WHO TOWS WHO?
Trevor’s excuse for a tractor is as a tow-truck for the yard but it looks like his 90 has the job...
Ever since I was a little boy growing up on my father’s farm, I knew that I would own a Land Rover. I also fancied that I would own a tractor or two, even though I wasn’t going to be a farmer – that dream ended when my father died when I was still too young to take the reins. Tractor ownership came to me ahead of Land Rover ownership, partly because the class of vintage and classic tractor that interested me was much cheaper than buying a Land Rover.
More often than not, buying and selling the odd, old tractor involved transporting the heavy vehicles across the country, a job which the company car was simply not up to – or rated to do. So the catalyst was there to search for the Land Rover that I had always promised myself. Some 20 years ago I bought my first Land Rover – a Ninety pickup with the 19J turbo diesel engine. The Ninety was an infinitely better tow vehicle for my tractor pursuits – and ownership of the low mileage 4x4 soon set me on an altogether different course. With hindsight this was predictable, but I did not see it coming. I remained interested in my tractors, but I soon joined the Northern Ireland Land Rover Club (NILRC) and became interested in off-road driving, Land Rover maintenance and – of course – upgrades and modifications. And just like countless other first-time Land Rover owners, one truck became two, three...
In recent years Land Rover ownership has become more than a hobby, eventually morphing into a business. But the passion, the interest, the obsession for Land Rovers remains – while my tractors were reduced to one general workhorse (my old Massey Ferguson 35) and a tractor with a loader for lifting Land Rover chassis and other heavy components (Leyland 344). Eventually the Leyland had to be sacrificed for a more suitable forklift truck.
However, there was one that I always wanted to own – a David Brown 996, just like my late father had. I had my eye on a good one too, for quite a while, and I finally took the plunge. On one recent, dull, wet Saturday morning, I hooked the trailer on to my Defender 90 Td5 and set off to collect the 996 – picking up two friends along the way. My tame Land Rover bodyshop painters – Anthony and Ian – camme along to see the amazing collection that the seller (Walter) owned. The David Brown, weighing in at 2.6 tonnes, aboard the 800 kg trailer was close to the rated towing limit of my Defender, but the 90 simply took the job in her stride. When we were saying goodbye to Walter, I commented that I had been talking to him about the 996 for about three years. He corrected me, telling me that I first looked at it in 2010!
The David Brown has already started to earn her corn, on yard-to-workshop (and return) duties – the tractor is excellent for reversing trailers in tight spots. Yes, my Defender 90 can do this almost just as well, but I seem to be sharing that particular Land Rover with my son, Tristan and daughter, Emma. So when either is using the 90, I am left with Defender 130. Okay, this is a thin argument for buying a David Brown tractor (when it was really a purchase of the heart) but it is my story and I’m sticking to it!