Hi guys! Smallholder/Crofter (Pic inc)

[Markwood20]

Hello people,

Right so i'm new to this forum and thought i'd introduce myself and why i'm here...

I'm Mark,
We have a smallholding (Croft) here in NE Scotland near Peterhead.
We have recently moved from down south where we also had a smallholding!

Down south we never owned any machinery but used a local contractor (he was the farmer that owned the surrounding fields and with our patch only being 4 hectares he was more than happy to work the field for us)
Any excavation equipment we required was on a self drive hire basis and again the local farmer was happy to hire it out to us at a very reasonable cost! so we never really needed to own any heavy equipment!

Since moving up here, the local farmer (whilst we see him around and get on really well with him) isn't exactly local and he also owns a huge amount of land. He himself works the land and also has 2 or more contractors in at any one time...
The other strange thing is up here is that hire shops don't want to hire anything bigger than a power drill unless you're a trading company

So its time to start getting some machinery of our own and get stuck in!

At the moment we are keeping our ears to the ground for a small (by today's standard) 55-60hp tractor for yard and field use. We will also be extending/rebuilding the stone cottage that we live in!

Onto why i'm here:
With all this in mind we spotted an old Ford 555 Backhoe loader for sale a couple of days ago! It was going for a reasonable price so we jumped in the truck and scuttled over to give it a good dose of inspecting!
It seems in pretty good overall condition for its age (unsure of the exact year just yet) its the 'Special' variant with the extra dig back arm (even better)

Good points:
2 owners from new, the farmer and the guy that lived next to the farmer!
Checked all the joints for play and they are all nice and tight!
On to the arm and loader... No leaks on the ram seals, everything extends and retracts fully with no fluid bleeding even the hoses are in remarkably good even though they all looked like the factory original!
Starts up first crack of the key, no smoke, no untoward engine noises, everything works as it should.
includes Ditching bucket, 2 digging buckets, pallet forks, loading bucket (not a 4in1 but cant have everything can you!)
It even had padding and upholstery still on the seat!

Not so good points:
Couple of holes in the back of the loading bucket (nothing i cant fix with some plate steel and my arc welder), a few cotter pins missing here and there, a couple of broken teeth on the digging buckets and the N/S foot only seems to lift about half way to stowage position.
I have a feeling that there is something in there jamming it because it runs up and then stops dead like its hit the back stop it doesn't seem to be trying to creep up!

The only other mechanical issue with it is the drive shaft to the hydraulic pump...
The seller told me about it, so i had the covers off again and had a closer inspection at it. It looks like the spline end has some excess play in it! Nothing serious (yet), but more than there should be!
He informed me that its something that will need fixing before it breaks as its liable to damage the radiator and then cost some serious money to fix!

I'm waiting on the haulage firm to get it home sometime this week, so i can't get stuck in just yet! but here's a pic to get started with. I will post walk round pics when its in my yard!

Ford 555c.jpeg

Perhaps someone can cast a glance and shed some light on whether iv'e bought a lemon or if i appear to have got a decent machine?

If you got this far.... Thanks for reading, lol i tend to get carried away a bit!

[Jeremy Rowland]

Hi Mark and welcome to CMN the machine you have purchased looks to be in reasonable condition for its age; I'm sure that there are some members on here who can offer you their knowledge on these machines. Welcome and enjoy the forum.

Jeremy

[Markwood20]

Ive been regular at the local plant and agri auctions for 8 months now and when i saw this i had to head over to see it bloody quickly. Just from the couple of pics there were of it this was immaculate when compared to the junk going through the auctions. (And i mean junk if it has any one of the following: glass, lights, keys, v5, remains in one piece when it gets to the block or all of its control levers thats a show stopping example!)
And with the asking price below half what similar machinery was going under the hammer for, i knew it wouldn't be around long.

It went online at 10pm and by 9am the following morning he'd had 5 other people make arrangements to view it!
I was the first one there, thankfully he was way out rural and 2 others had got lost! When we arrived he was on the phone trying to redirect one of them lol.

[TrevorJ]

Welcome to the forum

[shane.c]

Welcome Mark,

[essexpete]

It does look a straight old machine. I expect if you do the few jobs that are needed it will give good service. Probably pay to change the engine oil and filter (is a torque con model change the fluid as best possible) check transmission/axle oil. might be a good idea to drain/flush coolant and replace with a good quality anti freeze as some Ford blocks were prone becoming porous with a form corrosion.

[Markwood20]

It does look a straight old machine. I expect if you do the few jobs that are needed it will give good service. Probably pay to change the engine oil and filter (is a torque con model change the fluid as best possible) check transmission/axle oil. might be a good idea to drain/flush coolant and replace with a good quality anti freeze as some Ford blocks were prone becoming porous with a form corrosion.

Thanks dude, i know where you're coming from!
I pretty much do the above with any 2nd hand vehicle i buy (exception of the axle oils!) will do hydraulic filter too, i noticed the paint doesn't look like its been broken where the filter housing mounts, so i suspect thats gonna be pretty gunked up!
Wasn't looking at this being much different except bigger nuts n bolts,

Just not sure whether to crack on with it myself or take it to the mechanic about 1/2 mile down the road for the hydraulic pump shaft or get on with it myself, still in 2 minds atm!

Although i haven't been able to source new parts locally as yet!

[68a]

Hi Mark.Had one of these as a yard hand for 10 years.It's not a JCB so don't dog it as it's abit under powered.Try not to crack the tombstone.I Did and it was out of action for months whilst I found time to fix it.Mine would get hot in the tranny department rarely and over all was a really handy piece of kit as it was very nimble and smaller than a JCB.Snap it up.I bought mine in 2003 for about 5k in tidy order.I bought the JCB in 2012 as I needed one in a hurry after I cracked the tombstone (which took the rad out).I sourced all the parts for about 600 quid from Chris Hitchens Plant in Huddersfield which I thought chaeap really.Once I fixed it I sold it very quickly to a neighbour who gave me 4k.I could have sold it over and over.He still runs it as a yard hand and won't sell it.
Go buy it before anybody else does..

[Markwood20]

Hi there, thanks for the info.
I did snap it up, had good look round it and checked all the cylinders for full range and leaking seals.
Had rummage round the engine and checked oil and water for signs of mixing (i remember fords being prone to porous blocks)
Engine cracked over first time from cold with no smoke!

Just one question, what's the "tombstone?"
I'm affraid im not up on the machine lingo yet!

[essexpete]

Tomb stone is the heavy piece of chassis/casting that the front axle mounts on some TLBs and most tractors.