ford 4610/30 - tractor talk

[HughF]

Any ford 4610/30 owners/user/drivers past or present on here? I'm looking to downsize from a db996, get something with a better/newer cab, which is lighter/smaller but has 4wd/fwa. Preferably from the mid-late 80's.

MF362 is too expensive, have been looking at the ford, never owned one before, any good? Also looking at a zetor (we have one, it's excellent).

 

[blenkie1]

Brother In law had one a good few years ago and as far as I can remember was a good tractor no problems as far as I can recall apart from dirt in the fuel tank. He got a newer ford/new holland now and I don't think it is as good. Had a bit trouble with the front hubs on it. Got to say my brother in law must be one of the roughest people I know even rougher than a normal farmer so the fact it never had any major problems is a good testament to its reliability! Wife said she often used it to feed the sheep on the fell. Stick it in low gear set it away, jump out the cab and run to the back and pull the hay off the round bale and then jump back in jobs a good un. Unless you fall over or get your welly stuck in a bog!

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Brother In law had one a good few years ago and as far as I can remember was a good tractor no problems as far as I can recall apart from dirt in the fuel tank. He got a newer ford/new holland now and I don't think it is as good. Had a bit trouble with the front hubs on it. Got to say my brother in law must be one of the roughest people I know even rougher than a normal farmer so the fact it never had any major problems is a good testament to its reliability! Wife said she often used it to feed the sheep on the fell. Stick it in low gear set it away, jump out the cab and run to the back and pull the hay off the round bale and then jump back in jobs a good un. Unless you fall over or get your welly stuck in a bog!

I used to do the same while collecting hay bales in the field, stick it in low 2nd on tickover, line it up and jump off. Stack the bales on the trailer as you went along then jump back on at the end.
Could never come up with a solution to get the tractor to turn round and come back down the next row on its own though.
Back to the original topic what about a JD 2140, I have the earlier 2130 in 2WD and it suits me down to the ground, spares are easy to get hold off and a reasonable price plus you don't need a degree in computer science to service or repair it.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Sorry, missed the bit about you wanting to downsize!

 

[HughF]

I always assumed if it was green it would grenade itself then cost a fortune to fix... I haven't considered JD. I'll have a look at the weights and see what they come in at.

 

[500e]

Have been told that to

 

[DecK]

Good tractors. All mechanical and not much electrics apart from lights and the usual. If your planning on using a hydraulic valve chest on them though you might have to get a pump and gear. Pump bolts on to the LHS just behind the engine and it would have to be split to put the drive gear in. Something to keep in mind if you see one without a valve chest.

 

[HughF]

Understood, thanks for pointing that out. I guess without the pump and valve chest I'd be limited to a single rear spool?

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Can't go wrong with a grey fergie with a 3 cylinder Perkins! Or at a push a dexta. Real machines. Stay away from case, absolutely rubbish machines, a pain to work on too

 

[DecK]

Sorry, wrote that while rushing out the door. The reason for the second pump is so the lift and hydraulics can work together. Yes, all the 46's come with a single double acting spool at the back and this could be plumbed to work a valve chest. The problem is that the flow to the lift arms and the flow to the valves are selected through a splitter control on the floor just behind the drivers legs. This lets you work either the lift or the valves but both cant be worked at the same time without changing the splitter again. It becomes a pain after a while so we just put the pump on.

 

[HughF]

I understand that predicament. Only 1 of our 4 tractors has independent spools, and there is only 1 double acting on that particular zetor.

 

[DecK]

Can't go wrong with a grey fergie with a 3 cylinder Perkins! Or at a push a dexta. Real machines. Stay away from case, absolutely rubbish machines, a pain to work on too

What?? not even a mention of a Fordson Major! I thought those things kept Britain going in the 60s

Those Zetors were good yokes though. They might not have had all the features of similar sized tractors down the years but they were bulletproof. Don't know how the modern ones are going but they... look a bit soft.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

What?? not even a mention of a Fordson Major! I thought those things kept Britain going in the 60s

Those Zetors were good yokes though. They might not have had all the features of similar sized tractors down the years but they were bulletproof. Don't know how the modern ones are going but they... look a bit soft.

The major was a good machine also! But there's just something about a Perkins that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy

 

[HughF]

We're running a t20 diesel on the cordwood saw, a 35 4 cyl diesel on the digger but it's proper beat up now, the zetor and the 996 are for everything else. 10 acres of mixed grazing and woodland to manage, quite a lot of time is spent doing woodland stuff.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

We're running a t20 diesel on the cordwood saw, a 35 4 cyl diesel on the digger but it's proper beat up now, the zetor and the 996 are for everything else. 10 acres of mixed grazing and woodland to manage, quite a lot of time is spent doing woodland stuff.

Sounds similar to our setup, 16 acres of woodland and meadow with about a 40/60 split. Using a straight petrol T20 and the JD to manage it.
The meadow is subject to a SSSI as its the only area of acid grassland on the Quantocks and its packed with a variety of grasses and wild flowers. Need to do something to keep the blooming rabbit population down though, I was hoping Mixie would kick in but no sign of it this year.

 

[HughF]

We have a 3 acre sssi which also happens to have our well on it, we claim HLS on the whole 10 acres and we also have hedgerows that were deemed to be of 'importance' so we get a extra bit in the HLS for that.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Sounds similar to our setup, 16 acres of woodland and meadow with about a 40/60 split. Using a straight petrol T20 and the JD to manage it.
The meadow is subject to a SSSI as its the only area of acid grassland on the Quantocks and its packed with a variety of grasses and wild flowers. Need to do something to keep the blooming rabbit population down though, I was hoping Mixie would kick in but no sign of it this year.

If you weren't so far away if be round in ten with the air rifle

 

[addjunkie]

Cats can sort your rabit problem, we have 11 acres, of grazing, no woodland. But dont have a bunny problem due to cats killing them. Moles and voles too.

Dont have any tractors yet.....but am tempted, just use a quad with attachments snd the borrow from next door if i fix it first.

 

[wookie]

Cats can sort your rabit problem

Tell that to our pair of cats, both came from a farm and yet today I counted 7 rabbits in our field at the front, there was a rabbit sat in front of my garage yesterday until it saw me and pelted it up the drive, and as for moles there are molehills popping up in the front field and all around my garage, if the mole traps don't catch them soon I swear I'm gonna go all 'Caddyshack' on them.

I wonder would plumbing the car exhaust into the mole run work

 

[HughF]

Terriers and a chainsaw with some 20:1... Oh hang on, that's rats...