• Another Scottish discovery
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How long does a tipper last? Just discovered in the Shetlands a 29-year-old Edbro gear is still tipping away, more often than not to the tune of 300 times per week. Its age came to light when a farmer on the island of Unst, Magnus Inkster, wrote to Edbro's service department in Bolton to ask them if oil seals could be supplied for his front single-ram gear. At Bolton a check on the gear number showed it to be an IEL, a model originally supplied to the Austin Motor Co way back in August 1942.
Mr Inkster in fact has been using this gear on a farm trailer he made himself in 1966 and told me that he obtained it from an "old truck".
Hauled by a Massey Ferguson tractor, the trailer is used to transport road materials and silage as well as-doing duty on general farm work. This was the first set of seals fitted by Mr Inkster, who estimates that there are "very many more years" in the gear yet.