Sunday, January 15, 2012

A Heath Robinson turnout

Tractor with new and improved radiator.
I'm not sure why its called a Heath Robinson but that is what we call a botch up job.  Christopher and Shaun have been out firefighting before breakfast every day.  They have been using the Mitsubishi to tow a sleigh with a water container on it but it is too heavy for the vehicle and is going to knacker it completely.  Hence the need for another solution.  The tractor has had a knackered radiator for a long time but was okay for short periods of time but wasn't up to the job of towing the sleigh for any length of time.  Yesterday they decided they would fit a household radiator to it.  Its not ideal and will not work properly like the tractor one but they are hopeful it will do a full days fire fighting today.   Christopher had never looked on line for spares for the tractor because it is so old and obsolete he expected the spares to be horrendously expensive.  Surprise, surprise they are cheap.  New radiator and arms on order tomorrow.

Update on how the Heath Robinson job performed later.

2 comments:

  1. Heath Robinson: see, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Heath_Robinson

    knackered is not used here in Canada. I had to look it up.

    I love the old tractor. I have an ancient Farmall 200 row crop tractor that looks similar.
    Perhaps, post war the Japanese made a cheap copy.
    I have been looking for some good used rear tires for it. Your tires look like just what I need. They are not a common size.

    I am sorry to read you are still trying to extinquish the fire still in the peat.

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  2. The tractor in the picture at George Island is a Ford Super Major. On Speedwell we have a Fordson Major in pretty much the same condition. The radiator worked pretty well and they were able to spend all day working on the fire.

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