joegrgraham

Found this plaque at work today. John Ferrabee of the Phoenix iron works was in partnership with Edwin Beard Budding, and he was the one who did all the casting for the first lawnmower. The pair also created the adjustable spanner! This plaque is in Stroud cemetery, Edwin is buried in Dursley.

OK, hare-brained idea time...... I work for a very 'green' local council, and we are slowly switching to battery powered equipment, strimmers, blowers etc. Also visited saltex last week and saw battery ride on mowers. Now, I have a Ransomes mg2, and I think it may be a good platform for conversion to battery power, motor direct into the gearbox, some form of trigger speed control etc etc. Has anyone attempted or considered a similar idea?

Finally got around to visiting Oakham treasures at Portbury, near Bristol today. What a place!! Lots of tractors, engines and agricultural displays, shop displays, enamel signs, the list goes on. If you are ever near Bristol, it is well worth a visit ( just make sure you have a good couple of hours spare).

A little more progress today. I decided to install a 'cat-flap' in the sheet above the rear door to allow more headroom during loading, and a bit more ventilation. Just need to add some catches and a stay. Also a few more bolts needed around the aluminium sheet, but that can wait, today was curtailed by it being too flippin cold and a broken drill bit through the thumbnail!

So, I made a certain amount of progress this weekend. Windows and ventilation louvres are fitted, it looks a little rough at the moment, but final sealing and then paint will improve the looks (and yes, I forgot to take off the protective film before I fitted the side window). Also had an exploratory dig at the floor, apart from some planks being made of cheese, the metal structure underneath seems solid. Hopefully I should get the floor out next weekend. The only iffy bit is one bottom rear corner where the aluminium skin has reacted with the steel angle, it's only a small hole, so should be a simple repair.

That's a really useful plan, thank you for that!. Once the floor is removed, I will definitely look into beefing up the frame!. Thanks again.

Thank you for the pictures Anglo traction, very helpful in what to look out for. I like the idea of the box section to protect the end floorboard, I will have to look into something similar , I'm planning to use scaffolding boards to replace the floor, and with the good old imperial /napoleonic measurements discrepancies, I will have a small gap to fill, so some box will do the job nicely. Due to visitors, I didn't get much achieved today, only got the checkerplate replaced with perspex, still need to finish with mastic. I notice one difference between mine and your neighbours, mine has a seam running the centreline of the roof, (note the piece of timber on the roof in mine) where the other appears to be one piece. Although the piece of timber is a bit soft, I'm loathe to touch it as there are a lot of screws holding the roof panels into it, I think I will run mastic along the seam and hope for the best....

There'll be no worries on that front stormin. First job is to get it watertight, then the floor will be coming out, several boards are pretty spongy, plus I want to clean and paint the chassis, and find somewhere to fix some lashing rings. Not sure what to do the floor with yet, whether to go like for like with thick planks running crossways, or a couple of layers of thick ply, topped with either a layer of phenolic ply or ally checkerplate.

More pics. And inside.

Thanks Anglo traction, any pics would be great. I have also noted the flaw with the floorboards, though the worst rot on mine are by the door and tailgate. I plan to keep the grooms door to use as access when in camper mode, I have an aluminium sheet (not sure whether original) above the tailgate, this overlaps the tailgate ad has to be removed to open the tailgate, I will try and modify this so it can stay in place, maybe adding a window. It seems that stopping water ingress will be the biggest job, at least today has been a good day to look for leaks!

Hi all, not entirely sure which category to put this in, it's not horticultural as such, but is related in a round about sort of way! I've just picked up this old Rice horsebox, the idea being that with internal dimensions of 9' x 4 and a bit foot, it is the perfect size for transporting my Ransomes Mg2, plus other machines. Then, once at the event, unload the machines, set up the camp bed etc, and I have somewhere half habitable to sleep in! Thus doing away with the annoyance of tents!! Anyway, the plan is to rub down and repaint inside and out, replace the checker plate bits with perspex to allow some light in, new piece of plywood on the floor, and fix the leak in the roof. I believe this is quite an early model, so there is an element of restoration here too, has anyone else any experience of fixing up these trailers? I will add some more photos when it stops raining!

Might be worth trying your local kubota dealer, if they don't carry the parts anymore, they should know where to get them as there are plenty of old kubotas still in work.

As mentioned above, it is a rifle sight, probably from an air rifle.

Looks like a B and S off a merry Tiller, the only cut out is the little flap next to the spark plug. Firstly try the obvious, clean up the plug and check the plug gap or try a different one, then take off the cowling and clean up the coil where it meets the flywheel, and check the gap between coil and flywheel. They are fairly bombproof engines, so if you still have no spark, it is probably the coil. Joe.

Thanks Iain, I've also only found pics on the net of the 10 ton version, not sure how mine fits into the range. I don't suppose you have a photo of the other side of yours? Im not totally sure if mine is missing anything so would be good to compare them. Joe.

I was given this a couple of days ago, just assumed it was an old tractor jack. Last night I cleaned up the makers name cast into it. A quick search has shown that Trewhella bros' were an Australian firm (who also produced the Monkey Winch) and it was originally designed for jacking out tree stumps. I'm not sure how old it is, and, as it is seized, I'm not even sure how it works! Still, a nice little thing that I'm happy to have.

Hi all, Quick question, I'm hopefully collecting a merry Tiller Truck next week. Would someone be able to give me the overall dimensions of the truck ( total length and width) I just need to make sure that it will fit in the back of the truck! Joe.

Pm sent.

That thought had already occurred to me! My mate had a merry Tiller with a reverse gear in the engine and he had a right game getting that one sorted!. It's in the 'pending' pile at the moment, in time I shall have a proper look over it.

Yes, it has a gearbox off the back of the engine. Not sure if this particular engine will live again, it has been robbed of most ancillaries, really depends if I can identify the engine model, and then source either parts or a donor.

Had a better look at it today, only just realised that the wheels are plastic! They do look the same design as yours Paul, I guess they were just bought in by the different makers.

Just got home from collecting this, a circa 1980 yellowbird cultivator /tiller. A quick Internet search has revealed not a lot, other than yellowbird being an American machine, so I assume Ashley Cooper were importers?. As you can see, the engine has been cannabalised and is probably beyond saving, I'm think it is a B & S, but if anyone can give me any more information, I'd be very grateful!. The little three leg cultivator looks like an interesting gadget as it seems to pivot from side to side. More pics.

IT IS ALIVE!!!! 😁😁😁😁 Thanks to a combination of holding the tickler open whilst cranking, and a lot more throttle than I had been giving it, she struck up and ran quite nicely. Now to put the fan back on and give her a proper run. Thank you everyone for your help, advice and input, I am one very happy boy right now! Joe.

Thanks Johnathan, I should have a bit of time tomorrow night, so I shall have a good go at it and report back!

I'm happy with the spark, it fires readily with a drop of fuel in the plug hole. I will revisit the mag timing, but it still appears that the Carb is not sucking fuel up into the combustion chamber.