Worse gearbox you have used

cb387

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
NH TSA 110. Gearbox was really erratic and jerky. Dealer recalibrated it a couple of times but made no difference. Sold it as no one wanted to drive it.

On the lorries an Eaton twin splitter was a thing of mystery. Probably great gearbox in the right hands but never got shown how to use one, just sent straight out. Right pick and mix job
 

sawdust

Member
Location
Argyll
You could end up going back with the lever from high to go to reverse and you would hear the engine die as you began to release the clutch ,realising that it was in two gears
Zetors used to be bad for jambing in 2 gears (maybe still are):unsure: but a 10 minty job taking the gearstick off the top of the gearbox and realigning the gear selectors and away you went till next time (y)
 

Clever Dic

Member
Location
Melton
Screenshot_20171225-104626.png
These were pretty special to drive any distance..
 

radar

Member
Mixed Farmer
Used to have a Forschritt swather. If you didn't get into low forward properly, eventually spring pressure would drag it out and slam it into reverse, and you would find yourself out the seat, nose against the windscreen, rear wheels of the ground, going backwards at a rate of knots! Tended to make a mess of the swaths as the bed dragged into it a big heap before control was restored!
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
If you consider the Series 2a Land Rover an honoury tractor (as they had all the discomfort :headphone::whistle:) then our neighbour's one in the early 70's wins hands down - The main gear lever had exactly the same play in it whether in gear or out within 2 years of new. He drove it like a natural but we found it impossible. You just had to make the movement you knew should select the gear you wanted and hope the box agreed with you :confused:.

As for tractors, our 1968 DB 880 Selectamatic 6 speed was a dream for a non-synchro :D. Despite only 6 gears the spacing was perfect and we never found it needed another gear. Once you got the hang of engine speed matching it could do quite resonable on-the-move shifts too for a non-synchro.

I hated our IH 674 gearbox with those silly levers in a toothed slot though, a right pain. The worst though was driving a Ford 7610 "Rubics cube" with a heavy load on. Who ever thought it was a good idea to make you do 5 lever movements on 1 lever to go from High 2nd to High 3rd had clearly never driven a loaded machine on a hill :mad:
 
Series 2 Landies are whole topic in themselves. 2 gears, 3 gears, no gears? A handbrake that only worked briefly on MOT day, no heater as the dynamo couldn't run a heater AND two wipers!
I always remember being in awe the dairyman at my first job as he described his previous night's amourous exploits over tea break in the barn. His favourite position was across the front seat of his series 2 with the gear stick pulled back for stability to prevent rolling off. :)
 

mixed breed

Member
Mixed Farmer
I hated our IH 674 gearbox with those silly levers in a toothed slot though, a right pain
You have reminded me of my college days, two furrow reversible on an ih 574 . It was like a quadrant on the left with little stubby lever that you dropped behind a slot for each gear. Horrid thing.

The also had a 685 with a loader which had a shuttle box in, that was a fantastic compared to our 885 at home
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
What about the Ford selectamatic? Only drove one once and got completely confused as to what gear or range I was in!

Wasn't it Brown that had Selectamatic in reference to their hydraulic system?
Ford had Select-O-Speed which was marvellous when it worked. It was a bit ahead of its time, but the column-mounted selector was easy to use and a brilliant design. Almost a work of art.
I remember buckraking with an early Ford 5000 with the flutes down the side of the bonnet. It has SOS and despite only having two reverse gears iirc it worked well. As the years went by it 'lost' gears somehow and somewhere, which was inconvenient.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Anyone been in through the oil filler plug with a screw driver to release the the gear selector on 1,2 and 500 series fergies.

Only on a 35 and 65 and only then after they had done a lot of work, driven by rough drivers. It didn't help that the bottom of the gear lever would wear slightly, the pin that held the lever in place on the collar on top of the box cover would wear a lot, and on those early tractors the driver would tend to lift the lever while shifting the lever forwards.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
Touch wood my 885xl Nash is ok on the gears l don’t mind it. TA is toss compared dual power mind. I think if my 956 had dual power it would be a dream gear box in some ways. ( not with standing slow reverse).
 

8100

Member
Location
South Cheshire
Used to hear the Leyland trucks coming up the m6 at night from miles away .About a mile from m6 to home but crikey they whined Leyland should have used better names than Clydesdale etc maybe the Leyland Kate Bush :)
 
The claas cmatic in-house built vario is definitely the nearest to faultless I've driven.

They've obviously looked at all the others and built something that offers the simplicity of operation of a Deere, but with the programmability and versatility of a fendt. Mechanically it's very well designed and engineered too.

Shame about the engine in the 500's and 600's :whistle:
Often wonder if you could buy them with another brand of engine as they just buy them in and a sale sale is a sale I guess they change there front axle as it was costing them sales
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 98 41.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 88 37.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 33 14.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 4 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.3%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 10 4.2%

April Event: The most profitable farm diversification strategy 2024 - Mobile Data Centres

  • 277
  • 0
With just a internet connection and a plug socket you too can join over 70 farms currently earning up to £1.27 ppkw ~ 201% ROI

Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mo...2024-mobile-data-centres-tickets-871045770347

Tuesday, April 30 · 10am - 2pm GMT+1
Location: Village Hotel Bury, Rochdale Road, Bury, BL9 7BQ

The Farming Forum has teamed up with the award winning hardware manufacturer Easy Crypto Hunter and Easy Compute to bring you an educational talk about how AI and blockchain technology is helping farmers to diversify their land.

Over the past 7 years, Easy Crypto Hunter have been working with farmers, agricultural businesses, and renewable energy farms all across the UK to help turn leftover space...
Top