[alan]

Thanks for the input everyone, very helpful and good to have different ideas about how it may – or may not – perform. It might be a complete disaster!

I came across the Merry Tiller plough at York Machinery Sale, nobody wanted it and I purchased it and the accompanying wheels for something like £20. Oddly the chap that bought the Merry Tiller in the previous lot didn’t want the plough – perhaps he already had one. And that’s how I came to have the plough – it was either me or the scrap man!

I do have the proper Brinly plough for the John Deere (also fits my Cub Cadet 100) but I’ve never used it or even had it attached to either tractor – it’s been in the loft for many many years, I’ve just taken a photo of it in the dust and cobwebs. I also have a photo of a John Deere model on my shelf with the same plough attached to show what it should vaguely be like.

Back to the Merry Tiller plough, I just intend to break up some good topsoil that was put in a garden last week so nothing difficult for it. I did try it in the field where the grass has recently been cut and it dug in well and was fine. However as Terrano rightly commented it probably wouldn’t be the best choice for where the going was a bit tough.

Photos of the end result Geoff? Perhaps, maybe, we shall see! But it’s all good fun and great to use the machines we all have.

Attachments:

1. 
2. 

[alan]

Thanks Ray.

I have indeed been looking through the myelec-traks website and been in touch several times with the owner. It’s a fantastic website of info isn’t it? Sadly I’ve spent far too many hours reading it all! It’s got information from the factory including all the service bulletins, recalls, brochures, adverts etc. If only all machines had such a comprehensive library of information like this it’d be so much easier!

There is also nearly all the weekly newsletters sent out to staff, so there is almost a weekly update of how the factory ran in it’s short 4 years or so.

Having looked through the recall notices it appears that two repairs/modifications to my tractor have been done as recalls – and more importantly it says why they were done, they weren’t just random repairs. Good to know!

[alan]

Update:

Having met VHGMC members at Newby Hall last weekend and been asked how the Elec-Trak is doing (or not doing as the case is), here is an update.

So far the restoration has been a bit slow, don’t think it’ll beat your nine years though Charlie but it might get close at this rate!

As there are no surviving paint records from the GE factory and USA Elec-Trak machine paint colour varies slightly, I have had the paint colour matched and I am awaiting the paint arriving, unfortunately there’s nothing to apply it to yet. But there’s nothing like being prepared is there?

I have however painted the wheel hubs in the white enamel and put the tyres on, steering wheel is polished too.

Attachments:

1. 

[alan]

Thanks Charlie, yes there was a very good turnout of a wide range of machines. I also found it good that there was generally only one of each machine so it looked varied, interesting and colourful too (you know what it’s like when there’s a row of grey fergies all looking the same!).

The stationery engines were excellent and had many engines from small hp ones to wagon mounted ones. Stationary engine folk did well in the rain keeping their engines running for the public.

I’ve had to compile the rest of my show photos for someone (who typically didn’t have a camera), there are wagons, vintage and new tractors, a few cars and Landrovers so they can be viewed on Youtube also at: https://youtu.be/8_soU2N68H4

[alan]

From looking at the photos I cannot see anything missing.

Normally the silver pulley on the engine would turn all the other pulleys to drive the machine forwards in the same manner i.e. clockwise rotation for all the pulleys and belts etc. For reverse mode the friction disc behind the red pulley would mesh in with a groove on the silver pulley therefore clockwise from the engine pulley becomes anti-clockwise drive for the gearbox.

It looks to me as if the friction disc may have worn down and may no longer be meshing in with the silver pulley, or else the replacement silver pulley is of the wrong dimensions and doesn’t touch the friction disc.

The lever with the black knob and silver button, top right in my photo, links to the back of the red pulley – there may be a slight variation between some of the machines though.

I no longer have my Bolens to check but have some photos.

Attachments:

1. 

[alan]

It would appear that it was Mountfield that did some tinkering with the tractors after they got them and stuck the additional stickers on including two (see photo) that say ‘G D Mountfield LTD, Reform Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire’.

So far an inventory of the tractor shows that nothing is missing and all the components are intact and I can probably clean and reuse everything which makes it a bit easier and it keeps it all original. I think I’ll restore the tractor to the specification that it was delivered to the customer as that is how it originally was.

The steel work is in good condition and the quality of the components and steel are far better than nearly every tractor I have. Even the many Wheel Horse tractors I have owned looked positively second-rate and low quality compared to the Elec-Trak.

I’m now going to have to sort out all the electrics before I can do anything with the machine – this may be a very long process!

Attachments:

1. 

[alan]

I always thought it slightly odd that my Elec-Trak doesn’t actually say ‘General Electric’ on it anywhere like all the others around the world.

So today curiosity got the better of me and I decided to investigate the steering wheel which had a basic silver sticker in the middle. And to my surprise under the sticker is a red and silver General Electric logo which I photographed, below.

Also the ID plate (see photo) has been cut in two removing the General Electric logo and info. The GE logo has been removed from the front grille and replaced with a dealer sticker, and the ‘General Electric’ words and logo on the fender sides have been substituted with just ‘Elec-Trak’.

I guess that the reason is that Mountfield sold the Elec-Trak as one of their own products, it is always described in UK marketing as the ‘Mountfield Elec-Trak’ and not ‘General Electric Elec-Trak’. So all GE details have been removed from the tractors.

Attachments:

1. 
2. 

[alan]

Hi Charlie

I think this branding of tyres and items is perhaps just an American thing as I’ve seen it on many of our tractors and the Elec-trak has manufacturers name, location and State stamped on nearly every individual component. The Cub Cadet is probably the most interesting as every bolt head is stamped with ‘IH’ for International Harvester!

[alan]

Not that this is very interesting but I thought I’d add this photo to the Elec-Trak thread. I always guessed that my Elec-Trak hadn’t done a lot of work and had noticed that the tyres were in remarkably good condition for 40 odd years old, on closer inspection they are the original tyres stamped with the Elec-Trak branding.

Attachments:

1. 

[alan]

I’m back to try and detail some of the info about the Elec-Trak.

Thanks Mike for the post regarding the possibility that there might be other Elec-Trak tractors lurking in buildings in the country. As with anything there are probably more than we are aware of.

I have done some more research regarding the tractors in the UK. Having searched through Google Books online there’s a photo of one in Liverpool at an exhibition/trade stand. But I cannot view the picture via Google books. Sad as it may seem I would like to have a copy of the picture. It is in a copy of The Horticultural Trade journal (Gardeners Chronicle), 1976, Volume 180, Page 14 although I don’t know which issue. Does anyone have a copy of this?!

I can get a copy from the British Library but since I don’t know which issue it is in (there are 25 issues) I’m a bit stumped.

Alan

[alan]

I recall that we can view all the posts in a list with the most recent first by going to https://vhgmc.co.uk/activity

You’ll notice that in the top left corner of the ‘activity’ list that appears there is a small RSS logo, if you click on this then a list of topics appears too.

As on most up-to-date websites the content can be viewed on a phone, laptop, tablet via an RSS feed although you may need to search google for the correct app or extension. You may already have something installed already though.

The links to the feeds are something like:

All Forum: https://vhgmc.co.uk/forums/feed

News: https://vhgmc.co.uk/news/feed

I guess that all the sections and subsections of the forum and site can be made into a feed by adding either /feed or /rss at the end of the specific web page address.

[alan]

Thanks for all the info, I think the Wolseley is probably based on an MTD design as you all suggest- I’d never have thought of looking at MTD for a similar model. I did find something from a similar era badged MTD/Lawn Flite a few minutes ago.

The machine is built on a chassis and the bodyshell can be changed for another design/manufacturer/brand if so wished, so looks like it could have been a universal design.

Serial number is missing but the sticker is there partially painted over, also the gearbox number (MOD 515, Peerless 32780408) which is of little use but I’ll post the photo for anyone else’s future reference.

Attachments:

1. 
2. 

[alan]

Thought I’d put a few pictures on here for reference:

Attachments:

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 

[alan]

Thanks for the offer of panels Nigel. I think all the panels on my tractor are intact and reasonably straight – I’ll have a look this week and see if there is anything I have missed.

I want to have a look at renovating the Elec-Trak this year, but don’t know when. I’ve got a busy year ahead with work and business related stuff so it may not be until autumn that I get back to the Elec-Trak. But by then I may have worked out how to make the thing work!

[alan]

Hi John,

I’ve not made any progress yet but have had a look at the new BMW i3 car as it also has the same technology. It has an optional 650cc engine that charges the batteries as it goes along.

In theory it is all possible for the Elec-Trak but my limited technical knowledge will certainly struggle with it!

[Author]

Posts