How's this for a mother of a Ford.

[jaydee]

Got a call while on holidays (office jockey and drive a computer) from my cousin on the farm to help him do some seeding, no worries I'll be in that, anything to get out of the city.

Never driven a tractor before, how hard can it be. I thought he knew I'd never driven one.

So I get to his farm about mid day, straight out to the paddock, a big smile on my face when I see it's a Ford.

So in I get, he shows me how to do use the GPS and a few levers, we do a lap or two together then off he goes to do some spraying, he comes back about 8pm and then he asks me if I've ever driven a tractor before, a bit late I thought.

Anyway he was pretty impressed I drove a big 4 wheel drive eight wheeler, in the dark for the first time. I was pretty pleased with myself too.

The GPS is hooked up to an auto steer system and gets within 5cm of the previous furrows, worth about 10 grand, new ones get within half a cm and worth about 30 grand. You can also put a disc in and it will memorise where you went and when you harvest, just put the disc in and away it goes, misses all the rocks and trees you went around previously. Next year put the disc in again and away you go, bloody marvelous.

All I have to do is a u turn at the end of the paddock, put the tractor on the red line and press OK and the away she goes, bit like Play station. I have to regulate the throttle and a few other bits and pieces.




Heres the screen which shows where you have been and then get onto the next line and put the auto steer on.



Watch you dont get your fingers caught in the auto steer when doing the U turn. You can see where it runs alongside the steering wheel.



Time for a wee stop, have a sandwich and a drink, stretch the legs and watch the sun go down, ahh country life, can't beat it.

[csv8]

New Heavy Duty Tezza ???

[XP6]

Didnt even break a fingernail! :P

[MWTB]

Imagine strapping a few Kenne Belle's onto that bad boy.

[Geez Louise]

Ford - Keeping this country moving forward..

[Road_Warrior]

Yeah good system that, some friends of ours down in Kukerin have that on their CASE tractor

There should also be a base station sited in the paddock somewhere that manages the whole shebang

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by jaydee

The GPS is hooked up to an auto steer system and gets within 5cm of the previous furrows, worth about 10 grand, new ones get within half a cm and worth about 30 grand. You can also put a disc in and it will memorise where you went and when you harvest, just put the disc in and away it goes, misses all the rocks and trees you went around previously. Next year put the disc in again and away you go, bloody marvelous.

All I have to do is a u turn at the end of the paddock, put the tractor on the red line and press OK and the away she goes, bit like Play station. I have to regulate the throttle and a few other bits and pieces.

A while ago I was talking to a Farmer who's dad was doing 'night shift' sowing around the NSW/QLD border when the first Gulf war was going on.

It seems the Seppo's occasionally turned off the GPS system, to interfere with the bad guys using it, and this used to play hell with trying to sow in straight lines in 3km long paddocks

[Pis-ton broke]

nice change from the office, suck down some stubbies and no one around to book you and it drives itself.

[Till_Lind]

Nice tractor, guessing Ford got out of that business a long while ago.

[blackf6]

My brother in law has an old turbo ford 5000 i love driving that 4 speed.

[SteveJH]

Ford sold their tractor business to Fiat in 1991? But Fiat didn't have to stop using the Ford badging until 2000. If this website is to be believed anyway.

So depending on year made, you might have been driving a Fiat.

[Spanrz]

Wait till you drive a CAT Challenger (45/55/65), you wont go back. ;)

[Tonz]

I was 'driving a John Dere few weeks back with auto steer and fell asleep doing so. hmm damage to pride and fence only luckily , other end of paddock was a wet swamp.
When the GPS aint set up correctly they only stop when you tell them too

[Burnout]

Quite a few years ago Ford brought into Versatile, the US tractor company, the Ford shown in the OP's post is the Versatile design.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=ve...w=1271&bih=789

[GUTLES]

New Holland took over Ford, I've seen a few with both Ford & New Holland Badging.

[csv8]

http://www.fordtractors.net/

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by Tonz

I was 'driving a John Dere few weeks back with auto steer and fell asleep doing so. hmm damage to pride and fence only luckily , other end of paddock was a wet swamp.
When the GPS aint set up correctly they only stop when you tell them too

Yes I heard about some drivers from NZ and back packers that farmers get in and with some paddocks around Esperance about 4km long they fall asleep or get on the internet and end up hitting a tree or a fence.

As to when Ford stop making tractors I'm not sure, but this one was either a 1993 or 95, can't remember, but it was easy as to drive.

[mik]

i`ve driven a smaller ford one to that big one, also a 5000, a fiat, fendt, massey ferguson, john deere x4, international, an old hanomag loader, probably did the most hours in the ford similar cab to the big one pictured, very nice to drive for council slashing duties, the others where all decent tractors, but the ford was just dead easy to drive and my favorite.

[mytgxl]

Originally Posted by MWTB

Imagine strapping a few Kenne Belle's onto that bad boy.

As Tim Allen says oh oh oh ho oh! lol I was just waiting for a comment like this I can always rely on this forum for a good laugh!