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Hi all
First post here! My name is Oli, and I have a Bernard Moteurs BM749 Tondo Tracteur. I’ve had him for over 20 years now, with a minor cosmetic refresher 16 or 17 years ago now.
Does anyone know anything about these machines, either than they’re made in the USA for the French? At some point, it was looked after by Hereford Mower Services, and they have been very helpful when I’ve spoken to them in the past, even sending me an old manual they had spare for it!
However, the time has come for a full refit, and I’m keen to try and get a few bits, including the paint code and correct decal sets, so hoping someone on hear may know something?
Thanks in advance and all the best,
Oli
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Hello Oli
It’s good to see a Bernard tractor.
The USA-made Bernard machines were imported into the UK in the 1980s by Hyett Adams Ltd, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. There were three tractor models and said to all have 6 hp Bernard 4-stroke engines, and three forward plus reverse gearboxes.
According to a 1985 pricelist, the model BM749 had a rear-discharge 32″ wide mowing deck with five cutting heights, headlights, and an electric start engine. A grass collector was optional. It was priced at £1205+vat.
The models BM809 (recoil start) and BM829 (electric start) had 36″ wide mowing decks.
The models were also available in the UK liveried as ATCO and Dynamark. The Bernard BM749 looks to have the same bodywork as the early ATCO 8/36 – although the models didn’t stick to just one design. I assume the 32″ mowing deck was the same (or similar) as found on the ATCO 7/32.
I have no idea about the paint colour code, and I’ve not seen reproduced decals. It will probably be a case of getting a company to match the paint and also someone to create new decals – take lots of photos of the decals as square-on and perfect as possible!
It will be nice to see how the project progresses as it’s good to see a different tractor.
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Hi Alan!
That’s great information, thank you! I’ll make sure I do a whole thread on the tear down and rebuild when I get round to it. Last time it was all cosmetic other than a gearbox repair as there was a problem with reverse.
His mower deck was long gone when recovered from the scrap yard by my dad as a present all those years ago as something to learn basic mechanics on.
Thankfully there are some original areas of paint still, as I repainted him in glass jars of acrylic from Woolworths all those years ago as it was the closest match!
We only ever used him for traction, pulling a muck trailer when we had goats growing up or for moving sacks of feed from the car to the shed. I built up a disc aerator with dad from some left over drill coulters we had and would drive up and down the garden slicing in – I’m not sure it ever did any good!
I’ve shrunk a picture on my phone so hopefully it’ll upload this time.
If anyone knows of any spares or others kicking around, feel free to comment in here too – I’ve found 2x BM829s that’ll make one good one in France, but my wife thinks that is a bit excessive for now, so just working out where I can hide them… 😉
Cheers
Oli
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Thanks for posting a picture of your Bernard tractor.
I had a look to see if I had any adverts for Bernard tractors but couldn’t see any. There is a 1983 advert for Bernard pedestrian mowers and a 1985 list of the mower models with an interesting list of engines that were used.
I haven’t seen a Bernard mower in the UK but one would be nice to go with the tractor!
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