Ransomes MG5 Crawler

[Dieselman 63]

Did some archaeology and found the serial, MG4733, so I was right in guessing 1949 when I went to get it a registration the other day!

 

[Agroshield]

Super Crawler, master and slave, coming soon!

Have you seen the Doe tractors in this thread:

GMG, Unimog, County and other lesser-known all-wheel drive off-road tools

I’ve never seen an FC County. Seen plenty on the beach when I was a kid with the crab boats but don’t remember any FC ones. Is that a special order?

www.mig-welding.co.uk

I think Caterpillar did a double D9 in various combinations - side by side, front-to-back and offset in both directions.

 

[not done it yet]

This is made by me. Drawn, cut, punched. This tractor is 73 years old.

Sorry, I responded to you saying “new gasket coming tomorrow”. I know how old these machines are - I‘ve often considered buying one, here in the UK. Been very tempted, particularly at auctions, on several occasions - but resisted. My only crawler is a Cletrac HG.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Have you seen the Doe tractors in this thread:

GMG, Unimog, County and other lesser-known all-wheel drive off-road tools

I’ve never seen an FC County. Seen plenty on the beach when I was a kid with the crab boats but don’t remember any FC ones. Is that a special order?

www.mig-welding.co.uk

I think Caterpillar did a double D9 in various combinations - side by side, front-to-back and offset in both directions.

I was thinking Gama Goat style

 

[Robotstar5]

Super Crawler, master and slave, coming soon!

View attachment 365738

I've seen a couple of tandems at shows

This one based on a Chamberlain which come from your side of the world in Oz

 

[Dieselman 63]

I've seen a couple of tandems at shows

View attachment 365772

This one based on a Chamberlain which come from your side of the world in Oz

View attachment 365773

This is an NZ made machine which used two Fordson tractors minus their front wheels to make a motor scraper. Cool concept. Called the Hewco.

 

[Dieselman 63]

My lovely disc harrow is in semi-functional condition now. The front unit now spins freely which means the angle of the discs can now be changed. The trailing unit is fully seized.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Sorry, I responded to you saying “new gasket coming tomorrow”. I know how old these machines are - I‘ve often considered buying one, here in the UK. Been very tempted, particularly at auctions, on several occasions - but resisted. My only crawler is a Cletrac HG.

I saw a Cletrac for sale here shortly before I bought the first Ransomes. Orange and very wide tracks, I think it went for $4000 which was out of my price range. A man I know has a Bristol 20 which is a very pretty machine. All crawlers are cool!

 

[not done it yet]

Orange and very wide tracks,

Do you mean track or tracks? Most only had tracks about 6” wide; very few had wide tracks fitted, so that might have been a rare model.

 

[octo0072000]

few on you tube bill has over a 100 of them

 

[Dieselman 63]

So the seized rear unit. That was discovered when it broke the knuckle on the front unit, oops.

I got a friend to braze it back to health, and also this collar at the back which was seized. My mate is a retired engineer who’s worked on farm machinery most of his life, he said this collar was up there with the worst he’d ever encountered, it was almost solid with the shaft. Spins again now like it should! Great result.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Blades set, time to take it for a test run!

No real reason to do this other than I was curious to see how it works in action, this spot is far from sight from the house. Went and raked it over after - the perfect crime

 

[not done it yet]

Ha ha, thst is only half a job. Was that a lawn mower dragging it? Likely needs some weight on the frames to get the job done.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Ha ha, thst is only half a job. Was that a lawn mower dragging it? Likely needs some weight on the frames to get the job done.

Every post I make on this thread you seem to have a problem with. Every method I use isn’t the right way.

I have two tractors and some machines. I have fun. I know harrowing is but one process in land preparation - I’m not going to go ploughing my garden, this was just for a laugh.

Why don’t you make a thread about your tractor so I can point out all the ways you should be doing things?

 

[Dieselman 63]

Back in crawler land. Exhaust is back from the exhaust place. To be honest I wasn’t made up, the bending and flange were good but the weld was… hmm.

So I had them re-do it and it’s better now. Gave it a run and it held good compression when I started it, which was good. I might slap some black high-heat aerosol paint on this.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Exhaust rested on, and a new registration for it. A bit of work to go! Next step is to paint the new exhaust, I’m thinking high-heat silver.

Dug out a pto cover for the other one too, this one needs a pulley wheel making up for the lift gear. I pinched this lift bar from the other one, but it’s just flat bar, so I’ll make another one using this as a pattern. Hopefully the price of steel mellows a little!

 

[Dieselman 63]

More work on the crawler engine. It fires easily now but this is the state of running.

I thought it might be moisture. I saw under the oil cap white scum so there’s water in there somewhere. I decided to remove all the air blower and equipment, to begin a more thorough inspection.

Just removing the screws had water spilling out of it.

Internals full of scum and sludge.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Minor improvement courtesy of a can of degreaser

 

[Agroshield]

Minor improvement courtesy of a can of degreaser

Before you button it up, just verify that the direction of the spring link on the chain is correct.

Interesting that they used a half link instead of designing the tensioner to work with a full link.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Before you button it up, just verify that the direction of the spring link on the chain is correct.

Interesting that they used a half link instead of designing the tensioner to work with a full link.

Seems ok… this is the engine of the 1951 machine before or after I did a similar clean - can’t remember!

I’m going to replace the front gasket with a cork one, both originally had paper and both leaked profusely, haven’t had any drama with the new cork one.