county tractor ( I want one)

[Steelback]

A couple more pics!

[Steelback]

Another

[Gray git]

1164, nice beast. One of the 1st forwarders I ever used. 1 was a winch setup but pulled an old yellow botex and the other was like yours but with extra wide tires which were kind to the ground but not to gate posts.

[wills-mill]

If that lovely old girl does the job and is nice and simple, why not put a sensible lump of money into a bit of a rebuild; rather than turning it in for an unknown machine (high hours Valtra?) which could give all sorts of issues.

 

Has anyone been down that route?

[handcutter]

went from a mercedes to county

[Billhook]

Too many nails in the yard!

 

I have had this County 1124 and trailer for some years now and it did a fair bit of work. But now I find that I do most of the wood collecting with the Matbro teleporter which presents the timber ready to be processed on the Palax on a modified muck grab which makes unloading easy. The Matbro is far stronger and can lift large logs.

 

The County is very tired, still runs, breathes a bit hard (like me) the Wartsila crane still works from the pump on the front of the crank, but there are no tractor hydraulics or linkage.

 

I used to drive County tractors on the land and loved them all. 1124s, 1164s, 1174s, 1184s and 1454. So I quite fancy taking the crane off this one and restoring the 1124 to its original specification. I could use it for rolling and harrowing.

I could then put the crane on the trailer and was thinking maybe making a large log splitter to cope with very large logs to go on the deck of the trailer. The crane could load it. Anyone done this?

 

I would actually use both the County and the trailer if they were restored like this, but I do not think I would use the setup as it is again for Matbro reasons.

 

What should I do?

 

Is this a sacrilegious thing to do and should I restore it as it is?

[handcutter]

new cab will be expensive for restoration but sure you could source linkage and hydraulics easily, does crane bolt pattern match trailer kingpost? you could use crank pump of the pto or get a new pto pump to run the crane? will you be having legs on trailer as they dont have a pick up hitch.

 

id be interested in the trailer if you change your mind

[Billhook]

I would restore the 1124 without a cab. I love fresh air!

The crane bolts do not line up but I do not think making up a new plate would be too hard.

I would use it with our Ford 8210 which has both the hydraulics and the PUH.

I suppose I could use it with the Matbro which also has rear hydraulics and PUH.

That actually would be a good combination as the Matbro could load the heavier logs onto the trailer and still carry a two ton bundle in the muck grab.

[s o c]

went from a mercedes to county

 

wow! that takes me back. only ever seen one county with that cab (chieftan forge, i think) and fiskars crane. almost bought it off a sawmill in durham called mounters. really nice people very honest about faults etc. had porous engine and bad rumble from gearbox. was tempted to buy and fix.

i wonder if mill is still going.

[handcutter]

If its going on matbro that would be ideal as can self load trailer but can it run the crane as well if it was mounted to the trailer?

 

Yes its a chieftain forge cab and used to have a winch on back and still has the high pulley mounted on cab, not sure where the winch is now as it was without when purchased it