How dare you lot get on here talking tractors without including me?!?
Let me give you a quick run down of my working life and tractors. When i first started work, a few years ago tractors were very different. My first experience sitting on a tractor was a MF 35X, a lovley tractor this was and probably one of my all time favourites, the 35X was the follow on from the great Grey Fergie, and first saw active farm work in the earlie 50's, 24th Ferbruary 1951, if I'm not mistaken.
But soon, as my experiance increased, i swiftly moved on to the David Brown 885. Although many people would say this was the next generation tractor i would totally disagree, unreliable, uncomfortable, and an all round pig of a tractor, these are my memories of the 885.
Soon i realised there were better tractors out there, and then came my first experience with the legendary MF135. This was then, and still is today, the king of all tractors. The 135 became the most sort after tractor of it's time, and was sold in it's thousands, with just about every farm without exception, owning one.
Next on my list of tractors that i have driven, was the MF152. This was supposed to be a step forward from the 135, but ask any fellow tractor driver, and they will tell you my god it was a step backwards not forwards!!!
Now we move into my time of driving John Deere. First up was the 1140, this was a small cabless orchard tractor, specially designed to fit through narrow orchard rows. A nice tractor, but suffered many hydrolic issues which equaled much down time in an otherwise okay tractor.
Now we move onto the John Deere 2850. We had two of these on the farm, one being 2wd the other 4wd. The main problem with this tractor was the 4wd version as it had exactly the same engine as the 2wd i.e. 110 BHP so making the 4wd version well under powered.
Now we come to the more modern end of my tractor experience. The Ford New Holland, this we bought in the mid 90's but only lasted a matter of 18 months on the farm, the main reason being reliability, hydrolic problems and it was a ford say no more.
Finaly we arrive at the present i.e. our Fendt collection. We have four of these on the farm today, the first two were bought in the late 90's. These were the 250V version. The Fendt is a German built tractor origionally designed for vinyard work but was adapted for orchard work. A very reliable and well built piece of kit, and probably one of the best tractors of it's time. Our other two Fendts are the new 270V version and the first was purchased in 2007 and last one in 2008. These are very similar to the 250 series but with afew modern upgrades i.e. air conditioning and a more powerful and efficient engine.
Hope this helps and anymore questions or queries please feel free to ask me on Wednesday night when I'm always available for tractor chat.
Kind regards Alan