Projects

[willedoo]

20 hours ago, onetrack said:

An old bloke who had a local car wrecking business here in the 1960's, had a gantry on the tray of his ute for picking up car engines. It comprised a couple of inverted U frames (along the lines of the tradie rack bars below - but heavier material), and he'd slung a length of light RSJ girder ("I-beam") down the tray centreline, attached to the frames, and the RSJ hung over the end of the tray by about half a metre.

He had a girder trolley attached to the RSJ and a chain block attached to the trolley. He'd back up to a wrecked car, unbolt the engine, hook the chain block onto it, and lift the engine out, then roll it into the tray, via the girder trolley. He had that rig for years and years, until he died, I think.

I can visualise how it would work. A similar principle to this tombstone lifter, except this one sets up and packs away on site.

 

[willedoo]

20 hours ago, onetrack said:

He had a girder trolley attached to the RSJ and a chain block attached to the trolley. He'd back up to a wrecked car, unbolt the engine, hook the chain block onto it, and lift the engine out, then roll it into the tray, via the girder trolley.

I've got a big six metre long RSJ spanning across the centre of a 6m x 6m shed. It supports the skillion roof without having to have a centre pole, but the original idea was also to have a travelling chain block on it. That part never happened. It was meant to be a workshop but soon got filled full of stuff so it's best described as a storage shed these days. It seems to be the fate of all my sheds.

[facthunter]

Your RSJ needs it's own set of 4 wheels. Movement in just one direction is limiting. Junk costs a lot of shed space to store. Things left in the open suffer and quickly become scrap. Nev

[willedoo]

This is my bottom shed, it's the worst one. It's still half full of cow dung and the old cow died almost two years ago. She used to camp in there when it was raining. The shed needs a total clean out to make better use of the space. There's a bit of old stuff in there like a vintage lawn mower and an old BSA side valve stationary engine that was on my grandfather's mower. I've even still got the 32 volt generator and 240 volt inverter in there that was our power plant when I was a kid. About half the shed is taken up by an old David Brown petrol engine tractor that hasn't run for years. I think it's an old 24D, circa 1950's.

 

[willedoo]

I found a photo of a 24D. The one I've got is definitely the same model, although nowhere near as good as this one in the photo.

 

[willedoo]

I searched a few folders and found a photo of mine. It's in pretty rough condition.

 

[old man emu]

Big money in old tractors, especially if they have been kept under cover.

[Jerry_Atrick]

There can be,. When I bought the small holding about 9 years ago, now, it came with a David Brown tractor.. A work mate of mine at the time, a wholesale loan originator of German persuasion was very excited when I told him I had an old David Brown that came with the property. He was thinkings well over £100K, informing me David Brown was the designer or founder or something of Adton Martins (hence the DB designations).  Alas, I think mine was a 770 or something like that. In the condition it was, it was worth about £3500, and in top condition, about £8K.. and it would have toaken about £4K to get it to top ondition.

 

Though, @willedoo, you may want to check yours. An old petrol one may just be the lottery ticket barn find...

 

 

[onetrack]

Willie, what's that horizontally opposed donk you've got there, it's not a Lycoming is it?

[willedoo]

45 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Willie, what's that horizontally opposed donk you've got there, it's not a Lycoming is it?

It's a Continental, there's another one behind it somewhere under the rest of the stuff. I'll have to have a closer look as I haven't paid much attention to them for along time. Early 206 engines from memory, so probably O-520 engines.

[willedoo]

They're only just shells of engines. A lot of the parts have been stripped out.

[willedoo]

59 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Willie, what's that horizontally opposed donk you've got there, it's not a Lycoming is it?

It's an all round rough bit of gear in that photo. That marston matting leaning up against the wall is just about toast. The nose wheel beside it would be a nice item but they had a go at cutting the tyre off it with a 9" angle grinder. They put a couple of good slices in it before giving up and ditching the whole thing. It looks like the bearing blew out.

[facthunter]

Where I've been the DB tractor was not regarded well. It's a gutless high revver and hard to work on. The Chassis rails are built into the engine itself.  Nev

[onetrack]

David Brown made pretty good transmissions and gear trains, but when they tried to extend their skills to building entire tractors, they couldn't match the tractor manufacturers who'd been in the business of designing entire tractors for multiple decades.

[willedoo]

In this part of the world the DB tractors don't seem to be so popular with collectors. John Deere, Caterpillar, Lanz Bulldog, IH all seem to be the popular ones. The older Chamberlains like the Super 70 and Super 90 are very sought after.

[willedoo]

I was mistaken about the old David Brown tractor that's retired in a shed being a 24D. A bit more Googling showed there's a 25 series, not 24 as I misread. The 25D is a diesel and the 25C a petrol/kero engine. Mine is a petrol engine but it has a bench twin seat which appears to make it the earlier Cropmaster.

 

I watched a Youtube video of a couple of Kiwis in the Canterbury region with two Cropmasters. One bloke said he bought one which was a bit of a rick when he bought it, so he bought a second one to rick for parts. When he bought the second one he realised it was too good to rick. He said even though it was only sex months older than his Cropmaster, it had quite a few different parts on it. He took what he could off it to complete his original tractor then sold to the other bloke who brought it back from the did. The video showed both the restored tractors together.

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, willedoo said:

two Cropmasters. One bloke said he bought one which was a bit of a rick when he bought it,

Ae you talking about agricultural machinery with an ICE as a power source, or an Asian urban transit vehicle powered by a plodding peasant? I'm not quite shaw.

[Marty_d]

I thenk ut's hes Kehweh icsunt.

[onetrack]

Hey, arr you blokes taking the pus out of our Southern bro's? 

[Marty_d]

Well, eastern bros, for me

[onetrack]

I never really thought about the latitude of EnZed being on a par with Tasmania - but upon checking, I find EnZed is further N overall than I'd previously imagined. Regardless, anything S of Perth is too far South, and too cold for me!  😄

[spacesailor]

Which island of NZ island you looking at!.

North island/ Big island or the South island. 

Always three before the ' invasion ' .

47° S is the Latitude of Rakiura .

42 ° S is Hobart. 

spacesailor

[Marty_d]

There's more than another degree south of Hobart.

[spacesailor]

Hobart 43° South .

spacesailor

[nomadpete]

9 hours ago, Marty_d said:

There's more than another degree south of Hobart.

Yeah, I felt like I was left off the map. Again.