Competitive ploughing is competitive ploughing now as it has always been. Precedents were set in bygone days which still have credence today.
Don’t forget. Hydraulics were used to operate TS86’s in the days when they were Worldstyle.
Ransomes rsld land wheel shaft!
- Thread starter wuddy
- Start date
Competitive ploughing is competitive ploughing now as it has always been. Precedents were set in bygone days which still have credence today.
Don’t forget. Hydraulics were used to operate TS86’s in the days when they were Worldstyle.
I have it on very good authority that Ransomes sent several ploughs to the world competition in Ireland in 1954, all of them RSLD’s with FRDCP bodies on. I have to take this on trust - me being one and a half at the time.
I have it on even better authority that a certain Mr Dixon from our very own North East used one.
Please don’t shoot the messenger!
Personally I don't really think it matters what boards a plough has on it.
I have seen ploughs with all the hydraulic adjustments on, and you think this chaps going to do well/win, only for someone with a fairly standard plough to beat them. Then very often someone from the trailing class takes champ of the day. It doesn't matter what you have it's how well you can use it that counts.
As for this world style description, up until the early nineties, I think, the classes at the national were basically whole furrow work and semi digger. The semi digger class usually produced the two competitors to go forward to the world match. I think world style has meant a lot of good old semi diggers now have no legal home!
I have seen ploughs with all the hydraulic adjustments on, and you think this chaps going to do well/win, only for someone with a fairly standard plough to beat them. Then very often someone from the trailing class takes champ of the day. It doesn't matter what you have it's how well you can use it that counts.
As for this world style description, up until the early nineties, I think, the classes at the national were basically whole furrow work and semi digger. The semi digger class usually produced the two competitors to go forward to the world match. I think world style has meant a lot of good old semi diggers now have no legal home!
They were fitted to my dads ts43 which was made for the 1957 world ploughing championships it had an oil bath lift but has since wore out
Just in passing. A moderately aggrieved compatriot of mine gives it on good authority that Ransomes took either 12 or 15 TS43’s to the World at Shillingford in 1956, most if not all fitted with FRDCP’s - two of which most definitely reside in Lincolnshire to this day.
I think you will find that they were not standard production but there is no reason why they could not do it. The question is why did they bother when YL183s were available ?
Did say on the post before last please dont shoot the messenger. You know both the guys who have them - as manufactured.
Whether or not the standard of work was any higher than it would have been with their own ploughs is another matter - a subject touched on by Alfred Hall in his book.
Very interesting that Ransomes did not rate the Motrac for match ploughing.
One or two good hands put up a very convincing argument against that Bob. Each to his own!
Mick Taylor. A skilled Leicestershire ploughman using YL’s. Crown furrows letting him down slightly here but despite looking big they were fairly level on the day. Whatever else he usually gets good marks for seedbed and firmness
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I agree but surprising that Ransomes were promoting an older Ruston and Hornsby design ahead of their current design is slightly strange.
I think one of the stranger quirks about a Motrac is the fact the handles work the opposite way to an RSLD, all ok until you start to think about it. I know a couple of people who do a very good job with a Motrac but both have lengthened the ploughs, not sure why that would make a difference, I used one for a season but did not get on with it so went back to the RSLD. Motrac much better for adjusting skims etc as more room under it,
IMO
IMO
Ransomes did use the motrac at some point, they sent David Bonning two, one for stubble, the other for grass. He left them at home, he told me! John Gwilliam would almost certainly used a motrac in the world in Rome, if he was still using a trailed plough, the "straight beam" ploughs were disliked in Herefordshire, whilst being loved in Somerset!
My memory failed when I tried to remember what equipment John used in Rome, sorry.
According to David, both plough designs were of the same age, the no 3 motrac on the farm here could date from 1929 he told the owner. It is original, with cast steel boards, YL 164 as I remember.
My memory failed when I tried to remember what equipment John used in Rome, sorry.
According to David, both plough designs were of the same age, the no 3 motrac on the farm here could date from 1929 he told the owner. It is original, with cast steel boards, YL 164 as I remember.
The first plough called a Motrac emerged in 1931 designated TS5 and was for export to Italy. The second one in 1936 was designated TS9 which was a four furrow self lift plough also for export. The next one, also a four furrow plough was the Motrac Major (TS26) with YLs for the home market and introduced in 1936. The TS43 which is the first two furrow Motrac that most people recognise with the winder on the rear wheel was introduced in 1946. So which of these designs fit in with the legends named on here? The RSLD in original form designated TS12 was introduced in 1933 with YL bodies.
The number designations are constructed from T=tractor, S= self lift and the numbers follow in date sequence until the TS1013 which was a rehash of a previous model(TS54). RSLD/M means Ransomes self lift double/multiple. So yes, the Motrac name preceded RSLD/M but not in a form that would be used by anyone that we have heard of in a ploughing match in the fifties. Both plough designs were not of the same age when comparing like with like, 1933 (RSLD) as opposed to 1946(TS43 Motrac)
The number designations are constructed from T=tractor, S= self lift and the numbers follow in date sequence until the TS1013 which was a rehash of a previous model(TS54). RSLD/M means Ransomes self lift double/multiple. So yes, the Motrac name preceded RSLD/M but not in a form that would be used by anyone that we have heard of in a ploughing match in the fifties. Both plough designs were not of the same age when comparing like with like, 1933 (RSLD) as opposed to 1946(TS43 Motrac)
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Interesting, so when were the yl164 boards used, and why would David Bonning, after checking the frame number against his paperwork, be so far out? The first Hornsby type ploughs had the trip lever attached to the spring device which is mounted on the furrow beam, that is the reason for the extra mounting lug.
I can find no reference to a YL 164 but have no doubt it could have existed. The numbers follow a date sequence and the YL165 was introduced in 1920. Further versions were made for match ploughing in fairly small numbers with the next major commercial variant was the YL183 in 1933. It is fairly safe to assume that the 164 was a very minor production between 1918 and 1920, most probably being fitted to horse ploughs.
- Location
- Cirencester
Would they not have been YL 163 boards and not 164?? Just bought a Robin with a set of Kristeel ones on.
Are you certain that they are not 165s because 163 would have been pre K?
- Location
- Cirencester
This is the back of the one spare board that also came with it, all 3 boards are Kristeel
- Location
- Cirencester
They are laminated or certainly appear that way, one front edge sits high where the share is and has worn away a couple of areas and it looks laminated or it is where the depth of hardening stops. The board tails are square too. I believe they are very similar to the 165 but have a slower twist and are longer.