Leaderboard

As Jonathan, (expeatfarmer) was not going to be able to attend the HVC ploughing match this year, he kindly offer one of his crawlers and a plough, to anyone who wanted to enter. I kindly accepted his offer and volunteered my mate Dunc. Never having driven a Ransome before, though many other agricultural machines, we met at Jonathans last Monday so Dunc could have a drive and see the plough he would use. MG5 imported from the south of France along with the three furrow plough hanging on the back. You'll notice, now I've told you, the plough at the rear is off set by about 2". Why?, you ask. Haven't a clue. We collected tractor and plough today and took it to Dunc's for a bit of practice. Neither of us having any idea of setting things up. The afternoon was spent freeing things up and with much debate, a couple of trial runs. More will be done tomorrow or Saturday, depending on the weather. Below are some shots of the plough.

Thanks mate, were still waiting to drive the RJ as you will see.. So what can I say about the RJ... I think AARRGGHHH sums it up quite well! I don't know what the RJ has against us but it's really fighting us at the very last stage!! You would think something as simple as putting the steering wheel on would be easy, but no! When the RJ arrived the steering wheel was held on with a bent nail.. Now most of the time it's because the original roll pin? has been lost at some point in time.. Not this time.. The holes in the wheel and column didn't actually line up very well so a nail was the only thing that would fit in! I guess the steering wheel isn't the original! Anyway, some very careful drilling and the wheel is now held on with a custom made quick release clip thingy "Deep breath"... Now onto the engine.. The very nice looking Schmacke or is it Schmacko? (It's hard to read on the photo's) has been driving us nuts! The recoil didn't want to which was eventually sorted, the the "gripping" bits that grip the hexagonal shaft on the engine decided it didn't want to to the gripping bit! Quite why we just can't work out, nothing is broken and it works 90% of the time when not fitted to the engine.. Fit it to the engine however and it will work for a couple of pulls then stop again! If I had to count the amount of time the recoil unit has been on and off the engine both Nigel and I would have to remove our boots and socks as we would run out of fingers to count on very quickly!!!! In the end for the sake of our sanity we decided to swap the recoil until over for one that works the more normal way, which in it's self is almost a straight forward swap... Woo-Hoo we can pull the engine over again.... But why is the engine cover moving around so much??? That would be because there should be a bolt where this hole is... The trouble is the backing plate is missing most of the threaded bolt hole as it had been broken off at some point in it's life! We do have another good backing plate to swap over, but that involves a lot of stripping two engine down to swap parts.. Forward one step, back two or is it four? It's not all bad news though, we have had the engine running.. For a short while anyway.. Once started it would run quite nice for a few mins, then start running rough, then eventually it would stop! Best have a look at the carb again, pulling the pin out that holds the float in place was nerve wracking as the casting one side which holds the pin in place isn't as strong as it should be.. Can you spot a problem? Yep the new O ring doesn't like petrol and has grown somewhat! No chance what so ever of getting this jet thingy out!!! It looks like someone has been at the float valve thingy already! Getting it out was er... Shall we say interesting! The carb has now been put back together and will be going back on the engine once the backing plate has been swapped over (tomorrow hopefully) and the "will it run ok?" sequence can start over again..

Oh dear chaps ,sound like junior has been given you a good work out , I will ask Michael if he knows anything about the shnake engine pull , he did say I could exchange it if there were any problems as I payed him extra for that . He also said that the tank was possibly leaking and he may have another replacement . Thank you sooooo much for your perseverance on this , I hope things start to get on your side soon .

I was offered this the other day and could not resist it. I think it may be a Rupp or Fox mini bike from USA but not sure. Does anyone have any ideas? Engine is a 3 speed BSA 125cc so it should be quick.

I looked at one of those a few weeks ago and decided it was too big to go behind a wheelhorse

Looking at the outlet pipe you could wear baggy trousers and collect the grass, don't forget to tuck the bottom of the legs in your socks

Had a play today. Rigged up a bit of pipe work. Worked quite well. Fired a rag out of the end. Took it onto the green which I'd given a topping yesterday. Didn't half shift the grass. Even the big lumps and the strips of the tractor wheels. When I had it running in the yard, it moved under it's own power. Jet propelled.

Hi Guy's the time has come to let my GT-14+2 move on to a new home. It's a 1971 model fitted with a Kohler Magnum 16hp engine which is by far the best starting Kohler engine I have ever had. A battery/weight box on the front. Cat 1 Three point linkage on the back.. Oh, the roll bar is a bit hard to miss.. I will be sad to see the ol girl go, but I need the money to buy something else.. Collection from Hawkhurst if you hadn't guessed £1000 or offers

Isn't it amazing what a squirt of WD40 and a wipe with a cloth can do

The mower that you have is a Qualcast Panther.

My new neighbours next door are very friendly and me being my normal helpful person that i am i offered to tidy up their drive free of charge. they were very pleased

Was it built in Hawkhurst

Some machines just like to fight you, and the RJ has picked the very last stage to er.. Pick a fight! With the fuel tank sealed up inside and painted, and the carb passing the leak test before it was installed the time had come to fire the RJ up and have a drive/adjust the shifter linkage.. I'm not sure if he didn't like coming off the bench or is just scared of being at ground level but the fighting started! Problems with the pull start not being able to keep hold of the end of the cable and the re-coil wasn't! Cable and re-coil eventually sorted only now the jaws bit that grabs hold of a hexagonal shaft on the engine wasn't grabbing any longer! When the pull start is off the engine it works fine, but once fitted!! Sometimes walking away is the best option and go back to the problem with a fresh head.. Which will be happening tomorrow.. The dull weather makes the paint look darker than it actually is.. I almost forgot!!!