framlingham. Did you ever come into contact with them?
Best, Adrian.

[oehrick]

We had some skeleton steel wheels on our old E27N - amazingly they are alive, well, worn and in use in Welsh Wales climbing mountains, David from Mid Norfolk Tractors who had my Nuffield, remembered them when a customer asked after some and we had a deal.
They plane tarmac down when stump pulling, whereas the spuded wheels like Adrians make punctures in Tarmac when it is warm, driving on them certainly keeps you awake.
I think there was some trifling requirement to use smooth bands over them when on the road, but being Polish, this was one of several road traffic regs that Father seemed to be exempt from

[Brian]

Adrian,
We were the biggest Ford dealership in GB from the 1940's through to the 1980's.

We were Ford dealers, Standard dealers, BMC dealers. We sold cars, trucks and tractors. We had a manufacturing department at london Road, where I worked, that made the wheels, we made the filter plates for the bottom of Majors and of your Super Major for Ford, we made Anglia, Cortina and Escort front wheel hubs and brake components, we made dummy shells for the Government and parts for "Blue Streak Missiles".
We also had a department for the reconditioning of Roadless half tracks on behalf of Roadless. We made hotplates for Heatrae heaters, parts for Aveling - Barford, jaws for Crane Fruehof trailers and the cutting knives for the Sugar beet factories. So we had a pretty diverse remit of which the tractor side was a small part although a very large "small" part.

At one time in the 1950's the company employed over 2000 people in Dereham and the surrounding area and we had an export business working with Doe.

[ford5000y]

Just looking through my photos and found some images of my old Diesel Major wearing its spade lugs.
Miss this tractor.
Best, Adrian.

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So, basically those spade lug steel wheels were welded on to a normal major wheel centre.

If so, why don't they just make it so that it could just be bolted on to to the wheel centre. I mean it would save the farmer some time because he didn't need to remove the whole rear wheel.

And since we're at the topic of "getting better traction" , we here use mud lugs instead. we have the mud lugs once used on my grandfather's 4000. they were fitted by bolting them on to the wheel weight mounting holes. Problem is, if they were fitted improperly(ie. bolts not tight enough) they would wear the weight mounting holes. I have seen one ford 500 with the centre dishes whose weight mounting holes were transformed from square to oval!

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hello Brian
That's quite a range of activities for one firm, and a lot of talent under one company banner. Many thanks for the info.
Best, Adrian.

[oehrick]

Hey Brian,

Hope he eye is recovering well

Were those rear wheel hubs blanked out at one hit or cut using one of those rotary shears (like the landwheels in that Ransomes film) ?

Was the dishing done hot or cold (must have been a fair sized press in either case) and when the change to scalloping came was that by blanking or 'nibbling' one scallop at a time?

When I was chasing the bends around my 'soft' back rim I did wonder if they were hot or cold rolled, cold working would have put a lot more strength than I was seeing and there was no sign it had ever been in a fire.

Never mind living in interesting times, you worked in the thick of them

[Brian]

We bought the centres in from Sankey but made all the spokes, Crane-Fruehauf at Dereham rolled the rims. Originally we bought out Fords stock of spuds but had our own cast later.

I once did some ploughing at Loddon with a Ford 5000 SOS on a set of the later wheels. The land was a blue coloured clay and water was running down the furrow as i went. Farmer said it was the only way he could plough. Ford was the only tractor maker to warranty their back end when using spud wheels.

(Eye now nearly back to normal. I can lift heavy weights and spend time looking down after this week (officially).

[oehrick]

But can you leap tall buildings at a single bound yet Brian glad normality has just about resumed.

Sankeys probably punched them out and dished them at the same time, they had some monumental fabrication and forging equipment available in some of their plants, mind you C-F were not exactly playing either, I used to go to various places on calls sometimes with Dad (Dictograph / Telephone Rentals) when I was on holiday from school - who would have thought some of these big firms like them, LSE, Boulton Paul, even Busseys would be retail or car parks in a generation went past C-F North Walsham site last week, some buildings re purposed but probably 75% + just levelled.

[ford5000y]

I can lift heavy weights and spend time looking down after this week (officially).

I hope when you say "heavy weights" you don't mean tractor wheel weights, or even front pillow weights

[Brian]

Used to lift things like that every day! I could carry a 2 cwt sack of barley or wheat on my shoulders at 14 years. Now a wine glass is all I aim to lift!

[oehrick]

Did you work with a Mr Milk ar Wrights Brian ? I was down at the farm this afternoon sorting out some brake light problems on a NH while David was mucking out bullocks with his 3000, on which I had not previously noticed the supplied by Wrights decal - he did mention the sales chaps first name but it fell out of my brain on the way home its still going strong and while it doesn't take as big mouthfulls as the NH loader does, it reaches the parts NH cannot in the Victorian buildings he struggles with

[Brian]

I am still working with him Rick!

Fred is co-authoring the book! He is my oldest friend, I think, we have known each other from 1963 and we used to get up to all sorts of escapades together at Wrights. Fred was on the vans with me, he had a Thames 15cwt and I had an Anglia 7 cwt AAH188B, They were faster in third than they were in top, Fred and I were racing down the A47 at Necton and going down the straight towards the village, I got up alongside him and as he watched I changed from third to top. Going down hill in top the Anglia just had the edge on his 15 cwt.

This was all at a maximum speed of 55 mph in those days.

Fred got his own back though, I lost my clutch on the way home from Holt so Fred tied me to the back of his van on about 3' of lifting chain which was all we had. We were so close I could not move to see the road otherwise I would run into the back so I just had to watch the rear doors and steer accordingly.

He also appears in my "Memories" stories.

[oehrick]

Oh thats nice Brian, I'll tell David when I next see him - while his dad, (Bob Rose at Old Hall Farm) has been dead a few years now, the tractor is still in daily use with a satisfied customer of the next generation down - and he has stuck true to blue even if the newer ones run under NH colours these days

I'm really looking forward to seeing your book when it appears and I assume the 'Memories' are in a thread on here, I'll have a search when speed is a little quicker.

On an unrelated matter, I have been offered a trailed compressor of uncertain age and current condition (it ran OK when it last ran job!) with a D type engine powering it - any idea how much would be common with a major or is it more likely to be from lorry parentage ? (or is that just too little information to be any good ) The price is right, extract from undergrowth near Lowestoft and bring home so I thought I'd say yes regardless. If by some miracle it was usable I could round up all the sandblasting requirements of the Bogsiders

Back on topic, I expect you ditched those steel wheels Adrian - they work a bit better if you water ballast them but that is only possible in real cold weather - I remember ours tearing great strips of frozen leafmould mud out of the ruts, which would stick on then freeze over night

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hi Rick
Your suggestion about water ballasting is a fantastic one, but as you can see higher up the thread I kept getting punctures and the water leaked out!
I don't have the tractor now, or the wheels. The photo below shows a changing of the guard.
I used the Diesel Major with a three-point-linkage crane to dismantle PJE 243. Once PJE 243 was rebuilt, I decided to sell the Diesel Major and concentrate on learning how to plough.
I still regret selling that tractor.
The spade lugs and the carrier I had made went with the tractor. I was tempted to keep the spade lugs, but they're not designed for a tractor with a diff lock. Again, I now wish I had kept them anyway in case I buy another Diesel Major.
Oh how the regrets mount up the older one gets!
Still got the crane, though. Used it to unload the plough that, at the time, I had no idea how to use!
Best, Adrian.


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[oehrick]

My experience with both E27N and E1A Majors with the steels on (and these were skeletons with staggered plates welded to a central frame a bit like a paddle steamer wheel) was that a diff lock was EXACTLY what was needed Adrian, otherwise it was a case of dragging over and feeding in another trunk or sleeper to get out of the hole whichever had least grip soon excavated, with a rim like your steels it acts as a bit of a depth gauge to reduce this - and we were pulling some substantial trees and stumps out in those days.

I like the crane (although it would need waterbalanced steels on the front ) is it an adapted conventional engine hoist or scratchbuilt ?

While with the benefits of hindsight I might have made some different choices, thankfully I don't have many serious regrets and most of those are things I should have bought when I had the chance, even though I'm probably exceeding my "three lifetimes projects then there's an auction" quota anyhow

You look nicely set up for space and storage cover!

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hi Rick
The spade lug wheels and diff lock are two different solutions to the same problem. The spade lugs work well up to a point, but, as you have experienced, if one wheel begins to rotate faster, then the spade lugs become a pretty effective trenching tool.
The diff lock solution does away with the above problem. When the lock is engaged prior to encountering any sticky spots, a wheel slipping on one side has little time to start digging as the wheel with grip on the other side maintains the forward momentum.
Given the above, when you introduce a diff lock, the spade lugs become pretty much redundant.
Re the crane, a local machine shop made it for me. I don't use it that often, but it's great to have around when you need a slow, controllable lift. You're right about ballasting the front end. I foolishly tried to lift the end of this oak trunk, which is obviously way beyond what the crane/tractor combination is capable of. Within its capabilities the crane works well.
The farm belongs to my friend, Frank. I'm very lucky to be able to keep my tractor in such a lovely place.
Best, Adrian.

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[Brian]

We sold hundreds of sets of wheels for tractors with dif. lock.

We were selling them for Super Majors right through to the '000nd series. We also supplied them on MF, David Brown and Nuffields but Ford were the only company to warranty their transmission and rear axle when they were used.

I think I mentioned before that we made a special set of double width wheels and shipped them to Australia for Donald Campbell to use, preparing the track for "Bluebird" to attempt the World Land Speed record on the salt flats around Lake Eyre.

Wrights also owned Miller Wheels in Orpington, Kent who made these ones as well as the underslung hoes for Allis "B"'s.

[AdrianNPMajor]

Hello Brian
Many years ago I bought my first Major from Reddish’s of Westleton, a land drainage firm. Their head fitter became my friend and mentor. He was known affectionately by his nickname, Friday. Sadly, Friday has gone.
Reddish’s operated a wide array of machinery. They had a large fleet of Majors, including the Diesel Major trenching machine fitted with rotopads. Friday worked on everything, from the big Cats that pulled the scrapers to a small Ransomes crawler that an allotment holder asked him to fix.
One of the many pieces of advice that Friday gave me was never to put spade lugs on a tractor with a diff lock.
To illustrate his point, he told me about a local farmer who had a problem with his Super Major that had been running on spade lugs. There was a graunching noise coming from the rear end. When Friday removed the lid, he found that a tooth on the crown wheel had become chipped. The farmer wanted a cheap fix, so Friday welded and ground the tooth - by Friday’s own admission, a crude solution. Friday told me that, every time he passed the farmer in the field sitting on his Major, he (Friday) said to himself: “B*gger me, it’s still going!”
Friday’s point was that, if you reduce wheel slip to near-zero by means of spade lugs, forces are transferred to the meshing gears inside the rear transmission that those gears should not be asked to handle.
A number of people have remarked on how worn and cut my recently new Goodyear rear tyres have become. I reply that, when I walk down the street, my shoes begin to wear out. That’s the price I pay for walking down the street!
Isn’t it better to have a bit of wheel slip and momentary stoppage, thereby allowing the Super’s draft control to work its magic? [I’m assuming that those diff lock tractors had your spade lugs fitted to go ploughing.]
A bit of rubber left behind in the dirt is a cheap price to pay for the benefits gained, isn’t it?
Respectfully
Adrian

[Brian]

Not really Adrian, we have some land here that unless you had spade lugs it could not be ploughed. ( have ploughed near Loddon with a 5000 SOS on spade wheels, Doe put spade wheels on some Triple D Super Majors. They went out of fashion because you could not run them down the road.

A Super Major would take teeth off the pinions or even the crown wheel on rubber tyres too, again it was a common thing when the ploughing season came around. As soon as a Super lift started to play up and we took it off, you very carefully inspected all those parts and carefully ran your hand around the pump pedestal checking for metal slivers. Many is the time when I have rebuilt the whole back end when originally going out to a faulty lift.

So a chipped crownwheel tooth could have been caused by other problems than the steel wheels.

The absolute killer on tractors with dif lock was to put a steel wheel on one side and a rubber on the other.

[ford5000y]

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Oh, yeah, the "grill plant". What happened to it? I remembered that because I disced the garden and recovered an old pto cap from a ford thousand series. Don't think about a tractor buried in a viking burial mound somewhere beneath our p-r-o-p-e-r-t-y(ha! let's see if the web page can transform that into "shark"), though, my father thinks it is removed by my grandfather from his ford 4000 and forgotten where he placed it.

In which case, my next objective is; the set of front wheel weights my grandfather removed from his ford 4000 that was buried under layers of flood deposits!

[Brian]

My father watched them bury a Mogul in a pit in a local village in around 1920. It is still there. Pity they then built a concrete runway over it to fly Liberators from in WWII.

At North Pickenham where I used to live I watched the American Air Force close their bomb dump and air field there. They emptied the bombs onto a massive fire that burnt for weeks and they buried hundreds of sets of "af" spanners in deep holes. I cursed because those were the days when I was building up my tool kit and buying sets of spanners that were costing me two weeks wages. Must not grumble though as I still have them today having earnt my living with them for many years.

I use two bent welding rods to find water and drainage pipes, you should try it on your lost weights.

[oehrick]

As Brian says Adrian, hold them loosely and if you can't get the hang don't despair, a couple of those clear BIC Biro pen cases without middles work well as handles wth the rods free to pivot inside them. Have also found timber chains rolled into wheel ruts, plough & cultivator points, a fuel cap or two and a lost watch.

Before pooh pooing this, between 60 & 75% of 3rd yr secondary school kids can find a water pipe to within a metre on a school playing field spread at intervals over nearly 1/4 mile, at the first attempt - the uncertainty is how much to weight for the 'me too' effect of the less confident following the 'leaders' example but more recently, having shown adults at least 50% manage with little or no practice with things like water or gas pipes.

Brian, the compressor with the supposed major engine is an Atlas Copco 2 hammer sized unit, assuming we can get the engine and compressor going and the receiver hasn't rotted away, you find a couple of hammers and mark the concrete runway with an X