New Puller

Andy Stephens from Killcott brought his new International based Puller ('Big Girl') to Welland for its maiden outing. This rather impressive (and loud) best is powered by a V8 Supercharged 2-stroke Detroit Diesel!

New Puller

Kevin Jackson with 'Mr Shifter II', a 1986 Ford 8210, running with the original Ford 401 power plant. Kevin has fitted it with an American Engine Runner manifold injection system running water and methanol. He started this replacement for 'Mr Shifter' in February of this year. I suspect he still has some development work to do on the Puller, but the initial signs were encouraging.

New Puller

Colin ('Dowie') Dowall with another new Puller. This Fordson Power Major based tractor runs a 17.2 litre Iveco V8 which came out of a scrapped Pea Viner. The Bosch fuel pump has been opened out and the Garrett Turbo came from a V8 Scania truck. This tractor showed lots of promise but no black smoke so the fuel system obviously is in need of a bit more work.

Giles Moston from Cheshire was back with 'G-Force'. After taking too much off the pistons last year Giles managed to get another engine and this time only took 40 thou. off the pistons. As a result his Puller now starts without the need for Easy-Start!

The power plant is a Ford 380T straight-6 which has been dyno 'd and went off the scale at 350 bhp! Giles has added 4 water injector to the manifold which by the end of the show were running on a water/methanol mix.

The redoubtable Fred Fowler driving 'Mr. Tom'. This Puller is jointly owned with Roy Parry. Another Fordson Super Major based machine with a Ford 360T engine. Fred is a Plant Operator and Roy is a Fitter.

Both of them sported a rather natty line in headgear!

Paul ('Beano') Jones driving James Yardley's 'Noise Pollution'. Sadly on Sunday the 7½ litre (460 cu.in.) Ford V8 petrol died a horrible death.

This year the engine is running in a Hi-Mac Ford 5000 chassis which James managed to find in Cambridgeshire during the winter. Last season the engine was fitted to a Fordson Major based Puller ('Thunderbird') but it really wasn't a very successful combination.

Puller For Sale!

Ian Tanner driving his quite awesome Ford 5000 with an Iveco M160 7½ litre straight-6. The Bosch injector pump is feeding TW injectors and to further boost performance, the fuel system is pressurised (in other words there is an additional fuel pump feeding the diesel to the Bosch under pressure).

'Fippeny Frenzy' being driven by Norman (Stormin' Norman') Young from Dorset. Normans other Puller ('Fippeny Fury') wasn't at the show due to a nasty knocking sound coming from the bottom of the engine!

'Fippeny Frenzy' is basically a Seddon Atkinson 400 tractor unit wit a straight-6 Rolls Royce turbo diesel. As you can see from the black smoke the injector system has been modified just a little bit. Norman was running on a 25% TVO mix as an experiment and it seemed to work rather well!

Q. When is a John Deere not a John Deere?

A. When is a Volvo F10 in disguise!

Owen Morgan from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire driving the John Deere 7810 tin work wrapped round the Volvo mechanics. Owen built this Puller with his brother John and when they came to test it they got up to 45 mph in 4th, with another 12 gears to go!

Yes, you have seen this somewhere before. Have a look at the website banner! James Slater from Broad Haven in Pembrokeshire driving 'All the Way' (built in England, refined in Wales) leaving a huge cloud of dust in his wake.

The engine has just had a major (sorry no pun intended) re-build with the addition of Wills Rings to improve combustion.

Steve Knight with Dave ('Gaffa') Spencer's 'Mad Massey'. Steve is the mechanical genius of the team and had his hands full doing two gearbox changes over the three days. The fist box swap to about 1½ hours and by the time he got to box swap two the time was down to less than an hour.

For those who don't know, 'Mad Massey' has two Cummings 6BTA straight-6 engines arranged in tandem configuration.

Tom Prout at speed with 'Hot Pot'. 20 litre's of V12 air cooled Continental aero engine with four very large Stromberg carbs, gulping prodigious quantities of petrol.

Our thanks must go to Tom for organising such a magnificent Pulling event.

Here it is, the other tandem Puller, 'Major Aggro' with Darren ('Manny') Mann in the driving seat. The back engine is a Ford straight-6 turbocharged whilst the front engine is a normally aspirated V8 Perkins diesel. This Puller is co-owned with Phil ('Pikey') Parker.

The full story of the build can be found here. Sadly we won't be seeing 'Major Aggro' at the GDSF pulling because their entry wasn't accepted due to a reduction in the number of tractors.

William Purnell from Cwmbran in Gwent with his 8½ litre straight-6 Cummins engined Massey Ferguson 1080. Despite no shortage of horsepower there was a slight shortage of grip at times spoiling several very promising pulls.

The Puller was built in 2001 by William and his brother Clive. In all it took them around 200 hours to get the job done.

Yes, it is Martin Eady from Llandovery. You can tell because the front wheels are off the ground! Very distinctive front end very reminiscent of Bill Parker's 'The Fox'. I wonder where Martin got the idea from?

This year Martin is running with sponsorship from Treetops Garage. The power plant is the ubiquitous Ford straight-6, in this case a 6.2 litre 380T.

'Weasel' got a bit carried away and tried to do a bit of mountaineering with 'Midland Sherpa Spares'. Obviously no one told him it wasn't a Scammell (sorry ODBS&B in-joke).

The Puller just walking away having un-hitched 'MSS' is Phil ('Pikey') Parker who owns 'Major Aggro' with Darren Mann.