Fowler VF and TS 69 Hexatrac

[Fowler VF]

John
Nice to know that someone else understands the intracies of the Marshall engines; and more importantly knows about Hexatracs. It was googling for information that brought up your post on this board in the first place. I think all Ransomes bits are getting harder to find; probably not so bad if you have a two furrow match plough but keeping a 6 furrow up together gets v expensive. It cost me a lot to get a set of discs together and I still don't have a set of skims. Last quote that I had was over £100 a furrow. To make matters worse I found a second Hexatrac when looking for parts; so I had to buy it. Unfortunatley it is in far too good a conditon to break so I now need to get that one up together. It currently has digger boards on it but since the plan is to hitch it behind the other plough and pull it with my D7 4T I now need to find another set of boards and frogs to convert it!
I was told that my original plough was one of, if not the last one made. Guy I bought it from told me that it was one of a pair sold to a farm in Cambridge. I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the "pair" until I came across another guy who told me how they used to hitch two ploughs together.

If I come across any EPIC bits I'll let you know. I did find 4 brand new YL 165 boards the other day, not sure how they would match up to the 183's on the other plough. Do you or anyone else know much about the merits of the different boards?

Nick H

[John Gaunt]

Hi Nick, well, it is a small world.
I'm not sure which of my posts you came across, but here is a pic I really love of a D7 pulling no fewer than 21 furrows (2 x hexatracs, 1 x quintrac and one multitrac) !
A fellow director of the ACMOC (Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owner's Club) has a frame for connecting two hexatracs together, he operated it a few years ago at "Power of the Past" pulled by an International TD24. I had thought about making one myself to hitch a multitrac behind my hexatrac (I've got several multitracs but only the one hexatrac), but not gotten around to it.....too many other projects on the go.
I'm ot sure about the difference between the YL 165 and YL183 boards, but I suspect it may be in the height of the board (or depth they can plough), I will try and find out.

[Fowler VF]

Now that is a sight! Ploughing looks Ok as well, not just a stunt. So why are you just playing with 6 furrows!!
I thought my plan for 12 furrows was going to be fairly eye catching. I have seen a photo of 12 behind a D7 and the Ransomes Good Ploughing book shows the hitching arrangement. The drawbar on that 21 rig must be fairly substantial, not to mention the pile of spaghetti for all the trip ropes.

I was hoping you were going to give me the easy answer to moving the plough. So far I have only gone a few miles to local matches, took the spuds off the wheels and towed it behind the landrover. Made the mistake of towing it with the main drawbar once; above 10 mph it starts to snake very badly and the back end swings out. There is a draw bar that fits to the back wheel to tow it backwards, much better. I have a design in my head for a rubber tyred axle; jack up the plough and pin it onto the drawbar fixings. The idea then was to either fit another rubber tyre arrangment to the back and tow it backwards behind the landrover or some form of lift up arrnagment to drop the back end onto the back of the small tractor low loader that carries the Fowler. Not sure of the legality of the double hitch, there used to be a rule that you could double hitch implements from one farm to another. Its still only at the design stage and given current work committments is likely to stay there a while yet!

[Fowler VF]

Nice little site all about Marshalls and Fowler VF's

http://fieldmarshalltractors.com/#/fowl ... 4529201168

[Fowler VF]

Video of VF in action. Aplogies for the poor quality and orientation. haven't quite mastered this yet!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEDVMQ5IR-I

And this one is the drivers view, the bouncing camera shot gives an idea of what it is like sit on one of these beasts. As they say, you don't drive a marshall engine you ride it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-tFEdyJfj8

[IANOZ]

Hi Nick ,Apart from the kink in the neck i loved it . There can't be many machines that can match a fowler in drawbar pull. I am not a farmer ,but the ease inwhich the fowler handles that plough is impressive .So what else turned up and wheres the photos !. ian.

[John Gaunt]

Hi Nick, That's a very nice hexatrac you have there. I'm amazed how easily the Fowler pulls it. The plough alone weighs over 2 tonnes. Is it on Epic bodies ?
Bet you had a great time, I just wish I could have been there

[Julian]

You need courage and determination to swing the beast, you have to put your back into it and get it turning over fairly rapidly, knowing all the time that the decompressor is going to kick out and then the moment of truth; either she fires the right way or the driver goes back up over the hedge. Still, provided you've had enough breakfast you never get a flat battery!

Hi, I've a '46 series I that I use to pull a 10' water ballasted roller over the paddocks. I've fitted the 9mph top gear and when the ground is not too soft it'll pull top gear making huge black smoke rings in the sky! It's the only way to run one of these engines, they don't like running with a light load for too long.

I noted that the instruction book warned against starting a warm engine with the handle without the starting papers. So I tried it - result was an engine that ran backwards (lucky to get the handle away before it went over the barn roof) giving three reverse gears and one forward one

In general terms though I don't find starting it too difficult, with the handle on frosty mornings is no real bother but I'm fairly strong.

Julian.

[IANOZ]

Hi Julian, What do you mean by 46 series? I don't know much about the fowlers but i thought all the VFs started with 47 ,and the vf was the first fowler crawler fitted with the marshall single cylinder motor . ian.

[Julian]

Hi Julian, What do you mean by 46 series? I don't know much about the fowlers but i thought all the VFs started with 47 ,and the vf was the first fowler crawler fitted with the marshall single cylinder motor . ian.

Oops, sorry. I've actually got a Field Marshall series one manufactured in 1946! Same engine as the VF, although they reversed the direction of rotation on the Series 3 and VF due (I think) to the reduction boxes on the final drive that reversed the output.

I once did a 25 mile road trip on it to my mate's farm - took three hours and got frozen by hailstones at one point. I was too bsuggered to drive it home so borrowed his van for the night and came for it the next day!

Julian.