Four decades of owning a David Brown

George Winters was brought up on a dairy farm and moved into sheep and beef.

He spent his life farming sheep and beef and shearing and fencing as a young man.

Now retired and living on a lifestyle block, of course with a “shed”, George has time to put into his vintage tractors and acquiring more machinery.

He’s owned his 1961 David Brown 850 Implematic since 1979, which is 44 years of his life, so he is quite attached to it!

“When I needed a tractor myself, I had childhood memories of sitting in the double seat of my father’s David Brown Cropmaster, and I think those memories in uence your choice of machine,” says George.

George already had a Ferguson but needed a second tractor in the winter. e David Brown 850 he saw was reasonably priced, a bit bigger than the “Fergie” and only had only done 2000 hours.

e 850 was retired in the early 1980s when “bigger and better four-wheel drive tractors were more widely available”.

“I kept it for sentimental reasons, and it is still a good second tractor to have around.” e four-cylinder, diesel, 35hp tractor has unsynchronized gear transmission with six forward and two reverse gears and is the Implematic model, designed for general farm use. It was made from 1960 to 1965 in England and advertised as “the small tractor with the big performance”.

He has a Massey Ferguson sickle bar mower attachment and still uses the 850 to top paddocks and at club crank up days.

In 2008, George set about restoring the 850 with a view to using it for tractor treks with the Tauranga Vintage Machinery Club.

“I’d put a safety frame and canopy on it previously. Newer changes were to the wheels to make it more comfortable for road trekking. I replaced the 12/28 rear wheels with 13/28s and added proper David Brown mudguards.”

George found some nal drives found lying on a farm, thinking they could be used to make the 850 faster, but discovered one was too rusty to use and they had the same gear ratio anyway.

“I had to give the engine a top overhaul last year when I found oil in the water. e head needed new valve guides put in which was rather costly. Luckily my son is a tractor mechanic and put it all back together for me in his spare time!”

Catherine Fry