... and you needed a load ready for the Factory at 8am on the following morning!The single row cyclone certainly tested the patients of many .
They had a strange habit of dropping the rear chain of in a heap ,just as it turned dark or when it was freezing cold .
Well I spent weeks lifting beet with one for a good few years when I was in my mid teens
and enjoyed it
When I arrived here in 1976, the harvesting was still being done with an open Fordson Major. The first 2wd Zetor (with cab) made life much more pleasant, and the 4wd drive that arrived in about 1981-2 transformed the job even on narrow wheels.What model ?
Share or opel wheel
Spent many days on one and some nights
Output anywhere up to 3.5 acres but often only 1
Once did 5 1/2 acre on own but that was a 28 hour shift on frost
Probably the fairest view off the poor rapide ...Can't see the problem. A 60 year old machine that was a replacement for topping and digging by hand. Topped, lifted and put straight in the lorry all by one man.
One I used was shares and we extended the main web to take trash over the back of the tankWhat model ?
Share or opel wheel
Spent many days on one and some nights
Output anywhere up to 3.5 acres but often only 1
Once did 5 1/2 acre on own but that was a 28 hour shift on frost
My Late Uncle, insisted on our "opening up" the first row, by topping with a spade, throwing the top in the next row!Oh the memories!
I spent most of my youth either operating one attached to first a IH 574, then a Ford 4000, IH 784 and lastly an early bubble cab Ford 6610 - all 2wd. If not operating I was trailering away or worst still clearing up beet tops (by fork into a trailer) left by the blessed top saver. If you think the web chains on the harvester are poor you don't know nothing until you have experienced the thinner versions used of the top saver!!
Opening out the field was an operation in itself, we would generally flail off the tops from 3 rows with a Taarup side mount single cut forager, giving us topped rows to open out. Once those rows were lifted I had to walk around tripping the top saver box for the first round so the trip paddle had something to strike next time around. This (hopefully) resulted in neat diagonal rows of tops across the field, however it was more often not the case!
Good luck with that...Maybe I'm expecting too much from it! I reckon I could see 3 to 4 acre a day with no breakdowns so in reality it's 2 acre a day. Mines is a Rapide mk 3a opal wheel lifter, no idea what age it is. I took the top cutter off it as I'm lifting neeps and not bothered if they come in with the top on. When lifting in January to March, there is nothing on them then anyway but now they have grown a fair bit of a top. Makes them bunch up on the cleaning web and sticky to empty the tank completely.