[Jeroen]

Not quite sure where this topic should fit, but I thought some of our members might enjoy this.

Since last year we moved to a nice farm house out in rural “the Netherlands”. Our house faces one of the many dikes and rivers. Yesterday afternoon whilst I was working in my office at the rear of our house, I noticed a continuous rumble outside at the front. Out here every day tractors, combine harvesters and all sorts of farming machinery are rolling down our dike frequently.

But it kept on going, so I walked out to the front of our house and it was a massive classic tractor rally. I have very little knowledge of tractors. But I like them a lot, especially these classic ones. I collect little scale models of them.

Must have been one of our local tractor clubs. You will notice that all these tractors look very well maintained too. Very few of these would still be used in the field, but most are still owned by farmers who enjoy looking after their old, classic, tractors.

Some git had parked his Jaguar in front of our house. I know the guy is negotiating with his wife as he really believes they should own a Unimog as they now live in the country!!

Enjoy Jeroen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-PrAOMcAQ4

[Theyota]

A lot of tractors in that video are very impressive and interesting. But a few of them seem to be a lot younger then our workhorse in our family farms, a 1984 HMT (Zetor) which to this day is abused on a daily basis by dumbest of the dumb operators when it comes to operating and maintaining a machine. Somehow it has survived albeit with once in a couple of years a mid-major overhaul of one or the other sub assemblies.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Theyota

A lot of tractors in that video are very impressive and interesting. But a few of them seem to be a lot younger then our workhorse in our family farms, a 1984 HMT (Zetor) which to this day is abused on a daily basis by dumbest of the dumb operators when it comes to operating and maintaining a machine.

I really don't know much about tractors at all. I just like them a lot. Really cool machines. And their owners are typically the least pretentious, easy going folks you can ever meet.

I am not even sure if this was some formal club. The definition of a classic vehicle is a highly debatable one. Here in the Netherlands most insurance companies will consider your vehicle eligible for a (very cheap) Classic Car insurance from 25 years onwards. Until recently any car older than 25 years were exempt from road tax. That has been lifted up to 40 years. Within the EU a classic car definition of 30 years is used. So take your pick.

I still stick with the 25 years. Any car, truck, bike, bus, tractor older than 25 years I would consider a classic.

In western Europe, in practice you would hardly find any vehicle older than 25 years in daily use, be it private or commercial. So most of these would be hobby objects.

I love the Unimogs and I have been doing some research. They are kind of affordable, very easy to maintain and ultra cool! Turns out there is company dealing in modern and classic ones less than 30 km from where we live. I need to pay them a visit. I also need to find some research on how to convince your wife you need an Unimog!

Jeroen

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Two quick images, not great quality, sorry, of my little tractor collections. Like I said, I know very little about tractors. Just like them. So I pick up these little models wherever I go. Not trying to collect specific models/years/brand. I just pick the one I like the look of.

For those of us of a Supercar disposition: The red one on the far left is a Porsche and the yellow one with the tracks is Lamborghini!



Still a few in their boxes. Including my Unimog! The one to the right of the Unimog is Landini. As it so happens I saw an identical one, but then the real McCoy advertised, beautifully restored, for sale. Asking price Euro 20K. That is the price of a basic Ford Focus. This is way cooler, but admittedly perhaps not as practical for the school run or weekly shopping.



Jeroen