Vintage tractors

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A selection of older tractors.
© David Meaden

















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Love it !! I'm going to a steam/antique tractor/threshing meet this Saturday.
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Can you remember where the tractor rally was David?

reg
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The great Dorset Steam fair is tomorrow Aug 28  uintil Sep 1st.

I must say some of those old tractor shots above are quite harrowing  :mutley

Cheers MIKE
I'm like my avatar - a local ruin!
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that one hurt Mike:mutley
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The "vintage" in the title threw me a bit ……..I remember driving some of them as a schoolboy or later, as an agricultural student. :shock::shock::shock:

The third shot, I think, is a paraffin engined tractor made by Case of USA.  I didn't drive that particular model but put rubber tyres on it and you're in my era ………..

During WW2, when tractors really started to take over from horses on farms, rubber tyres were difficult to get hold of so tractors tended to have metal wheels.  The 2nd and 3rd shots show what we called "spade lug wheels" - steel wheels with "lugs" bolted on for traction and my word, could they pull !!!!

The 4th and 5th were "modern" tractors when I was a callow youth - the Nuffield 440 diesel engined tractor - the model that powered our local threshing machine whilst the 8th and 9th photos are of an early Fordson Major and Standard Fordson respectively - both again, paraffin (TVO) powered.  These "paraffin" tractors had 2 fuel tanks.  A small one for petrol and the main one for paraffin - or, more precisely, TVO - Tractor Vapourising Oil, very similar to aviation kerosene.  If you look carefully, you can see the 2 filler caps - particularly on the green "Standard" Fordson.  From front to rear - the radiator cap, water temperature gauge, TVO filler cap and finally, the filler cap for the small petrol tank.

The "Standard" Fordson also had another peculiarity in that the clutch and brake pedal were one and the same.  Press half way down to disengage the clutch and fully down for the brakes (such as they were) ……..:shock::shock:

TVO won't vapourise at low temperatures so the engines were started on pure petrol then, once they reached the operating temperature, a fuel tap was switched over to the TVO tank.  Before stopping, we used to turn the tap to "off" until the engine coughed, then turn it to petrol to purge the TVO from the carburetor before switching off otherwise you had no chance of starting it from cold.     

'Petermac
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spurno is in the usergroup ‘Super-moderators’
Thanks for the explanation about TVO Peter.Having been a mechanic most of my life i never knew what TVO stood for.There's always time for us to learn something new.:thumbs

Regards

Alan


Born beside the mighty GWR.
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A good substitute for TVO is ordinary heating oil (central heating boiler and AGA) I used it in my old Petrol/TVO Fergie with no problems.
Sadly it had to go when we moved.

Shaun.
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[user=567]gastwo[/user] wrote:
A good substitute for TVO is ordinary heating oil (central heating boiler and AGA) I used it in my old Petrol/TVO Fergie with no problems.
Sadly it had to go when we moved.

Shaun.
:shock::shock::shock::shock:

Surely Shaun, domestic heating oil is diesel……………:hmm:hmm

I wasn't aware diesel would burn in a petrol engine :shock:.  Are you sure your grey Fergie wasn't a TF - the diesel version …….? :roll:

'Petermac
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It's almost diesel Peter - actually a thick grade of kerosine. TVO used to be diesel that was put through a 'Cat Cracker' - catalytic conversion - and you ended up with sophisticated paraffin.
When I used to work for Texaco back in the sixties we had to import TVO from Trinidad until they built a cat cracker at the Pembroke refinery.
My Fergie had the twin tank petrol engine engine -  but I also had a diesel, that would only start after a whiff of ether…

Shaun.
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You live and learn Shaun. :cool wink

I really had no idea that, other than having the same origin, heating oil and paraffin/kerosene  were so closely related, but more importantly, I didn't know the former would work in petrol engines.

I know what you mean about the squirt of "Easy Start" into the air intake.  In days of yore, many diesel tractors had a liking for the stuff and refused to start without their "fix" ………;-)

Presumably your diesel Fergie had that little button on the side of the transmission box that you pushed in with your heel whilst operating the starter via the gear lever (which would only work with the clutch depressed) ………………opposite reverse if memory serves me rightly …..:roll::roll:



'Petermac
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[user=31]sparky[/user] wrote:
Can you remember where the tractor rally was David?
Yes it was at the Salop Steam Rally this bank holiday weekend just past. Although it is a steam rally there are lots of non-steam vehicles there as well including the various tractors, buses, lorries and cars I have posted pictures of.
regards
David
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Thanks David.:thumbs

reg
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Went to the threshing meet today. Not a lot of steam but some neat tractors






Got to watch this one running the saw mill
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