Serial (ab)user of machinery

[Slooby]

Hi, as an engineer, with mechanical sympathy, I should probably know better but, over the years, I haven't exactly been the kindest custodian or user of farm and construction implements...

It all started pretty much from birth; as some of the earliest photos of me are seated at the wheel of a Thwaites Nimline 3/4 ton dumper that my dad bought in 1972 instead of a carpet. Come my arrival in 1973 and I was proudly shown in my mum's arms while she sat in the seat of said dumper, there's even a photo of me 'driving' it in 1975 aged about 23 months, where my dad ad put it on full lock and left it chugging along at idle in first gear while I stood on the seat holding on to the steering wheel while he stood in the middle of the arc it was slowly trundling in keeping a watchful eye...I'll dig it out. My record for the youngest driver of the dumper was beaten by my eldest nephew who was videoed performing the same trick when he was 10 months old...

That poor dumper gets used all year round, has had one oil change in its life with us, and has only once failed to start on 3 turns in summer, 5 in winter, that failure being when it needed an oil change, badly. Well I say never failed to start, I've never been able to get her started I simply cannot get my coordination together to time my decompressor flick to hitting just before tdc on the spin, and always get a kick back :/

The family fleet was joined by a '68 MkII Mini 1000 back in 1987, first as a field car until we realised that the 25k miles on the clock were genuine and the lady who gave it to us really was the first owner! That got restored by my dad and I and the bug for tinkering really took off for me. Morris Minors came and went, as did a Sunbeam Alpine Series V, then I got into moderns and making them go fast in a straight line and round corners, before my (soon to be ex) wife introduced me to motorbikes. Fatherhood has meant the toys have been pared back, but a couple of Land Rover projects remain.

Meanwhile, my dad and brother-in-law added a Massey Fergusson 65 to the family fleet to mow a field we had acquired, I tried to talk them into a 135, but they were sold on having more of a classic...

While I go through my divorce I have returned to living back with my family and we have been busy clearing an area of the field of some self-sown trees. We also have some ditches and pond in need of some attention, along with some big mounds of soil and building rubble that need shifting about...we had been borrowing a Yanmar YB201U mini excavator for the work but it has been struggling and in protest popped two rams the other day. At which point 'man-maths' set in and I might have just accidentally bought a 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2wd with Extradig and a Q Fit changer on the 4 in 1 front bucket...well, I figured borrow the money at 0% on the credit card, do the work and sell it at the end of the work and we've done it all at no cost...I fear the same man maths was used when buying a dumper in 1972 instead of a carpet...

[essexpete]

Great memories. My first official drive was a Thwaites Nimbus. Then on various old loading shovels. My first unofficial drive was in Dad's Austin A60 pickup. Dad had gone off in the lorry one Saturday with our neighbours older son. While gone I tied to have a shunt about in the yard. Kangarooed a fair bit and struggled to reverse in the slightly higher gear. Parked up relieved. When Dad and Phil returned Phil noticed straight away the van was in a different place. Dad did not notice, probably too much on his mind. Phil warned me but never let on! Still in touch with Phil having known him for over 50 years.
So welcome to the forum.

[Slooby]

Thanks Pete, I'm hoping to get my 2 year old son into the family fascination with things mechanical, so far he's enjoyed sitting on the MF65 and the dumper but only when they're stationary and not running, it's been the same story with the motorbikes too. I think the JCB will get him very excited...

I seem to have got 12 year old middle nephew interested after the crank casing split on his cheapie pit bike and I showed him how to strip the engine down and rebuild it, he was particularly good at working out how to feed the timing chain back up through the cylinder pot and set it up on the cam.

I'm going to end up bringing my Land Rover projects back down here, along with my Harrison L5A lathe, 4 post Bradbury Mk3 3 tonne Ramp and all my tools, just need to reclaim what's left of 'my' workshop to set up the playroom and juggle stuff around so the ramp can also be installed. Then I can crack on with the Landies and take a look at re-restoring that '68 Mini which we still have

[Holger]

Welcome Tim! Great introduction!