Tractor heritage, news and features

When the going got tough

In the early autumn of 65, the farm manager decided that the three-furrow Lemken plough was time-expired and proceeded to buy a four-furrow semi-mounted Bomford. This was to go behind a MkII Massey Ferguson 65.

In good conditions, it could just about cope, but as soon as it got wet, I had to drop one furrow. The plough played havoc with the lift links and rods. As the depth wheel at the back was far too narrow, it dug in when reversing on the headland and with no top link, the lower links were forced upwards. Great care had to be taken, otherwise the lift rods bent with very little difficulty.

The following year, the farm hired two MF 165s and a 175 from Listers of Cirencester. The 175 was allocated to the Bomford plough and I was allocated to do all the ploughing, about 700 acres. The 175 was for the most part able to cope with this monster plough. It was a beast of enormous length. The point to point clearance was about 36in and with its large and easily adjusted skimmers, it was capable of burying impressive amounts of rubbish, including a 10ft cut swath of field bean haulm.

However, its Achilles Heel was the reversing mechanism. The 175 was one of the early models with 3000lb psi hydraulics and it would rip the frame, to which the reversing ram was attached, apart. Coupled to this problem was the fact that the two ‘ball and socket’ assemblies about which the plough rotated on its sub frame were totally under-engineered, and 25 per cent of the time was spent in the workshop trying to keep the plough functioning. The 3rd problem was the fact that with no top link, the tractor had a tendency to rear up when the going got tough. The remedy for this was to wait until the front wheels were about 3ft off the ground, dip the clutch until the front wheels were about 1in off the ground and then release the clutch!

Good progress could be made with practice, but it played havoc with the clutch and it had to be changed for a cerametallic button plate assembly.

All in all, it was an interesting part of my life. I later became a demonstrator for Massey-Ferguson, before being made redundant in 1986.

Bomfords gave up ploughs and I believe Roger Dowdeswell bought the patent rights to this plough and reworked the reversing mechanism, to his great advantage.

Richard Blair
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