The older Zetors

Mike

Member
Our silage contractor bought two new 8011's back in the late 70's. As a very young boy :001_rolleyes:, I remember being very impressed by them. And they turned out to be great yokes, giving years and years of service. He still has them around the place I think!

A classic I do believe :001_cool:

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I will always remember the contractor that a neighbour used to get to cut silage. He would spend about 5 days at it and had 4/5 Zetor Crystals 8011's drawing with single axle trailers. About 200 yards from our house their is a crush and there used to be always one pulled in there after breaking down and was not unknown for one to be split getting a clutch etc. They would be waiting on the boss' brother to come with his 80's Jetta (remember those:lol:).

There used to be a shine on our road for a good 2 weeks after they finished from all the oil spilt:lol::lol:

I will never forget though - a local cattle haulier reversed into an open drain at the top of our lane - back first. We put sleepers under the front but when he went off again - in went the front so he rang another neighbour.

I remember his son was sent with the good oul 8011. I remember laughing that they couldn't send the 7840. Low and behold hooked the chain and out came the Hino!!! He was back up the road before his father came down in the jeep!

Respect for the 8011!
 
I seem to remember all the heavy work being done by Crystals in the early '80s, every contractor had at least one, in our parish there were numerous 8011s one 12011 and the real daddy of them all a 12045. I recall my father having the contractor with this massive tractor plough a piece of land he had just bought and reclaimed. The 12045 was an amazing tractor and although I wasn't 10yrs old all I could think of was getting behind the wheel of one of these. It compared very positively to our Ford 4000 at the time! Most of the contractors moved to Ursus tractors next, eventually these were replaced with something like a 110/90 or a Valmet, now all the contractors seem to have John Deeres. There doesn't seem to be any big contractors doing big amounts of work around us anymore, mostly just farmers doing some contracting on the side and the older contractors moved into farming or building or something.
 
Yes that seemed a common move alright 8011's to Ursus 1222 and 1224's - although there was a few around with a few extra radiators:lol::lol:

They were a right yoke driving a trailed forager. There were at least 2 Pottinger and Ursus 1222 outfits near me.
 
I remember not that many moons ago Donnelys with a fleet of Leylands and the one on the harvester with the extra radiator up on the back mudguard.

Oh and kinsellas of the park with the Same Galaxy 170s before moving onto the JD 4255s for ploughing down in Ballywater.

Worked for Stones/Furlong in 1996 carting silage with various perkins powered ursus and zetors. Wish I had taken some pics from back then.
 
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Used to get to drive an 8045 Crystal on the farm I used to help out on weekends and holidays.
Remember having a tyre on the front to help the neighbours Davie Broon 995 get up some of the hills when we were cartin neeps on wet days. Just went in behind their trailer and gave them a shove.:thumbup::thumbup:
 
the daddy of all around here was a couple of 14145's in a fleet of deutz, never seen a 16145 around,

i know a guy who had an ursus 1232 (160hp 2wd) on a ten-x i asked him why he went for a 2wd he said, i was ordering the tractor today and i wanted it tomorrow!!

we had a pair of 8145's, both 1990's, the final one left in 2006 against a TM, its a machine we all miss going for a burn in!!
 
The auld lad here had an 8045 for a few years can just about remember it was moved on in '85 for an 880/5 DT.

Loads of crystals and ursus round here at one time all seem to have disappeared now, think the poles are fond of them.

There also was a big burst of 8111s in '91 think there was a special offer of £10,000 and 0% finance.
Best memory of one was sitting behind the auld lad in one we used to get a lend of drawing silage with the roof off. Also a lad we had drawing only found out about the Hi multi when we were finished silage.:lol:
 
The auld lad here had an 8045 for a few years can just about remember it was moved on in '85 for an 880/5 DT.

Loads of crystals and ursus round here at one time all seem to have disappeared now, think the poles are fond of them.

There also was a big burst of 8111s in '91 think there was a special offer of £10,000 and 0% finance.
Best memory of one was sitting behind the auld lad in one we used to get a lend of drawing silage with the roof off. Also a lad we had drawing only found out about the Hi multi when we were finished silage.:lol:

Easy mistake to make in a Zetor. Id say the pto lever confused a few as well :001_smile: Never mind turning the bloody thing off!
 
Oh yes - doesn't the hand throttle double as the stop?

our last one, the cable broke in about '96 had to pull the pedal up to stop it, if you were topping, filling a tanker or anything that required a constant engine speed we put a timber block on the throttle.

christ i loved that yoke . . . .
 
our last one, the cable broke in about '96 had to pull the pedal up to stop it, if you were topping, filling a tanker or anything that required a constant engine speed we put a timber block on the throttle.

christ i loved that yoke . . . .

So you ran her for 10 years like that - yikes!!!
 
I remember the uncle used to have one of these yrs ago going around with a rope tied to the hand brake to pull incase the brakes ever went which they regularly did lol.
 
i remember in 1998 i had a brand new mf 4255 and a 8011 2 wd could get up a hiil with a full load of silage while my brand new 4 wd tractor could not match the traction of the old zetor with the front of it up in the air
 
Was thinking of getting one the other day just for tipping around and abandoning on jobs that aren't priority like stake driving and road sweeping and maybe feeding on the out farm or even topping.
 
i prefered the zetor engined ones tbh, we put a 6 cylinder turbo perkins in our old 912 when her original engine packed in but she was nothing compared to the 12145 which we had turboed aswell. the 12145 was a beast and wicked quick on the road.:thumbup:
 
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