New toy

[essexpete]

maybe...

I bought a round baler from them during covid, seemed a good firm to deal with.

[Slooby]

Laddingford.

Even closer!

[hair bear]

Laddingford.

Even closer!

But no cigar.
Yes it was at Morgan's.

Looks a bit sad and soggy in their ad pic.

Quite straight forward guys to deal with, obviously I'm not in the big farming league looking for five figure purchases but yes, very helpful. I see the Case (and that first picture) are still on their website. I did get them to deliver even though I quite liked the idea of driving it home (only 70 ish miles).

So I now have a tractor I've never used, a borrowed plough I've never tried, and my first ploughing match since 1991 is in 18 days - what could possibly go wrong???
Could be looking for some cheap JCB hire to fill in the hole.

[hair bear]

Right, where are we up to?
Took it for it's first run yesterday evening. More recently I've been used to a NH 8560 which I would describe as a bit lairy on the road, the 550 is more a cheeky little handfull, and no, the 32" wheels do not make up for the low gearing. 15 mph flat! Still a fun couple of hours though. The plough is now on but still not seen soil, cross shaft adjuster needs welding, both disc stems rusted solid, and a wheel scraper needs fabricating.
As I'm posting this, 34hrs and counting. No rush then...

[essexpete]

Right, where are we up to?
Took it for it's first run yesterday evening. More recently I've been used to a NH 8560 which I would describe as a bit lairy on the road, the 550 is more a cheeky little handfull, and no, the 32" wheels do not make up for the low gearing. 15 mph flat! Still a fun couple of hours though. The plough is now on but still not seen soil, cross shaft adjuster needs welding, both disc stems rusted solid, and a wheel scraper needs fabricating.
As I'm posting this, 34hrs and counting. No rush then...

Which gearbox does it have. A lot of the 500 series seemed slow top speed compared to their 100 series counterpart. The 135 I drove occasionally in student days was a MP model and could do 23mph.

[hair bear]

Yes I had a 35x mp on 12.4-28 rears an that was scary fast. This one has an 8 speed full crash box (not the Porsche derived semi syncro) on 12.4-32 rims. I doesn't bother me, just more surprised by the diference.

[essexpete]

On a nice warm July day it was fun, as a student, to belt off with the 135 and fuel bowser to visit the MF 760 combines. It smoked like a goodun on the hills but had bags of poke. The other machine for the bowser was a Trantor Mk1, another story.

[hair bear]

We made it!

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Opening. It's as bad as it looks, there's a strip across the plot like concrete.

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Skims now in the long grass, looking a little better.

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Finished a bit deep but not too bad.

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Didn't get placed, Didn't even win a prize in the raffle!
There were only two tractors with cabs, and mine the only Q, so I awarded myself the smug git prize when it started raining.

Only one year different.

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Not so much 'Doe Triple D' but 'No triple why?'.

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[essexpete]

Was that the match were one vintage went up in smoke? The little MF looks good. Did they put a spacer in the 550 like 148? It looks longer than the 135.
Ground wise, I don't suppose the rain then harvest traffic helped this year.

[essexpete]

Re the Mini triple D, is the front axle removed on the rear unit? Someone has a 3000 triple D on the Dengie Hundred. It does look like a mini one.