The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: Fieldfare on March 13, 2017, 09:10:30 pm
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Hi all- I think I need a bigger tractor! I currently have an MF135 and am looking to upgrade to something a bit bigger, about 70hp and 4WD (the MF135 struggles on hilly areas with a disc mower). Ideally wanting to sell the MF135 and use it to fund the new one. So I guess looking at about £5K. Any thoughts what I should be looking at?
Thanks!
:farmer:
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Old Renault 7014
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Fieldfare, hope you are well ;you are clearly much more knowledgeable and experienced with machinery thab when we first met.
In what way does your 135 struggle ?
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Hi Stufe35- yes am well-ish! Basically it struggles up hill when I am cutting (i.e. on half of that field). Granted, this could be partly be due to the old blades on my mower- but I think I could do with another 30hp and 4WD so I am not stopping all the time and reversing. Photo shows the steepest bit I dare do (to the left is much steeper- you can see where it sort of humps up) and I am really struggling up this. My sward is a bit thistley etc. and very thick so that doesn't help. Haybobbing is easier but still slows down somewhat.
Pulling a baler up this bit is really tricky- wheels start to spin a bit.
I really think that I am pushing the limits of it due to my hilly bits. Any thoughts?
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when you get a new one - never sell that 135 :)
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I have some thoughts for you -- but no time to type at the moment...another question...
why do you have to reverse with the mower ?
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...mower starts to slow down and then stops...tractor also slows down...really feels like it is struggling with the weight of the mower combined with the hill.
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Hmmmm...yes the pictures do look sort of cool. I think I'll post a few more!
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...and more pictures...actually feeling a bit nostalgic for the last couple of years using this!
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Beautiful machine :)
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...mower starts to slow down and then stops...tractor also slows down...really feels like it is struggling with the weight of the mower combined with the hill.
Mower stops but tractor still running ?....either a clutch on the mower , a belt on the mower or the pto clutch on the tractor must be slipping. ..I think most likely an issue on the mower as otherwise you would have probably had issues with the haybob and baler stopping too.
Mower is perfectly suited to your tractor, it is a fault as noted above you need to resolve and renew your blades.
Regarding loss of traction with the baler, solution is you need more weight on back wheels to aid traction. This is one of the problems with a baler which is quite heavy but is balanced and hence doesn't put a lot of weight on the back wheels of the tractor, unlike a proper tractor trailer which increases weight on back wheels the more you load it.
So what could you do. .?
1. Get rid of those weights off the front of the tractor when towing your baler they just transfer more weight onto the front wheels increasing rolling resistance whilst also transferring weight off the back wheels decreasing traction. A double whammy of negative effects.
1a. Check rear tyre pressures run at lowest recommended pressure to increase footprint.
2. Increase weight on back wheels . 2 methods I can think of. Buy rear wheel weights which bolt on, or fill rear tyres with water/antifreeze mixture.
3.another possibility would be to buy some wider rear wheels...and add weight by one of the above methods.
You appear to have a belting 135 there which you bought well. Changing It for another tractor is fraught with risk so my advice would be try some of the above first.
Your other option without going to 4 wheel drive would be to change to the slightly larger 165 , 265, or 565, all essentially the same tractors under the skin. This will give you more power and more traction due to greater weight. You should be able to get a good one as a straight swap. You need to make sure you get one with power steering and do not under any circumstances buy one with multi-power transmission , they are not suited to hilly terrain.
4 wheel drive is obviously better for hilly terrain, but comes At a price and is a whole load more bits to go wrong. You got by with your 135 as it is so it isn't far off the mark, a few cheap mods and I believe all round it will serve you better longer and cheaper. You may have to drop a gear going up hill...but what of it ? It's not like you've got 500 acres to do ! Points 1 and 1a may be enough.
When you are baling this year you need to shorten the chains of the bale chute at the back of your baler so it sits level instead of dropping like in your photo. It's purpose is to support the bale level as it comes out of the chamber, keeping the resistance constant so you get an even density bale that isn't bent.
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'Changing It for another tractor is fraught with risk so my advice would be try some of the above first.'
yep better the devil you know - she is good - loverly bit of kit
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Hmmmm...thanks for that comprehensive assessment of what may be happening Stu! I will work through those ideas and see if it gets a bit better in terms of the baler.
In terms of mowing I don't think it is the mower clutch. It seems to be that the tractor is struggling to go up the hilly bit- the revs start slowing right down and then the mower gets stuck as it hasn't got the speed to cut. I then have to stop, reverse to get revs up and then hit the sward again. Could be multiple reasons the blades not cutting well, thick, thistley sward combined with being on a hill? I walked up it today and even on foot it feels steep- I'm really worried about doing a wheely (eg hitting one of those giant molehills) when I have the mower on so feel safer having a couple of weights on the front (it goes pretty light on the steering). I really think this part of my fields is pushing my kit to the limit on a thick sward.
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I didn't say take the weights of with the mower...just the baler. Weights are for mounted implements not trailed implements.
What gear are you mowing in ?.
What speed do you have your revs set at ?
In your description you said..mower slows down then stops...what did you mean by this ?
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Hi Stu- re. weights that makes sense now. When cutting I'm in 1H. Revs set at 540rpm. On the flat the mower is spinning fine and tractor revs on dial are at 540rpm- as I climb the hill the tractor revs drop so I add more revs- then as it gets steeper giving extra does no good and revs reduce and tractor almost cuts out and mower slows down. I then stop. Reverse a bit (unclog mower if necessary) and start off again (I think I then pop it into 1L- which is perhaps the solution for these steep bits).
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Yes you are trying to go too fast...especially if your blades are blunt.
1h is ok on level going with sharp blades and a fair crop. With steep gradient and heavy crop you need to go down through the gears accordingly.
Set your revs at 540 rpm. The next gear down from 1h is 3L, (not 1L as you mention above) try this next. If you still lose power (which I doubt but it is possible) then next it's 2L. You won't need to go down to 1L. You might have to drop to 2L for a short stretch on the steepest bit, then move back up into 3L and the 1H as it levels out if you think it's worth the gear change.
When I lived in the Lake District we had a field which was so steep and the crop so heavy I found myself haybobing in 2L on the uphill bit....yet in good going you can haybob in 2H.
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Years ago when God was a boy we cut hay on a very steep park with the fergie 35, but only down hill ,returning to the top with out the mower engaged and over cut sward . |Sharp blades, well serviced mower and tractor all help.
( one year we were so desperate to beat the weather we went to the tractor powers mower , land-rover pulls tractor method ,now thats a test of a marriage .
Years later when I had the Ford 7000 with turbo that too would produce a little black smoke up the same hill.
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Love it Rupert ! And did the marriage last ?
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Up until 1992 I had never driven a 4wd , everything was done hay /silage / arable no problem ( sometimes the tractor and silage trailer took of on a slope ) and up until 1970 a 40hp tractor was a big tractor . The equipment you have is perfect for your tractor . Iv'e cut many fields where sections had to be worked down hill only
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Love it Rupert ! And did the marriage last ?
30years and counting :love: :love:
cant think why , mad as a box of frogs, and that's just me
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Fieldfare , posters above have brought up another method which I never thought to mention ie you can drive to the top of the field not cutting then cut down hill only.
Or of course the variation on this is that say you have a steep half to the field and a not so steep half, organise the way you cut the field so you are going up hill on the not so steep half and down hill on the steep half.
This can be achieved by instead of going around the outside of the field first working to the middle ie clockwise as is normal. Drive your first cut up the middle of the field first then turn around and come back down driving the tractor on the bit you've just cut gradually opening up the field from the centre working anticlockwise. (you can always do a couple of laps around the outside first to give yourself a headland at each end of the field to turn on or indeed open the headland by just cutting across it then reversing back to the start and coming across again a few times)
Always leave a mowers width around the edge of the field to the very end. It is best that the last thing you do is cut the final swath up to the boundary as the last thing you do before finishing the field as this is the area where you are most likely to hit obstructions such as stones that have fallen off the wall, which will blunt your mower or worse break it completely. If this happens at least you only have a little bit of field uncut, or to cut with blunt blades, not loads of it !
Hope all that makes sense !
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AH late 1960's driving an international B275 ( 38hp so a lot less than your 135 ) no cab and no roll bar until 1976 I think , with an international finger bar mower ( that only liked cutting standing dry grass ) then an acrobat followed by a wuffler , baled with an international baler and a wooden sledge that you stood on and stacked the bales then pushed the stack off , then onto a trailer using pitchforks , all on sloping fields MEMORIES :farmer:
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Hi all- this has given me great food for thought! Stu- thanks for the extra info. on gears(!!). And some really interesting stories...thanks! Yes, cutting (and baling?) the steepest bits downhill only sounds interesting. I already have wide headlands as I don't need all that hay and want to keep some tufty stuff for wildlife. I'll read all this again closer to haying!
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Now is the time to source and fit some new blades for your mower (if you haven't done it already !) whilst time is on your side.
Just to confirm(or perhaps explain slightly better) the sequence of gears on any ferguson 35,135,165,, etc etc.starting with lowest ratio to highest ratio is 1L, 2L, 3L, 1H, 2H, 3H (this isn't necessarily the case on other makes of tractor where the ranges sometimes overlap)
So if you run out of power in 1H the next gear down is 3L.
Don't hesitate to ask any other questions you have. Great to see the pics of your kit in action.
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OK- thanks for all that advice...my mind is set on trying to work with what I have as it does look lovely! Blades will be sought for the mower- or at least sharpened In fact from about 3 acres of unimproved pasture I am getting about 180 bales which is masses more than I need- and is actually quite a job to haybob all that before work so am sort of thinking of reducing my hay cut by half (to 1.5 acres), taking my time, missing out the worst of the hilly bit or cutting down-hill and strip-grazing these bits off hard with my sheep instead (only problem being that this means splitting this field length-ways to keep them tight on it!- possibly with hurdles- but is a solution).
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Have you done this years cut yet ? How did it go ?
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Bump
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Hi Stufe35- just seen this! Heavy farming action has been curtailed so far this year as I had a hip op in April! At the moment I dare only sit on the tractor! Not sure if I will be able to do it in late Aug...but if not will get a neighbour to do it with a big machine...or I even fancy leaving it uncut and see if I can strip graze it back over the winter as foggage. Hope all is well with you?