Good day to all,
I was born in the late fifty's and have grown up on a farm in the Drakensberg until I was around 12 years old. After my parent's divorce, and having moved to the city, I mostly lost touch with farm life and tractors, and only then when I had visited my grandparents during holidays. While my parents were still married, my father had been farming with a grey Ferguson, in our terminology a "Vaaljapie", then he had updated to the Massey Ferguson 135 and later still, the Massey Ferguson 178 with Power Drive. I never had the opportunity to drive the Vaaljapie, my father had traded that when I was still very young. I started driving the 135 at a tender age, mostly towing the trailer with milk to the main road junction for collection to town. My grandfather on my mother's side, farmed with an International 414 and a Ford 3000, after his old trusted Allis Chalmers dating from the 1930, had punched a hole through the block after some careless driving by a farm hand.
I also drove the 178 a few times but I was mostly too scared of this "monster" through a 10-year old's eyes! Then after school and army, I became an aircraft mechanic with South African Airways, later still a Lectures in tertiary Education and then a Project Manager with an Electricity Generation company. And off course, staying in town, I had mostly lost touch with tractors and I had not thought in my wildest dreams that I would actually even own a tractor again!
With life's twists and turns, my daughter married a labor relations guy, doing contract work at the same power station I worked in, in the countryside. My daughter had farming in her genes, and she had insisted that they rented a farmhouse, close to the power station, where the owner farmed commercially, and planting all with big John Deere Tractors. She had started very small, with virtually just a vegetable garden, expanding to chickens, then sheep, then cows.
When my son-in-law's contract had ended, they bought little farm in the "bosveld" (Bush veld) near Rustenburg, now working for his father, still doing HR work for mines. This farm is in a very rocky, bushy part of the country with maybe two acres of arable land. However, law requires the farm to have fire lanes on all fences, and this farm had none. After some enquiry's, I considered the cost for hiring a guy with a bulldozer to clear the fire lane too high. Thus, them not having this sort of money, I started looking around for a used tractor for the "cleaning job" and general other work. After been scammed for wanting to buy a John Deere, I came across a International Harvester 4wheel drive 844S. Although drivable, this tractor needed a lot of work, but at half the price to hire the bulldozer and still having a tractor after wards, was not rocket science... thus I became the proud owner of this 844S with its very narrow wheels, which was used for cotton farming, with the bonus of a front loader!
Not two weeks later, I came across a Case TLB, which I considered ideal for clearing these fire lanes, at a cost even lower than the 844S. Thus, the Case got added to the "collection"! Now of course, riding a tractor and being a former aircraft mechanic, don't make you a tractor "boffin" mechanic! Thus, the research started! The Case have absolutely no markings on it as that what model it is, thus after many hours, it is a European model exported to South Africa, and after more research, it appears to be a Case 580G, side lift and all! Again, a TLB for such a good price means only one thing, LOTS OF WORK! so while doing the obvious repairs to what was patched repair work, this TLB is work very hard in the "bosveld", still with occasional breakdowns!
Meanwhile, my wife came across two tractors being sold for very low prices at one of the local pawnshops. One was a B275 (I only later found out another IH!) and a Vaaljapie in a non-starting condition. On the Vaaljapie, the exhaust was missing, the exhaust manifold blocked with rust, the distributor cap missing and it has one large tank for Kerosene for running purposes and a small tank for petrol (gas) for starting purposes. Off course these two were bought as well, the combine price again lower than what I had paid for the TLB! All in all, the prices had made up for the initial scammer have taken my money, because nowadays, one's word is no longer your honor!
Well again, the same scenario unfolded, the prices were cheap because these tractors were badly neglected.... but through many hours of work and spares searching and making where I can't find, there is a light in the tunnel! These latest two are almost ready to make the trip to the bosveld! The B275 will be destined to pull the ploughs and other (Second hand implements--- same story!) and a sore needed brush cutter!
Sorry for the long-winded story!
Kind Regards, Monty
I was born in the late fifty's and have grown up on a farm in the Drakensberg until I was around 12 years old. After my parent's divorce, and having moved to the city, I mostly lost touch with farm life and tractors, and only then when I had visited my grandparents during holidays. While my parents were still married, my father had been farming with a grey Ferguson, in our terminology a "Vaaljapie", then he had updated to the Massey Ferguson 135 and later still, the Massey Ferguson 178 with Power Drive. I never had the opportunity to drive the Vaaljapie, my father had traded that when I was still very young. I started driving the 135 at a tender age, mostly towing the trailer with milk to the main road junction for collection to town. My grandfather on my mother's side, farmed with an International 414 and a Ford 3000, after his old trusted Allis Chalmers dating from the 1930, had punched a hole through the block after some careless driving by a farm hand.
I also drove the 178 a few times but I was mostly too scared of this "monster" through a 10-year old's eyes! Then after school and army, I became an aircraft mechanic with South African Airways, later still a Lectures in tertiary Education and then a Project Manager with an Electricity Generation company. And off course, staying in town, I had mostly lost touch with tractors and I had not thought in my wildest dreams that I would actually even own a tractor again!
With life's twists and turns, my daughter married a labor relations guy, doing contract work at the same power station I worked in, in the countryside. My daughter had farming in her genes, and she had insisted that they rented a farmhouse, close to the power station, where the owner farmed commercially, and planting all with big John Deere Tractors. She had started very small, with virtually just a vegetable garden, expanding to chickens, then sheep, then cows.
When my son-in-law's contract had ended, they bought little farm in the "bosveld" (Bush veld) near Rustenburg, now working for his father, still doing HR work for mines. This farm is in a very rocky, bushy part of the country with maybe two acres of arable land. However, law requires the farm to have fire lanes on all fences, and this farm had none. After some enquiry's, I considered the cost for hiring a guy with a bulldozer to clear the fire lane too high. Thus, them not having this sort of money, I started looking around for a used tractor for the "cleaning job" and general other work. After been scammed for wanting to buy a John Deere, I came across a International Harvester 4wheel drive 844S. Although drivable, this tractor needed a lot of work, but at half the price to hire the bulldozer and still having a tractor after wards, was not rocket science... thus I became the proud owner of this 844S with its very narrow wheels, which was used for cotton farming, with the bonus of a front loader!
Not two weeks later, I came across a Case TLB, which I considered ideal for clearing these fire lanes, at a cost even lower than the 844S. Thus, the Case got added to the "collection"! Now of course, riding a tractor and being a former aircraft mechanic, don't make you a tractor "boffin" mechanic! Thus, the research started! The Case have absolutely no markings on it as that what model it is, thus after many hours, it is a European model exported to South Africa, and after more research, it appears to be a Case 580G, side lift and all! Again, a TLB for such a good price means only one thing, LOTS OF WORK! so while doing the obvious repairs to what was patched repair work, this TLB is work very hard in the "bosveld", still with occasional breakdowns!
Meanwhile, my wife came across two tractors being sold for very low prices at one of the local pawnshops. One was a B275 (I only later found out another IH!) and a Vaaljapie in a non-starting condition. On the Vaaljapie, the exhaust was missing, the exhaust manifold blocked with rust, the distributor cap missing and it has one large tank for Kerosene for running purposes and a small tank for petrol (gas) for starting purposes. Off course these two were bought as well, the combine price again lower than what I had paid for the TLB! All in all, the prices had made up for the initial scammer have taken my money, because nowadays, one's word is no longer your honor!
Well again, the same scenario unfolded, the prices were cheap because these tractors were badly neglected.... but through many hours of work and spares searching and making where I can't find, there is a light in the tunnel! These latest two are almost ready to make the trip to the bosveld! The B275 will be destined to pull the ploughs and other (Second hand implements--- same story!) and a sore needed brush cutter!
Sorry for the long-winded story!
Kind Regards, Monty
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