Here's some of the gear we use on our farms. The wheels on the front mower in pic #2 were added by me to stop the mower from being run over when mowing rough ground. In pic #3, I made the scraper on the front and hooked the slurry tanker on to it with the theory being to drive along and suck up effluent, too much pipe friction ment it couldn't suck it up fast enough. It was worth a go though.
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Clifford the case had a bad day!
I know there's a story here somewhere !!!! jr
It is show and no tell, what a tease. Hope he comes clean so we know what happened to Clifford!
That hillside pic is awesome. Lotta nice looking equipment, HSV.
Well we inherited the MX240 with a farm we bought a few years ago, the tractor was supposedly still under warranty and a couple of months after we got it it did a bearing in the transmission which cost around $25,000 to fix and didn't get covered by warranty! After we got it back it lasted about 2 weeks and then snapped in half as shown! Took a few hours to get it jimmy'd up so it could get on the transporter to the dealer, they claimed that the 5 meter rotary hoe we were using on it was too big for the tractor and no warranty again, even though they had sold them new as a matched set to the previous owners! This time it cost $30,000 to fix and a couple of months wait for parts. Talked to a contractor that had some of these and he said he'd snapped a couple in half as well, he also told me of another contractor that'd had one break in half on him, all this after the dealer said "never had that happen before" Yeah Right! Anyway from then on we just called the MX Clifford "the big red dog" like the book hahaha
Thanks. It was just part of a 60ha paddock that we cultivated. It was rough as guts when we started. Had the D6H and EL300B in there sorting out the big gullies and I did about 600kms with the Challenger towing a 6m set of Rome discs.
This is the view from the top of that hill with the Challenger on it.
first class pics there, good to see the Fastracs hard at work I think it was the earlier MXs that were prone to that sort of behaviour.......and usually further back (from what I have seen on the odd occassion, caused by a couple of dipsticks who were incapable of recovering the stuck tractor in a proper manner) which is why I am surprised to see it went where it did, however much better for that part to break where Cliffie did than across the range box.....that casting isn't too bad to change
From the picture it kind of looks like a casting flaw at the top of the crack. Or is that just some paint or oil that got transferred? I was also just remembering that the very early Magnum 7100's had a weak spot where the lower 3pt arms connected with the rear casting. Apparently a couple farmers in south eastern USA snagged some tree roots, broke the rear housing, and dumped 45 gallons of oil on the ground! They created a new test fixture to test this scenario - an immovable object buried in the ground which they would impact with a ripper shank, installed in the center and offset. When I worked for CaseIH I actually used one of the original Magnum 7100 mules as a hydraulic power supply to run some cycle tests. The old gal was pretty worn out and was finally scrapped when the cam shaft broke. ISZ
This is a Claas Xerion 3800VC that we had on trial, this thing is a beast! Runs a 380hp C9 Cat engine and 50kph fully variable ZF transmission. Only problem was the $500,000 price tag
Looks mighty good, the price seems way steep, though. Hope they have easy pay terms! What is the tractor in the one picture that has the cab facing the three point hitch? That would be nice for a lot of applications, instead of going backwards. Just looks so bass ackwards to what we have here in the US.
Hi dirty4fun, the tractor with the cab facing backwards is the same tractor, it takes about 30 seconds to hydraulically lift and turn it around. The cab facing backwards allows you to do a whole lot of things like run a set of triple mowers or buck rake for stacking silage with an awesome view, also was handy when hooking up implements to see where the drawbar was.
Thanks for the explaination. I have for a long time wanted to visit New Zealand, but maybe best if I do to not operate anything. You drive on the wrong side of the road and have a tractor cab that rotates. Heck I would probably unplow a field or two till I got the hang of it all. I will pass the rotating cab to a few farmer friends. Would really be nice with a snow blower, and many implements. Thanks for sharing the pictures, the country looks so pretty there!
Those Xerion's are pretty cool, but like you mentioned the sticker shock hits like a 10 ton hammer.
Been driving this at the moment, quite like the IVT trans, makes it too easy to drive.
Ahh that's cute, I used to use one like this http://www.grizzly-engineering.com.au/index.aspx?page=2&productcat=23 , 50 foot, pulled it with a series 4 Steiger with 225HP but that was in light to medium soil and not going very deep. From memory that was only the second or third one they made and they came out to he farm to shoot a promo video and do a piece for the local farming newspaper.
Hi HSV 127 You have some good photos there . Nothing like working up hill country . Back ground looks like just out of Taupo Haddy
New arrival. Here's some pictures of the Xerion I'm driving this season, gonna test it out on some serious hill country, should be interesting.
Hey there HSV, back in 2008 we bought a claas ares tractor, had the nicest cab and easiest controls at the time. anyway last year we had a chance to try the xerion at a dealer show, they are really nice systems tractors that will do a lot of jobs. but as mentioned before the price tag is a major turn off unless you have the acrage to justify it. let us know how your testing with the xerion goes...
Scary! If I could take back a day this year it would be this one! Was spreading fert in the rain, had run out of flat paddocks so did this hill paddock that wasn't too steep, went to do the last run and tractor said no! Scariest 10 seconds of my life! Took us a day and a half to dig it out, took the shop 2 months and $180,000 to fix it. Mainly just the cab that was damaged running gear was fine.
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That does not look like a fun ride. The tractor held up pretty well, i hope you made out better though.
Me and my brother were in there at the time, I had my seat belt on but there wasn't one for the passengers seat so he ended up on the other side of the cab sitting on the ground where the window should have been. Luckily the tractor came to a stop at that point! We got out ok just a couple of scratches could have been so much worse!
thank god nothing happend to you guys, were lucky it didnt start rolling cause it probobly wouldnt have stoped!!! i didnt know you guys purchased that xerion. i wish you better luck for the new year...
Doing the clutch on the dirty old Belarus, bout spent I'd say! Had no splitting rail so the Hiab was the next best thing, worked well.
New Zealand,,,,,,,,,,,, best country in the world!
Spectacular country side, thanks for sharing HSV127!:drinkup
Yair . . . I have to ask ... Why doesn't that steep plowed country wash? Like I mean it's being worked up and down, no contour banks, nothing and yet it looks absolutely fine. Just curious as I wouldn't be game to put a plow into that country in a bloody fit. Cheers.
Thanks for the fotos. too bad about the tractor. you guy's seem to fairly rough on them down there huh? i can't believe it cost that much to fix. thanks again, cd
I won't be buying a CASE MX240 in a hurry
Generally we don't have much trouble with cultivating the hills but as you can see the ground can scour pretty bad if it rains too heavy before the grass has taken, although this paddock was way worse than usual because of all the gullies we bulldozed in. It only washed back down to the original depth of the gullies, was a bit heart breaking to see all our hard work washed away though!
If I were you I would get that fixed before Enviroment Waikato sees it !!!! Haddy
Yair . . . HSV127. Thanks for reply mate. It's a shame to see those gullys. Thar was exactly the scenario I envisaged when I posted the original comment. With the amount of good gear you seem to have at your disposal have you considered doing a survey and establishing some contours and grassed flow paths? I think there are any amount of studies showing it is cheaper than fixing blowouts I'm not trying to be a smart arse but in my working life erosion control was always a high priority. I remember bloody nearly crying one morning when I saw a beautiful blacksoil paddock with twenty foot blowouts . . . and it stayed like thar for close on fifteen years untill the property changed hands. All it takes is one storm at the wrong time. Cheers.