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Rare 12-20

I came across this picture of a very rare MH 12-20 tractor recently.

It is an MH-12-20 orchard model.  Note also how it has very rare original M-H road rims on the rear wheels.  An original import to the UK

Lovely tractor.............

John
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RE:Rare 12-20

John,

Nice looking tractor! Is there any way of tracking down the numbers on the front grill to see who owned it? or if it is still in existence? or what the serial number is? It would be fun to see if this tractor still exists.

Joe

RE:Rare 12-20

John,
          A rare tractor indeed!,  but those road rims were real finger trappers as they were hinged ithe middle and the idea was that you put the first half on the upper half of the wheel then moved the tractor forward until it sat on the half rim when you swung the other half over the top and then popped the bolts in, at least that was the theory!,  also in time the circular spacers usually fractured across the securing holes.  I also have an Allis Chalmers set which are similar but not hinged in the middle. Surprisingly I still have all my fingers!
                                                                                    
                                                                                                           Jack.

RE:Rare 12-20

Joe.

Registration number MC48 is now on a white BMW.
Although that doesn't mean the tractor isn't still in existence.

Graham.

RE:Rare 12-20

Graham,

We are uncertain as to whether there should be another letter in front of the two letters

Maybe I can find something out from the DVLA

John

RE:Rare 12-20

Graham,

So far all that I have discovered is that the registration is for a vehicle of the Manchester and Merseyside area.  Strange!  Not an area renown for orchards!

I'll keep searching

John

RE:Rare 12-20

Graham,

Just thought - A factor of relevance is that the main MH factory was in that area at Trafford Park  - maybe an orchard leaked out to a regular farm??

John

RE:Rare 12-20

John,

Had my office doing a bit of detective work yesterday afternoon whilst I was out.

It seems like this tractor was sold by M-H dealers Gibbs of Bedfont in Middlesex, which is way down country, so I wonder if it was registered by M-H in Manchester before it was eventually sold by Gibb's?

Interesting to read all their website history and connections with agriculture,

www.gibbsofbedfont.co.uk

They were in business from 1844 to 1997. Their connections with Massey ceased in 1958 and moved onto being a very successful David Brown dealer.

Interesting they note the photo as a "Pacemaker".

Malcolm.

 
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RE:Rare 12-20

Malcolm,

Good - another link in the story.  Fascinating that it was perhaps first registered in Manchester before dispatching it to a dealer

I suppose that here would heve been more chance of some sizeable orchards in that part of the world in those days?

John

RE:Rare 12-20

Malcolm and John In the early 70's I worked in Surrey. Although Gibbs main depot was at Bedfont they also had one at Ripley which is the depot we dealt with. They were an extremely good firm to deal with. We bought most of our implements from them but not tractors although their salesman, Trevor Bonner kept telling me that DB' s were better than MF' s. He brought a 1212 along one day to put against our MF 178 with five furrow conventional plough. He hadn't got his tractor weighted correctly so we stuck with the MF 178 which came from Ben Turner of Send in Surrey. All the above waffle doesn't add anything to the debate about the 12-20. No big orchards in Surrey as far as know but quite a few large vegetable growers in that area. I wonder if it was used on a vegetable farm? Even so a row crop would have been more useful I would have thought. Don't know! Alan