If you visited LAMMA, you would have been able to see a shiny, 30-year-old, John Deere 6800 tractor on the Lynx Engineering stand. This is the tractor the company has restored and modified as part of the project we began to cover last year, the original aim having been to follow the rebuild month on month to its projected completion last summer. By the time you read this the original deadline had clearly been missed. Here we outline why.
Difficulties sourcing certain parts, matching the original paint finish, deciding what to repair, replace or update plus fitting the project work into a normal working day are part of the reason why this Lynx Engineering project took a lot longer than initially expected. There was also the need to focus upon the key aim of demonstrating how a tractor made 30 years ago could still be fitted with a new loader and other modern-day equipment to make it a viable working tool.
Bigger tyre conundrum
As the project progressed, the subject tractor turned out to need much, much more than just a service and a quick lick of paint ahead of being updated. The resultant full mechanical strip and subsequent rebuild was not part of the original plan. A further complication was the desire of the team to fit the tractor with more modern tyres. A simple job, you would think, but one that caused a few headaches and delays. This was largely down to needing to ensure the correct drive ratio between the front and rear axles.
The Lynx team had to work out the latter for themselves, the selected tyre sizes not being available when John Deere launched the 6800. With no data available, it was necessary to measure the larger tyre’s actual circumference and use these figures to see if they delivered the correct front and rear axle ratios.
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