Tales of fiat tractors.

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
I cant remember the model number, but Dad bought a Fiat in the late 70's.
I remember 2 things about it: it had a radio but no speaker, and was fitted with headphones instead, it must have been noisy.
And by the time it got to about 1984 the power steering wouldn't work if you were turning right, middle brother flat rolled 95 acres of combining peas by only turning left ?
I suspect it's still going around in circles with a deaf driver somewhere in Nigeria or Bangladesh.
 

Benjio

Member
My little funky Fiat 450! Slowly sorting, got the hydraulics in pieces at the moment sorting a jumpy rear linkage
C1653F9D-755D-49EC-B26D-A7D7C538B01C.jpeg
 
I was thinking the other night what we had in the 80s and 90s, had a universal 540, then a 680, orange colour, then a brand new 680h, in 1984, then a 580 4wd, with 2200 quickie loader, first 4wd ever on farm, then in 1992 got a brand new 80/90 4wd, it was a good tractor, sold it in 2010 for 3 grand against a fm 5445. That 680h went in 2008, we got a new landini I, got 2 grand for it, it had the old 2200 loader on it buy then. Now have the landini 95 and an 15reg case 115, it's the best tractor lv had. Nice looking back, o and a 1963 35x but it just lives in an old shed.
 

Bandit10

Member
Livestock Farmer
Missed this thread. We had in 1976/7, 780FWD 780 2WD white cabs, then the orange 780s then 2x 9090s all good tractors. The five cylinder engine in the 9090 were excellent. Good ole days!!
Hi legin what did you do with the two white cabs if you don’t mind me asking
 

thorpe

Member
Was helping a neighbour with some bales of silage and he got a lone of a wrapper and to my surprise the wrapper was on a fiat 80/90. That brought back loads of memories of the 80s and 90s when l was a teenager, we had about 6 fiat's over those years. We got a brand new 80/90 in 1992, my dad was as proud as a peacock with it. It lasted till 2012, l got 3000£ for a trade in, it was very rusty, did any other folk on here have them. And did they rust aswell?
we bought a 780 in 1976 in 2 years it had more rust than paint!
 

bazza3034

Member
Location
co.tyrone
My oul boy had an original 780. It's the only tractor he said he was happy to see leave the farm. Rotted within a year, was painted twice under warranty by Fiat, gear box seized twice for no reason dealer never worked out what was wrong with it. Final nail in the coffin, it split in half driving down the road.
Hard to believe that must have been a wrong one very reilable ole yoke as long as you pull the dipstick out once in a while
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Close family friends bought an A-reg 880dt5 in the late 90's. They still have it. The wings are rusting out now but the rest is sound I think. It's retired as the exhaust manifold has cracked and because it's the 5 cylinder they're impossible to get. One of the nicest sounding tractors I've worked around.

I've used it a few times and it's a nice tractor bags of power. Just to see what it could do we put it on a Class Rollant 255 roto cut, screwed right up with the blades in. The old tank surprised us all! Needed all the gears on the hills but could make bales... neighbours used to run a Corto 252 mower conditioner on it
 

Kildare

Member
Location
Kildare, Ireland
Sorry I meant the old white cab versions.
We had two of these. A 780 and 880.did about 8k hours until they were traded in for two more with the more modern cab. Very reliable but very rusty. I heard that Fiat bought poor quality steel from Russia. They were really terrible. If they had used good quality steel like Massey they would have been a great tractor. Funny enough the older model Fiat's 450s were fine. We had 6 in total over the years. Now New Holland. Tm 150 and a 6080
IMG_20210221_103740_903.jpg
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
My oul boy had an original 780. It's the only tractor he said he was happy to see leave the farm. Rotted within a year, was painted twice under warranty by Fiat, gear box seized twice for no reason dealer never worked out what was wrong with it. Final nail in the coffin, it split in half driving down the road.
Early ones were prone to rust, just like Same and Lancia or anything Italian at the time. From about '93 or'95 they all started to galvanise the sheet metal, and I believe the quality of the sheet steel improved as well, so the rust just abruptly stopped. Not on the older ones of course.

Yes, the 780 and sister models were prone to break in half if well loaded with front linkage or even with a set of weights on with a heavy implement on the back. Not sure when they sorted that but I've never heard of a NH derivative out of the Jesi factory doing so.
By modern standards they are swine to repair the gearboxes, should they go wrong. Not difficult, just time consuming and we all what time costs.
 

Kildare

Member
Location
Kildare, Ireland
Early ones were prone to rust, just like Same and Lancia or anything Italian at the time. From about '93 or'95 they all started to galvanise the sheet metal, and I believe the quality of the sheet steel improved as well, so the rust just abruptly stopped. Not on the older ones of course.

Yes, the 780 and sister models were prone to break in half if well loaded with front linkage or even with a set of weights on with a heavy implement on the back. Not sure when they sorted that but I've never heard of a NH derivative out of the Jesi factory doing so.
By modern standards they are swine to repair the gearboxes, should they go wrong. Not difficult, just time consuming and we all what time costs.
A funny story. When we traded in one of the white cab 880 for a 90/90 after 10 years the dealer was pointing out where to fill the rear end and he said of course you fill the gearbox through the stud under the cab.!!! First we had heard of the gearbox having its own oil. Never checked or changed in 10 years. We thought the rear end oil did everything.
So I couldn't fault the gearbox.

Fiat cars of the time were the same. Great engines but the body's were terrible.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
A funny story. When we traded in one of the white cab 880 for a 90/90 after 10 years the dealer was pointing out where to fill the rear end and he said of course you fill the gearbox through the stud under the cab.!!! First we had heard of the gearbox having its own oil. Never checked or changed in 10 years. We thought the rear end oil did everything.
So I couldn't fault the gearbox.

Fiat cars of the time were the same. Great engines but the body's were terrible.
I agree. Italian engineering was and is outstanding but at that time, up to the 1990's, their sheet metal and even their wheels were made of :poop:
 

Juggler

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Farm over by Aber (near Bangor) here in North Wales had a Fiat 1880 in around 1986/87. I remember seeing it ploughing as a 17 yr old, it was a massive tractor back then for this part of the world.
 
Remember in around 1994ish having a shot of a winner 100, drove it up and down kerr of linthgows Road, dad saying far to big for us, now 100hp is a small tractor, it was quiet a difference from the 90 range. Modern design.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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