The Classic Machinery Network

Errr, yeah, and mostly rusty/broken tat!

Financially the JCB is the most money we have tied up in anything, the rest (bar the financed/leased dailys) have either been a few hundred quid or gifted/inherited and fall under the if you have the space...

Tiny update on the JCB; of all my vehicles it's the most reliable requiring the least effort to wake from months of slumber out in the Orchard. I think of it as my one vehicle that still loves me regardless.

Back in February it was roped in to help with the offloading and shifting about of my projects, tools and clutter as I finally moved out of my house in Tadley. Narurally, without any preparation, when I wandered out to see if it would start it of course sprung straight to life first turn of the key! The only time it let me down was my own fault for having crap tread on the tyres and it getting stuck in the pouring rain while trying to climb out of the parking area in the Orchard.

It's had a few jobs clearing fallen branches after the storms back in spring, then yesterday and today it was called into service laying my folks labrador to rest at good depth after she passed (at a good age for a lab) on Friday. I took the changing of the buckets as good excuse to go round greasing every joint, and take note of some things that may need attention:

Better rear tyres for mud work
New windscreen (it now has a crack nearly the full width)
Some more positive way of securing the rear window up (3 times it jumped off the cam catches and clouted me on my head this weekend)
Kingpost rebuild, which will be a big job

The JCB with some of it's new friends:



Hidden from view:

Letti; my 1965 SIIa 88" V8 hybrid (rolling chassis sitting between the JCB and ''Alice' my 1973 SIII 109")
The Bradbury Liftmaster Mk3 3 Tonne 4 post ramp (hiding behind the other 109" SIII which is stripped to a bare chassis and has Dexion pulled on top)

Missing are:

'Big Blue' my 16 ft covered 3.5 ton trailer
P38 Range Rover which remarkably is now MoT'd and in use! Only 6 months later than planned
'67 Sunbeam Alpine S5 Sports which is in my lock up in Tadley

There is a thread on here with details about the king post rebuild, A friend of mine did the job a couple of years back he reckoned it was not too bad to do.

Slooby wrote:New windscreen (it now has a crack nearly the full width)

Only one? That's almost new!

gecko.cx wrote:Only one? That's almost new!

Only one the full width, about 5 or 6 others radiating off from the impact point from the twig impact point

topkit wrote:There is a thread on here with details about the king post rebuild, A friend of mine did the job a couple of years back he reckoned it was not too bad to do.

Will need to take a dig round for it, but before I start doing the job I want to get my machine shop set up along with my 4 post ramp so I can make anything I need to and can get some of the Land Rover projects underway to generate a space in the orchard to lay out the rear arm and support it to detach the post...with my record this could take a while

Slooby wrote:

topkit wrote:There is a thread on here with details about the king post rebuild, A friend of mine did the job a couple of years back he reckoned it was not too bad to do.

Will need to take a dig round for it, but before I start doing the job I want to get my machine shop set up along with my 4 post ramp so I can make anything I need to and can get some of the Land Rover projects underway to generate a space in the orchard to lay out the rear arm and support it to detach the post...with my record this could take a while

Just take it one step at a time that's how I do it, yes it doesn't always go to plan but through shear grit and determination it's amazing exactly what each of us is capable of accomplishing.

Jeremy