Why did they stop making them?

[Devil's advocate]

As a small farmer 220 acre with 15 acre of high value stuff, I want one.

I do wonder why they ever went out of production.

 

[chaffcutter]

What a fantastically adaptable set of kit that is, is the base unit the same as yours @Muddyroads ?

 

[Muddyroads]

What a fantastically adaptable set of kit that is, is the base unit the same as yours @Muddyroads ?

Pretty much, yes. Mine is a 275 GT so just a bit bigger and with a cab. If only I could find some of those mid mounted cultivator! A great video and shows what a good concept it was.

 

[glasshouse]

David brown made them

 

[chaffcutter]

The film is all Fendt, did DB manufacture under licence or have a design of their own, do you know?

 

[Muddyroads]

A local guy has a couple of the old DB’s. I would think they were developed completely separately but much the same mid mounted principal.

 

[glasshouse]

There was a Bean one too

 

[glasshouse]

I wanted one years ago when grew organic veg

 

[Boohoo]

The film is all Fendt, did DB manufacture under licence or have a design of their own, do you know?

The David Brown 2D tool carrier was their own design

 

[Hilly]

I could make you one if you really want ..

 

[glasshouse]

The film is all Fendt, did DB manufacture under licence or have a design of their own, do you know?

Fendt werent the only clever ones.
Thatchers interest rates killed off half our tractor makers
Fendt were protected by the bundesbank low interest

 

[Ploughmaster]

Think most of our native tractor manufacturers were killed off by other factors to be fair.

Muir Hill, County and Roadless were entirely killed by Ford's decision to manufacture their own 4WD versions.

Leyland/Marshall and Track Marshall died out because their machines became hopelessly out of date and they didn't have the kind of financial backing to keep up with rapidly advancing (and expensive) technology being introduced by the bigger makers.

David Brown disappeared within Case and International, and finally vanished from UK manufacture mostly due to consolidation within the group and EU competition rulings which meant they sold what remained of the UK operation to a bunch of incompetent Italians.

Our Eu membership also made it very easy and obstruction free for Massey Ferguson to move Banner Lane production to Beauvais (a very strange move at the time really as the products coming out of Banner Lane were of infinitely better build quality than the blown together crap that was coming out of the French factory at the time - and has continued to do ever since!).

McCormick's use of the former IH plant at Doncaster was screwed by a combination of poor management and continuing to produce an old range of IH designed tractors when all the other tractor makers had moved on two generations, fewer and fewer bought them, and again, our membership of the EU allowed Argo to easily shift all production to Italy with absolutely no obstacle to doing so. Mind you, perhaps not a great loss as they have continued to be about two generations behind everybody else ever since. Have spent several seasons using XTX and then X6 ranges, and pleased to see the back of the grotty piles of crap.

I really do not think UK interest rates had very much to do with the demise of any of them.

 

[Ploughmaster]

Re. the David Brown 2D, Russells of Kirkbymoorside did try to relaunch a toolcarrier which was meant to be a modernised take on it in the late 1970's, but I don't think they sold many. It was badged as a Russell 3D:

 

[glasshouse]

Think most of our native tractor manufacturers were killed off by other factors to be fair.

Muir Hill, County and Roadless were entirely killed by Ford's decision to manufacture their own 4WD versions.

Leyland/Marshall and Track Marshall died out because their machines became hopelessly out of date and they didn't have the kind of financial backing to keep up with rapidly advancing (and expensive) technology being introduced by the bigger makers.

David Brown disappeared within Case and International, and finally vanished from UK manufacture mostly due to consolidation within the group and EU competition rulings which meant they sold what remained of the UK operation to a bunch of incompetent Italians.

Our Eu membership also made it very easy and obstruction free for Massey Ferguson to move Banner Lane production to Beauvais (a very strange move at the time really as the products coming out of Banner Lane were of infinitely better build quality than the blown together crap that was coming out of the French factory at the time - and has continued to do ever since!).

McCormick's use of the former IH plant at Doncaster was screwed by a combination of poor management and continuing to produce an old range of IH designed tractors when all the other tractor makers had moved on two generations, fewer and fewer bought them, and again, our membership of the EU allowed Argo to easily shift all production to Italy with absolutely no obstacle to doing so. Mind you, perhaps not a great loss as they have continued to be about two generations behind everybody else ever since. Have spent several seasons using XTX and then X6 ranges, and pleased to see the back of the grotty piles of crap.

I really do not think UK interest rates had very much to do with the demise of any of them.

You admit there was a lack of financial backing, why do you think that was?
Only a fool would invest in a tractor factory when the bank paid ten percent or more.
European manufacturers could borrow at half the uk rate or less, and they romped away in the eighties, with fiat buying ford a prime example

 

[DeeGee]

If this is an open question then those Subaru pick ups were brilliant little farm vehicles.

Also, why did Massey Ferguson stop their brilliant 32 speed Dynashift transmission in favour of the inferior Dyna 6??

 

[Ploughmaster]

Ford was a US company, they didn't buy it from the British.

Lack of financial backing for those mentioned had very little to do with interest rates - Marshall in particular was a small firm, owned by a farmer in the early 1980's, and were already financially stretched and banks would never have loaned them the millions that would have been needed to compete with the mainstream makers regardless of interest rates. They weren't even able to keep afloat by buying in more advanced design tractors from another manufacturer.

 

[Veryfruity]

I spent several weeks in 1989, whilst on sandwich, on a 275GT hoeing spring onions in Kent.

The days passed quickly as you really had to concentrate. I was covering for a regular on holiday and was really honored to drive it as they didn’t normally let students on it.

Great bit of kit, and really satisfying work. Side slopes were challenging.

 

[Bogweevil]

As a small farmer 220 acre with 15 acre of high value stuff, I want one.

I do wonder why they ever went out of production.

Made for small scale German farmers = they bought a whole system of specialized attachments, but especially row crop tools. Good machines, I drove one for a salad grower years ago. No doubt economies of scale tilted the cost equation in favour of conventional tractor designs and of course machine vision guided hoes on larger veg/bee t holdings now available.

 

[Farmer Roy]

John Deere used to produce similar mid mount equipment, for the US row crop market, back in the 60’s or 70’s ?

 

[Devil's advocate]

At least 4 companies build something very similar to a David Brown 2D, but no where near as flexiable multi purpose machine as a 45 hp Fendt or better still 80 hp Fendt tool carrier.