ntbrenna

As far as I know, Mercedes used the same gearbox in multiple vehicles, just like they did with the engines - the OM352A turbodiesel engine from the 1300 and 1500 (and the OM366A from the "xx00 turbo" models) were used in lots of different vehicles including Merc's own lorries, etc, and I believe also in other manufacturer's vehicles from around the world, so the same is probably true of gearboxes. Honestly, I know very little about Unimogs so I can't offer much advice or info on them. By the way, any official Mercedes dealership should be able to talk to you about parts if you give them a chassis number for any Merc machine, including the MB tracs. It would be best to talk to a big/old dealership where there might be some staff who actually remember the MB tracs, or maybe find a dealership that sells a lot of trucks if you want to talk to someone in the parts department that could give you general info on engines and gearboxes, for example if you wanted to know what engines/gearboxes could be transferred between machines and so on. There's an interesting old video on Youtube where a guy swapped the engine out of an MB trac that he bought as a non-runner for a good engine out of a Merc lorry here: [ame] [/ame] The way you described the gear-changes above sounds about right, although it's quite hard to describe in written form! The MB trac my brother owns is a 1985 1300 model (although it got an engine upgrade to the later 366 engine and has around 170hp - the engine was taken from a Merc 1617 truck) and it has this gearbox. When starting, only gears 1-4 are available for selection in the basic H-shaped layout with 1 at the top left and 3 at the top right. In order to be able to select 5 or 6, you need to swing the stick to the far right while in neutral, at which point you can usually hear the little gush of air as the 'gate' is opened, which then allows the stick to move into 5 or 6. You follow the same procedure to access the 7 and 8 gate. You have to operate in the same way in order to move from the higher gears back down to the lower gears. So you can't go directly from gear 1/2 or 3/4 to 7/8 (or vice versa), you need to access 5/6 first and only then can you also access 7/8. I hope that explains it reasonably well... By the way, there is a green light that operates at the base of the stick (and to the rear of the stick) that lights up showing the pair of numbers that are currently accessible to you at any given time, so that helps when you're not sure what 'gate' you're in or if you're having difficulty selecting the gear you want. Obviously, this light may not be working in these old tractors but it is invaluable when first getting used to the tractor once you have one, or if you're trying to test-drive one. I found a pic on the internet, seems to be from a 1500, that shows the gear levers and hydraulic controls and even shows the green light on for gears 3-4. The hydraulic control levers are in the middle of the pic and the PTO and other gear levers are to the right. For the benefit of anyone who may not be familiar with the symbols for those levers, the bottom one in the pic is the PTO speed selector; the next one is the selector for front PTO, rear PTO or both**; the next lever is for the high and low gear ranges; and finally the fourth lever at the top is for a crawler box which I think was only an option on the MB tracs, so it is usually not present as is the case in this pic. **The front PTO was optional I think, and is not present on all MB tracs. By the way, there's a guy on farmingforum.co.uk (username 'Rs chunk') who was looking for a big MB a year or more ago who eventually got a real nice one late last year, a 1988 "1300 turbo" with the longer bonnet & vertical grille, etc. It was his first MB trac, so he would have gone through the learning phase by now and could probably offer you some good advice on getting used to them. You could create an account on that forum and contact him that way or send me a private message with your email address if you want me to email it to him. You can see the thread where I first talked to him about the MBs (not unlike this thread!) here: Mb trac Also, one final thing - there is a tidy 1500 model for sale in the adjacent county to me, just across the border in Northern Ireland. You can see it here: https://www.donedeal.ie/tractors-for-sale/mb-trac-1500-tractor/14245004 He's looking £18,500 for it at the moment; sounds a bit dear to me but maybe he'll drop the price a bit for a serious buyer. I saw the tractor once, but it was a good few years ago now. It looked really well at the time and he wasn't afraid to use it on long distance trips so it must have been running well. My brother bought a silage wagon from a dealer who lived about 50 miles away from us and he got this guy to collect the wagon and deliver it to us with his MB trac. (This was a year or so before we got our own MB).

Just to clear up a couple of things about the MB tracs... There were basically three ranges; small, medium and large: The 700, 800 and 900 (non-turbo) models had the smallest chassis and 4-cylinder engines with around 70/80/90hp. The 900 turbo had around 95hp. The 1000 (all of them) and 1100 (late 1980s onwards) were six cylinder tractors with a medium size chassis and around 100-110/115hp. All of the above models were rated to go to 40k only with their factory spec wheels; some of the older & smaller models from the early 1970s didn't even reach 40k. Their gearboxes varied a little - the earlier ones (1970s, often in white & red paint) had a bunch of gearsticks for different gears and ranges, etc; whereas the later & bigger models had a 4-speed gearbox with an air-powered splitter. This splitter was operated by a cylindrical switch on the main gearstick which you pulled up and down - and the next time you put your foot on the clutch, the tractor would then change into the other 'split' of the gear! I drove one of these tractors years and years ago and was really impressed that it worked so well on a tractor nearly as old as myself (a 1985 900 turbo). The large chassis models (1100 (1970s/early 1980s), 1300 & 1500 (the two most common models, built from 1970s through mid-1980s) and the "1300 turbo", "1400 turbo", "1600 turbo" and "1800 intercooler" were all 6-cylinder turbo-engined tractors with 8-speed gearboxes that apparently were used in Unimogs and Merc lorries as well. They worked in a completely different way to typical tractors so some people find them very awkward to use, at least at first, although a Unimog or lorry driver might be quite happy to use them. I read somewhere years ago that the gearbox really only has four main gears but the ratios 1-4 are re-used as ratios 5-8 because of how the box works. This also implies that all 8 gears are built in to these tractors, although the 8th gear is physically blocked off (with a bolt perhaps?) and if that can be located and removed, you gain the 8th gear back again! With all 8 gears available, the big MB tracs on factory spec wheels & tyres should reach 65k or 40mph. I also heard from someone that the late 1980s/early 1990s models (named "1300 turbo", "1400 turbo", "1600 turbo" and "1800 intercooler") were all restricted to 40k but I never found that out for sure. And I find it hard to believe tbh... Those models could be identified by the longer nose and the vertical front grille on the nose of the machine, whereas the more common 1300 (125hp) and 1500 (145-150hp) machines had a sloped front grille. The 1300 had two-steps on each side of the cab and 30" wheel rims, whereas the 1500 had 34" rims and three steps up to the cab, due to the higher ride height. These tractors have been around for so long now though, that they have often been modified or had wheels changed on them, etc. Final point on identification - I'm not sure if this is accurate in 100% of cases, but as a rule of thumb the reverse-drive facility (only ever available in the biggest chassis models) would mean that the rear window of the cab was hinged at the top so that it could be opened out & up, whereas the non-reverse-drive tractors typically had a split rear window where the two separate panes of glass could be slid from side to side. That's all I can think of for now but let me know if you have any questions! Here are some links to other forums I have added info to, in case you want to indulge in further reading. There are links in some of the posts to other websites with more info: MB Trac from Cork in Cheffins Cambridge | Forum4Farming - Britain & Ireland Farming Forum, Agricultural Discussion Boards. IE & UK Machinery dealers links thread for Machinery Matters | Forum4Farming - Britain & Ireland Farming Forum, Agricultural Discussion Boards. IE & UK Swedish MB Trac | Page 3 | Forum4Farming - Britain & Ireland Farming Forum, Agricultural Discussion Boards. IE & UK http://79.170.44.152/timmatthews.co.uk/files/Article.pdf https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/mb-trac.68042/page-2#post-1351438 And then there's always Youtube, which has endless hours of vids of MB tracs if you have too much time on your hands!

That MB trac 1000 on eBay looked well (despite the black paint job which I wouldn't be a fan of). Just saw this ad on agriaffaires.co.uk today: Farm Tractors Mercedes mb trac 1300 of 1986 for sale 18750 GBP at Agriaffaires

I think it's the same thing in Ireland, although they aren't necessarily going to Germany; sometimes it's to the Netherlands or the UK, etc. I know two different tractor/machinery dealers that have bought up MB tracs that were for sale in Ireland over the last few years and sold most of them outside the country. Another guy (a farmer) in Northern Ireland that used to have 3 or 4 MBs of his own sold them all in one lot to an exporter a few years ago, who took them to some country in eastern Europe. I think it was Hungary. One of the dealers has an MB trac 1100 for sale at the moment with an asking price of €10,750. That price is definitely at the top end of the market I think! See the ad here: MB trac 1100 for sale in Cavan : €10,750 - DoneDeal.co.uk Here are the pics from the ad:

caveman above is right about Schreyer; they seem to have a lot of stuff online, new and used parts, etc. Pity they don;t have an English version of their website. For documentation, www.BuchundBild.de Unimog-Shop - alles rund um den Unimog und MBtrac - Buch&Bild - Unimog Unimogs MBtrac MB-trac MB trac U 411 U 2010 U 404 U 406 Unimog 401 402 Unimog 403 406 413 416 Unimog 404 Unimog 407 Unimog 411 Unimog 417 Unimog 421 Unimog 424/ are great for owner's manuals, technical handbooks, some parts books and maintenance manuals, etc.

Ah here, you can't talk up your MB trac like that without showing us a pic or two...

You're right there agrimog; you're very lucky! We've bought parts from a Mercedes main dealer as well and it's essential to have the chassis number (you can barely start a conversation with them without being asked for it). Still, if the guy on the computer is useless, you can be let down. I have received wrong parts before, even though I had the chassis number. So you need to make sure they can describe parts back to you, and where they belong, according to their diagrams before you commit to spending big money that you might not get back once spent.... jmac, I'm sure most people on these forums have access to e-mail so I assume you do to; so don't be afraid to ask the parts guys in a dealership to e-mail you whatever diagram they are looking at if there is any doubt over what they're about to order for you. They guy I dealt with most times was quite happy to e-mail me stuff like that as we spoke over the phone and it saved us ordering wrong parts a couple of times.

Did a little research online and the eBay username 'farrier99' along with the mobile phone number seem to be legit. Seems to be a guy called 'Geoffrey Elphick Farrier' who's a blacksmith/involved in horses in some way. Good few bids on it already but all well below the buy-it-now price of seven thousand pounds. He says it's advertised elsewhere but I can't find any other ads online; must be in classified mags instead...

Yeah those wide tyres make a great job of her!

Here's the best of the ten pics on the advert, just in case the ad is taken down soon...

Just came across this monster MB trac 1300 turbo for sale on GumTree - pity it's in Australia! Mercedes Benz MB Trac 1300turbo | Heavy, Farming & Agriculture Equipment | Gumtree Australia Bega Valley - Brogo

Holy moly! I couldn't begin to offer advice but I can't wait to see the pics.... Good luck with the project.

Check this out: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvjrMtFaQ70]MB Trac 900 Flismaskin Merceders - YouTube[/ame] It's the smallest type of MB trac though; just a 900 model - four cylinder turbo engine with about 95hp. Should do 40kph.

Try searching on the German eBay site eBay - eine der größten deutschen Shopping-Websites There's various random MB trac stuff there and a few sellers who seem to always have some MB trac 2nd hand spares for sale; e.g. eBay: MB Trac Teile Even if a seller doesn't have the parts that you want listed in their 'shop', if they have other parts from the same model, it's worth sending them a private message through eBay to ask them if they have the parts you're looking for. Good luck!

Hi treemedic, You could get in touch with some of the engineering companies listed in another thread regarding MB tracs for advice - see here: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/38026-mbtrac1300-skidder-2.html#post599508 Also, I think GardenKit is right above - only the large chassis MBs (1300, 1500, 1600, etc) came with the option of a reverse drive system. The small (700, 800, 900) and medium (1000 and 1100) models had no such option. But maybe you're only interested in a spinning seat like in the old JCB diggers, etc, anyway....

Yeah, it's a tidy job isn't it? The guy who sold it to us did the work himself. He was working for a stainless steel fab company for a time and got the stainless steel piping made up to fit by them and did the rest of the work himself. Fair play to him! I've seen lots of pics of MBs on the web with the air-intake dropped down to bonnet level, which makes sense I'm sure, coz it's a simple solution and removes the eye sore of having it up high. There are no noise/vibration issues with having the exhaust attached to the cabin by the way.

Hi caveman - thanks a million for that link; that's a fantastic website! Pages and pages of parts with photos for most of them and prices quoted for most of them too.

Obviously, if anyone wants to expand on the list above, please do! We're still looking for some bits and pieces for our MB trac 1300. The new part prices from Mercedes-Benz (for some of the parts anyway) are what you call 'prohibitively expensive'.

This is a list of dealers/engineers that I contacted recently about parts for our MB trac; see below. Some are Unimog dealers that also deal in MB tracs and some are tractor dealers or specialise in sprayer systems for the agricultural sector. The sprayer guys probably have some experience with forward control MB tracs, so they might be good for advice, etc, even if they wouldn't be working on your machine. Jas P Wilson (Forest Machines) Forest machines from Jas P Wilson A. C. Price (Engineering) Ltd AC Price Engineering - Home Atkinson Vos Ltd Atkinson Vos Ltd Mercedes Unimogs South Cave Tractors Ltd (mainly work on sprayers/sprayer conversions, etc) Mercedes-Benz Unimogs home is at South Cave Tractors Avison Sprayers Avison Used Crop Sprayers and Parts: Bateman, Chafer, Agribuggy, Gem, Case, Knight, Sam, Househam, Mercedes MB Trac, Matrot, 'The MB man' (Tim Matthews - has a fleet of MBs and has broken them in the past too; seems to know a lot about them) Tim Matthews - Home http://79.170.44.152/timmatthews.co.uk/files/Article.pdf Mentioned to me by Tim Matthews: Ibbetts - Agricultural garden machinery sales, service. Unimog Park Agri Park Agri: Used Unimogs, Unimog Accessories and Parts and Unimog Training.heavy cable recovery muller 220 winch cable recovery cable recovery muller 220 Unimog winch tractor Parris Tractors (had a couple of MBs for sale recently; don't know if they deal in Unimogs) Parris Tractors - used John Deere tractors, used Fendt tractors, used combines, used harvesters and other used farm machinery in UK - England Ron Greet (tractor spares - I think I found this guy mentioned by someone on another thread on arbtalk actually) Ron Greet Obviously, if anyone else has other contacts worth chasing up for advice, parts, sales of MB tracs/Unimogs, please add them to the thread!

Ahhhhhh; 'click'! I was wondering who brought about your dissatisfaction on the "MB Trac Agric Engineers" thread, but now I get it! I have a little list of dealers/engineers that I contacted recently about parts for our MB trac; see below. (I didn't post them initially to your other thread as I figured that thread had gone quiet long before I joined arbtalk): Jas P Wilson (Forest Machines) Forest machines from Jas P Wilson A. C. Price (Engineering) Ltd AC Price Engineering - Home Atkinson Vos Ltd Atkinson Vos Ltd Mercedes Unimogs South Cave Tractors Ltd (mainly work on sprayers/sprayer conversions, etc) Mercedes-Benz Unimogs home is at South Cave Tractors Avison Sprayers Avison Used Crop Sprayers and Parts: Bateman, Chafer, Agribuggy, Gem, Case, Knight, Sam, Househam, Mercedes MB Trac, Matrot, 'The MB man' (Tim Matthews - has a fleet of MBs and has broken them in the past too; seems to know a lot about them) Tim Matthews - Home http://79.170.44.152/timmatthews.co.uk/files/Article.pdf Mentioned to me by Tim Matthews: Ibbetts - Agricultural garden machinery sales, service. Unimog Park Agri Park Agri: Used Unimogs, Unimog Accessories and Parts and Unimog Training.heavy cable recovery muller 220 winch cable recovery cable recovery muller 220 Unimog winch tractor Parris Tractors (had a couple of MBs for sale recently; don't know if they deal in Unimogs) Parris Tractors - used John Deere tractors, used Fendt tractors, used combines, used harvesters and other used farm machinery in UK - England Ron Greet (tractor spares - I think I found this guy mentioned by someone on another thread on arbtalk actually) Ron Greet

I've heard great things about AC Price on other forums too; they must be very good although I bet they're not cheap. I like Pykett's 1500 but I wouldn't go for the blue paint-job, if I had my pick of them! The 1300 my brother bought a few months ago has had the exhaust and air-breather modified in a similar way and I think it's a great job, not least of all because of the improved visibility with no obstructions looking out the front windscreen. See a couple of pics:

You lucky git!! That's a real nice MB, very tidy indeed. They're getting harder and harder to find with such clean tin-work and with the cab in good condition too. You've been getting good advice from previous posters about the exhaust and the steps and diesel tank - these parts are arguably vulnerable on MB tracs even in normal farming use but in the forestry context, they're even more vulnerable. A lot of MBs have lost their original exhaust as the whole weight of the pipe & silencer is supported by the manifold/turbo, etc, because there are no other brackets or supports to share the weight or steady it. This obviously puts the manifold at risk as well, especially if the exhaust gets a thump from a low or falling branch! Definitely a weak point in the design imo. I've seen a few MBs with modified exhausts and air-breathers where they have been re-located to the corners of the cab, similar to most modern tractors; e.g. this 1500 at Pykett Tractors: pykett tractors Nice job! Looks like you've plenty of grip on those tyres, so they should do a good while. By the way, do you think you could get more than 50kph flat out on the road? Have you got access to all eight gears?