Michael O’Neill from Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, is well-known among vintage people as both he and his wife Anne and family have taken part in so many vintage events over the past 20 years. At home, Michael is also well-known for his tractor restoration skills, where a host of his own projects provide ample evidence of his passion for older tractors. For the day job, Michael operates a truck and van repair business, as well as servicing many older tractors for farmers in his area.I called to Michael recently to get an understanding of his love for the older tractors and see some of his collection and some work in progress. Most of his tractors have come from local farms and this has been important to him in knowing the history behind each model.
Michael O’Neill from Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, is well-known among vintage people as both he and his wife Anne and family have taken part in so many vintage events over the past 20 years. At home, Michael is also well-known for his tractor restoration skills, where a host of his own projects provide ample evidence of his passion for older tractors. For the day job, Michael operates a truck and van repair business, as well as servicing many older tractors for farmers in his area.
I called to Michael recently to get an understanding of his love for the older tractors and see some of his collection and some work in progress. Most of his tractors have come from local farms and this has been important to him in knowing the history behind each model.
He has imported a few rarer ones from North America to add variety to his collection. These include a rare petrol powered Case five-furrow and a Minneapolis Moline model, also petrol-powered.
When Michael started up the Case, with little battery effort, it cranked smoothly without a hitch. This is a 1949 tractor that was not sold in Europe and its large four-cylinder mechanically governed petrol engine gave it impressive prairie ploughing power.
Among the Irish origin tractors in his collection is his pride, a locally sourced Allis Chalmers ED40 from the early 1960s. This tractor was originally imported by McGees of Ardee and sold to local farmer Pat McNamee by Kane’s Garage in Edgeworthstown in 1963.
The tractor is a little special in that the it was originally built for North America to be fitted with a petrol engine. The ED letters in the name mean ‘‘English Diesel’’ as the tractor was also produced in Lincoln, England, and fitted with a Standard Motor Company four-cylinder diesel engine with four heater plugs to help starting.
This 40hp tractor was developed by Allis Chalmers to compete with the Massey Ferguson 35. It came with some interesting features including a high and low gearbox.
Among the novel features was the two-in-one gauge for oil pressure and water temperature. The fact that the tractor was not fitted with a live-drive PTO meant that it was considered a little primitive at the time.
Michael had a lot of work to do on the ED40 to get it to the condition that it is in today. The engine and gearbox were reasonably good, while Michael had considerable work to do on the crown wheel and pinion and half shafts. Some parts were sourced in North America, where there is still a big Allis Chalmers following.
Local engineering firm LF Engineering of Clondra helped him to make some components of the lift arms which were machined rather than cast as in the original tractor. The tractor was finished in the traditional orange Allis Chalmers colour.
More recently, Michael got his hands on an original Allis Chalmers AC300 baler to give him an appropriate combination for the tractor. His found the baler in west Mayo through a vintage contact and set about buying it with the plan to restore it for use with the ED40 tractor. The baler was stripped down and all covers replaced. New bearings were fitted, where needed. All of the chains and drives were seized and freeing these took some time so as to preserve their working ability.
The baler was originally manufactured in England at a factory based at Lincolnshire, where Allis Chalmers tractors were manufactured between 1945 and 1968. At some stage, it crossed the Irish Sea and spent some time up until 1986 working on a Mayo farm. The baler has remained idle since then with the resultant chain and driveline seizures.
The combination of the ED40 tractor and the AC300 baler is an impressive sight. The combination was in action at Moynalty this year and Michael has worked it at other local events, after testing it on his brother’s farm.
For many of his tractor repairs, Michael O’Neill sources parts from QTP in Mullingar. He believes in fitting the part first and making sure that it works before spraying the tractor. This is because older tractors may vary in some of the design features, so getting the part in place first is his motto.
Views on tractor runs
Michael O’Neill is one of an increasing number of vintage tractor enthusiasts who has become disillusioned with the way tractor runs are being staged today. “Vintage enthusiasts are not interested in modern farm tractors. For us, our hobby of restoring and working vintage tractors comes first and the charity aspect of these events follows. I don’t have any problem with modern tractor runs for charity. We are concerned that the increasing numbers of newer tractors taking part in ‘vintage’ tractor runs is destroying our hobby,” says Michael.
“We want to enjoy our tractors at the speed they were designed to run at – 15mph or 16mph – and we don’t enjoy a run where bigger tractors are constantly edging to pass us out in what should be a leisurely and enjoyable event that can benefit a needy charity.
“This year, we took part in a few smaller runs for the shear enjoyment of it. We had a great event with about 30 tractors taking part across the Wild Atlantic Way in west Clare where, we enjoyed the two days with people, all of whom have a similar interest in vintage tractors,” says Michael. “We expect to take part in more of these types of events in the future,” he adds.
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Special focus: tractors 2016
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