Ransomes MG6 Digger Dozer

[expeatfarmer]

Over a number of years I have heard about a back acter attachment for Ransomes crawlers but have never been able to find anything about them. I had a dumper MG6 with no engine and no skip which I had for spares for my complete dumper. I came across and ad. for a three point linkage mounted digger and made contact with the sellers. I told them what I wanted to do and out of the blue they told me that their supplier in France made a bolt in unit which was originally built for Ransomes and other small crawlers. After some time they came back to me and said they still had the drawings and would build one for me. After many months of my friend Rhys restoring the main frame and tracks I set about fitting the unit. It literally would have bolted in but I decided to set it below the floor to gain digging depth and accommodate a modified Mk1 Ramdozer I bought some years ago. I used the original frame to make up a hydraulic front mounting which acts as ground anchor when digging and also tilts to 40 degrees left or right for backfilling and snow ploughing. At the same time I have fitted a Lucas dynostart driving the flywheel via a 9″ pulley bolted to the back of the flywheel. The starter fits neatly under the lifted fuel tank and uses a standard MG2 fan belt. The battery box sits alongside the gearbox on the carb side of the engine. The regulator and starter solenoid are in an opening box sited to the right of the drivers legs and incorporates a magneto kill switch ,oil pressure guage and switch for the lights. Wherever possible the original dumper parts have been used or retained/ given a new use and apart from the odd bracket I have made up from scrap all the metal originates from Ransomes. I have just made up a safety guard for the pipework on the valve block using a fibreglass grass box from a Mastiff mower! I will try to post a couple of photos and will follow on with more once the machine is fully mobile. Unfortunately the only part checked but not stripped was the big end and after about twenty minutes of running perfectly it suddenly started to clatter and ran the con rod journal bearing. I suspect new shells had been fitted by a previous engine owner on to a scored crank the bedding in debris blocked the oilway. I have now started a full rebuild of the engine and hope to be mobile next week. I will keep you posted.

[expeatfarmer]

Spent an hour trying to upload photos but unable to shrink them to suit site limits.
I will ask Rhys to load some he has.

[charlie]

Look forward to seeing photos, sounds an interesting project.
Easy solution to uploading photos is to download shrinkpic, it resizes photos automatically.

[stevewoollas]

Look forward to seeing the photos.
The usual back-acter bucket fitted to MG crawlers was the Whitlock accessory/conversion.

[expeatfarmer]

Thanks Steve I will try that. I have a Whitlock Ransomes loader ( WR8) but have never seen the version you mention.

[expeatfarmer]

Try photos using shrinkpic.

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[expeatfarmer]

Brilliant Steve thank you.

[dave]

Nice conversion, Can I please have the machine no’s for the Ransomes register.
Ta Dave Clark.

[expeatfarmer]

Getting carried away with photos thanks to Steve Woollas.
A few more completed just before it started to clatter.

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[charlie]

A very useful looking machine, would make a good subject for an article in The Cultivator

[vhgmcbuddy]

Here are some pics I have

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[expeatfarmer]

Happy to oblige Charlie.
Serial number is 13864 MG6

[vhgmcbuddy]

More…

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[vhgmcbuddy]

And more

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[crawler]

Very nice. When I first saw the photos it reminded me of a Schmiedag, I have attached a scanned page from the brochure. I could certainly find a few jobs for it to do round our place, it will be a very useful machine when finished.
That’s bad news about the engine, hope you get it up and running again soon.
That’s interesting about the French back actor, I never knew anything like that had been made for MGs. Was it specifically marketed for MGs or was it intended to be adapted to fit any suitably sized machine?
Look forward to your next update.

Rob

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