Hello you catch us loading the wobble box ready for tomorrows 6am trip down.
Hang on where has Phil buggered off too?
I might of known it, sat on his backside drinking tea!
All done... A quick photo of the team... then off to bed.
We set out in the dry, but closer to Salisbury we hit heavy rain. A strange thing though, about 5 miles from the show ground, the clouds very quickly cleared an beautiful blue sky was all around, things were soon looking good. We pulled in to the shows holding field at 9.15am but due to that rain we wasn't let in till 12.20pm. never mind, we chatted to others that were held there, telling jokes an stories so time soon past.
Setting up, James Yardley showed us to our spot an we got to work setting up the new awning, I say new, Phil bought it second hand off ebay. its the same make as the one we got with the wobble box but lot bigger.
In the area I'm standing there is a tented section that can be fitted.
Hue Lorry brought his appropriate bag of Turtle wash, Mer polish, Autoglym tire black, back to black..... in short his wash bag.
When I let Phil do the cooking I'm well prepared for afterwards..... only joking.
Camp all set up ready to...…… hummm what????
A quick nip next door to see what Cam Perry is up to with his Toyota. Ahhh he's rearranging the thingy-me-doo-bree an putting it next to the Oo-gee-me-flip.
Between Cam and our caravans we have Genny, The sites generator.
A little on the noisy side but strange thing is, because its constant you seem to ignore it after a while. They fired it up on the Sunday night, we was ready with our lead to plug in.
Later on while Phil cooked tea, Hue an I got comfy to watch Death in Paradise series 7.
Then an early night... "its good night from me"
"an a good night from him" GOODNIGHT
Lets kick off with The Mamas & The Papas song from 1966,
"Monday Monday, so good to me, Monday morning, it was all, I hoped it would be"
YES the pullers start to arrive. Ben young pulls in with the Thorneycroft Nubian fire engine and Hot Pott.
Hot Pot..... 29 Litre Continental Engine out of a WW2 American Tank, But poorly at the mo, needs an operation, a gearbox replacement.
I made a new friend, I'd like you to meet Amy. Ben Young who I mentioned earlier is just peeping in on the photo on the right.
Tuesday, overalls on an lets lend a hand removing this gearbox.
Bolts removed from the prop shaft.
Fuel tank off due to the engine will need to come forward to detach the gearbox.
Impressive engine.
Gearbox out.
This is the replacement, but first the top of the box.... (I thought of the title music to top of the pops then) ….. needs to be swapped, aswell as the bell housing. The big chap behind me is Tom Prout, former owner of Hot Pot plus Section Leader to the tractor pulling at Welland Steam Rally.
But first...… "Houston we have a problem!" When the clutch plate was removed the centre spline ring fell out. A meeting of 3 thoughtful men an a Gopher was called.
You can see what I mean, the clutch plate to the left of my bonce and the centre ring is by my left arm. Norman rang his clutch man to see if he could get hold of one, but sods law he was on holiday, the bod on the phone hadn't a clue, Norman gave the measurement in inches and there was a pause..... " erm... what's that in millimetres?" I quickly measured, "about 44mm" I said to Norman, he related it to the bod, "erm....." I herd taping on a computer "erm...." came again...…. then "No sorry!" Bugger!
The next plan of action was for James to try to weld the centre back in.
Wednesday.…… good news a new clutch was found an it was soon fitted. Lifting the engine back in place with help from Mike Symonds Hiab. He is the one in the purple shirt lent against the door.
James gave it a good try but the heat from welding it buckled the plate.
Norman ready to give Hot pot a run up.
I missed the start but its still impressive to watch. Chap in shirt is Mick Hubbard, fellow tractor puller and part of a Formula One stock car team.
James Yardley's puller Noise Pollution had a slight incident last year by blowing a hole both sides of the block, NOT GOOD! Petrol big block engines are hard to get hold of due to the Formula one stock car racers buy them up very quickly, plus when you do find one, their not the cheapest engine to buy. So Noise pollution has gone diesel...…
Photo from Welland Steam Rally.
Fresh out of the crate, a brand new Cummins 6bt engine, nice engine but...…..
.........WITH A BRAIN!! Yes it has a engine management. Problem? No not if you know how to bypass it and James did! It wasn't straight forward an took a bit of time, the puller improved over everyday of the GDSF.
So for now its called...……….. No Pollution.
These chaps on the open stage was playing some classic tunes on a violin and guitar.
"Aye up me old cock sparrow.. its Boycie!" It was nice to meet the actor John Challis.
Arrrrrr Shelley's Bakery for my scrumptious lardy cake, priority number one every year at the GDSF.
Relaxing in the sun on Hot Pot watching the clown at work.... the clown being Phil.
Phil's main reason to be here at the GDSF is to be the commentator of the tractor pulling. After a very emotional year last year with losing our best mate Mark-Gass Brown aka Squirrel, who Phil commentated with here at the GDSF. Phil wanted to challenge himself to see if he could do the hole show with out any help. Norman young offered help from his mate Kevin an Phil did apologises to Kevin for working around... well hogging the mic so Kevin didn't get a chance to go on. The show starts on the Thursday and the time slots for pulling are.... 11am to 1pm, 3pm to 5pm, 7pm to 9pm, Friday an Saturday the evening pulls are 7pm to 10pm. Then there is the bank holiday Monday that's 11am to 1pm then a ruff time 2.15pm to 4.15pm due to its the end of the show. So all in all 30 hours of pulling an Phil talking. Phil wanted to see if his voice could take it.....
well sadly..... IT DID!! I couldn't shut him up he he.
A friend of Phil an I Dai Rosser from Wales was in the audience an took these photos, Dai commented on how Phil was continuously chatting away an seem to be in his own little world, that's right, he is, funny enough he has been like that all of his life.
I zoomed in on the photos so you can see what Dai pointed out.
Ian Wilton aka 'Scruff' from Cornwall Fordson Super Major with a Perkins V8 with turbo... Pur dhu. (Cornish for pitch black)
Antony From Dorset Scratch built chassis with a Detroit engine bolted to a Ford 5000 back end. This was the tractors first pull, a slight bit of tinkering over a couple of days an it was soon pulling fine and dandy.
Paul Matheson's, be careful saying the name. V10 Deutz engine.
Scott From Weymouth with a Cat 3804 engine bolt on to a Fordson Major back end.
With all that Cat power forcing through that Fordson Major backend, you have got to expect something to break.
At Welland it broke its Balls... ahem... should I say its Ball gears, its what I'm standing on.... Oooo saying that brings a tear to my eye, he he.
I wanted a chat to Madeline Young (she who must be obeyed) but with the amount of work the section leaders do to keep the tractor pulling safe area plus the heat of the day she had nodded off... ahhh bless.
They get plenty of business.
Phil an I called in to see Paula and Kevin of Lakes Embroidery with a bit of business. last year they did our Hi-Viz coats with my website on the back. This year Phil had two Royal Navy polo shirts to customize.
Here they are, they are for Troutbridge. Sub-Lieutenant Maine is Phil, CPO Maine is for his brother Dave. Great Job again, Phil is on the look out for my shirt..…. I'M THE CAPTAIN!
For sale in the market was this.... Eiffel Tower made out of scrap car parts. At £4000 a bit on the steep side, but when you think of all the work went in to it...… I like it.
I was intrigued by these chair cuz those sign stating no under 18 allowed, Hummm are they that stimulating, I was up for a go but Phil pointed out that me being a short wheelbase Gopher, they might be a bit to powerful and get overcooked, he is right, but... Corrr what a way to go!
Phil and I used to go to a steam rally in Pickering, North Yorkshire, but it moved to Whitby and we haven't had chance to go yet. Phil an I chatted for a while to the chap who owns this wonderful lorry about the Whitby show, well maybe one year we will go but we do have a lot on at the moment.
We had a quick look around the my size engines.
HAY I FOUND NEMO!
That reminds me I haven't had my Mamod roller out for a while.
Going back to when we got involved with tractor pulling... the Mad Massey days, Gaffa spencer owned this lorry to transport it about. He sold it, since then it has past through a couple of owners then Steve Knight (head muc-a-nic to the Mad Massey team) bought it to transport his puller The Old Holland. It was great to see it again.
I know... not much this year of the actual show, but I have done The GDSF to death over the last number of years, I don't want to keep repeating the same old things over an over again.
A BIG thankyou to all the pullers that came, Paul and Ned and sledge crew for a brilliant job (as usual) and Madeleine and Norman for having us.
Very hot but had a great time an looking forward to next year if we are needed.
To finish off I will leave you to watch excellent footage taken by Trever Ridvidd.
Part one and two. Look out for Phil.
"Now that's what I call tractor pulling!"
Ahh Kid 2019.