G'day from Down Under!

   / G'day from Down Under! #1  

Adelaide Panda

New member
Joined
Feb 2, 2012
Messages
6
Tractor
New Holland TN55S
G'day all!

A man from Australia who does things a bit differently with a tractor. The work that I do is brick cartage, and the method in Australia is to use tractors with rear mounted forklifts. Most brands of tractors have been used for this work, which is very hard on tractors. Many have broken in half, some have survived and thrived in the harsh conditions.

I started off with a 35 series Massey Ferguson with a Kaesler mast on the back. Good for 35 cwt on a good day, often had 2 tonne on the poor girl, with the front wheels in the air! Still have this tractor and use it from time to time.

Another tractor that was enjoyable to operate was a 444 International, set up with a Robot rear mount mast with the seat turned around. Trouble with the Inter is that the stub axles are too light, and the disc brakes are not up to the work in winter months as once moisture gets into them, they grab, which is not good.

About 12 years ago, I decided to upgrade the tractor. I went to the Paskeville field day, and the local agent had a New Holland TN55S doing circle work. Only in bottom gear, but going in a slow circle, on the grass, not disturbing the grass. When I set up this tractor, I done all the odd things to it that few others in the industry would do... low mast allowing me to get under 6' clearance, an overloaded counterweight, and mirrors at the first service.

After about 3 months, I decided to find out what I could lift with this machine on the rear mounted forklift. I went to one of the scale companies, and at the end, I had 3.03 tonne (6,785 lbs.) on the forks at a 2' centre and that was just lifting the front wheels off the ground.

The sales rep that sold the machine to me, he was giving me a very hard time about how I was setting this machine up. He set up the Iseki tractors for one of the large transport companies when they won a brick cartage contract in 1991. The Isekis' had problems with the gears in the final drive, so I understand. The rep come out to site after the mirrors had been fitted, and was shaking his head at how the tractor was being used. Fitting mirrors made me lazy - I could now look into the mirrors to see where my forks were when unloading off the truck! No more turning around and screwing my back and neck off!!! Having the extra counterweight allows me to drive up a hill with a pallet of bricks on the back, which is a lot quicker for me when unloading.

At the moment, I am having a quiet time, as am off without a truck. But, I have confidence that things will sort themselves out soon.

I look forward to learning from other members in this community. One is never too old to learn so I keep getting taught!

Ding. :)
 
   / G'day from Down Under! #2  
Welcome to TBN. :)
 
   / G'day from Down Under! #3  
Welcome to TBN.:thumbsup:
 
   / G'day from Down Under! #4  
Hey Ding - welcome to TBN :welcome:

Great to hear of how you do things down under - would love to see some photos of your setup sometime :thumbsup:

My names Ian, I'm based in Spain (moved here from the UK 4 years ago), and run a small agricultural / groundworks business with my fiance, Karon. We run a small fleet consiting of a Chinese Siromer (Jinma) 204S, New Holland 50-86 vine tractor and an old Ebro tractor which we use for grading work etc... We also have a 3t Case excavator and our old (but faithful) Nissan tipper lorry. You can see us at work on youtube - just search for Localmotion Siromer.

The jobs we under take are varied, but are mainly routine ploughing, gravel spreading and excavations. Currently we have over 100 contact ploughing customers of various nationalities, including local farmers.

Look forward to hearing more about your work, and following your input here at TBN.

G'day Mate :laughing:
 
   / G'day from Down Under! #5  
welcome to the forrum a very good place to be alot of good info here.:)
 
   / G'day from Down Under! #8  
Welcome.

When I was on the farm we used a tractor in a similar way to load 4x4 totes on a truck. I don't remember what make it was. Our setup allowed the driver to face rearward and operate as a normal forklift. Gears were reverse somehow.
 
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   / G'day from Down Under! #9  
Welcome.

Sounds like the loader we used on the farm years ago. All controls and gears were reversed. This allowed the driver to face rearward to load 4x4 bins on trucks in the field.
 
   / G'day from Down Under!
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Welcome.

Sounds like the loader we used on the farm years ago. All controls and gears were reversed. This allowed the driver to face rearward to load 4x4 bins on trucks in the field.

What I found with my 444 International that was reversed steered was that the gearbox was left alone and you were in fact looking at it from the other side. In its' original trim, it was 4 forward gears in the main box with a high / low secondary shift on the left hand side. Reverse was to the left and away from the driver, first was left and down, second was centre and up, third was centre and down, and top was right and up.

When the seat was turned around, the pedals were connected to pushrods, which joined up with the original sections. The seat was above the fuel tank, the instrument panel was cut away from the bonnet and mounted between the drive wheels. Steering was set up hydraulically and power steering now controlled the tractor. Due to the seat being turned around, the gears were now in reverse to what was normal. As a result, one has to stop and think about what they are doing.

One of the problems that I had with that tractor was the fact that the stub axles did not like brake turns when empty. Mind you though, most if not all of the two wheel drive tractor forklifts hated brake turns... :laughing: Eventually, if you did not take care of the tractor, something would break at the worst possible time in the worst possible place.

But, looking back at the abuse that this tractor copped... tapping (nudging) transportable houses into position... pulling trucks out of bogs... Other tractor forklifts out of bogs... 2+ tonne pallets of bricks and stone from time to time... having it up on 2 wheels diagonally with 2 tonne on the forks... Maybe I should be had for cruelty... but what is life without a bit of fun? :D

That is why I went for the 4 wheel drive tractor... Great turning circle without brakes and solid front end. It also gives a bit more counterweight and traction for getting the job done. For brick carting, you do not have to be crazy, but it does help!!!

Ding.
 
 
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