Zoom Roadless County And Other Conversions

There are tractors designed to plough fields, tractors intended to tow agricultural equipment, and tractors whose owners apparently looked at an ordinary farm machine and decided that what it really needed was an entirely different set of wheels, a more complicated transmission and the ability to travel across terrain where even the sheep were reluctant to venture. Welcome to the wonderfully eccentric world of Roadless conversions, where British agricultural ingenuity met the firm conviction that no mechanical problem was too difficult to solve with sufficient engineering, determination and several tons of additional metalwork.

In Roadless County and Other Conversions (2006), Allan T. Condie explores a fascinating chapter in the development of specialist agricultural machinery. Published by Japonica Press, this illustrated volume examines the remarkable conversions that transformed conventional tractors into formidable working machines capable of tackling conditions that would bring ordinary agricultural equipment to a humiliating standstill.

Roadless Traction became celebrated for its ingenious adaptations of existing tractors, particularly its tracked and four-wheel-drive arrangements. These modifications gave familiar machines extraordinary capabilities, enabling them to operate on difficult ground and undertake demanding agricultural and industrial duties. What had begun as a perfectly respectable tractor could emerge from the workshop looking considerably more substantial and ready to conquer a small mountain.

County tractors represent another magnificent expression of British mechanical ambition. Famous for their powerful four-wheel-drive conversions, these imposing machines became favourites among farmers, forestry operators and contractors requiring serious pulling power. A conventional tractor might manage a modest agricultural task, but a County seemed capable of taking the entire field home with it.

Condie’s exploration of these specialist conversions celebrates the manufacturers, engineering developments and practical applications that made such machinery essential in demanding working environments. From muddy fields and forestry plantations to industrial sites where traction was everything, these machines proved that mechanical ingenuity could transform everyday equipment into something genuinely extraordinary.

Naturally, the resulting vehicles were rarely subtle. Huge tyres, substantial axles and formidable drivetrains gave them an appearance somewhere between an agricultural tractor and a small military invasion force. Their operators were generally less concerned with elegance than with whether the machine could pull an enormous load through a swamp without requiring rescue.

Today, surviving Roadless and County tractors attract considerable enthusiasm among collectors, who lovingly preserve machinery originally intended to endure years of punishing work. The irony is splendid: tractors once routinely buried in mud are now carefully polished before being transported to vintage machinery shows.

Condition: As New. This copy is exceptionally well preserved, presenting as new despite its 2006 publication date. Unlike a hardworking vintage tractor, it requires no replacement transmission components, expensive hydraulic repairs or a substantial agricultural building in which to accommodate it.

Published by Japonica Press in 2006. ISBN: 9781904686125.

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where we admire magnificent agricultural engineering, particularly when ownership does not require several acres of farmland, an enormous workshop or an increasingly worried bank manager.

An excellent addition to any collection of tractor history, agricultural machinery literature or specialist British engineering. Particularly recommended for enthusiasts who appreciate that ordinary tractors are all very well, but the truly ambitious farmer requires something capable of ploughing the field, crossing a bog and possibly rearranging the local landscape before lunchtime.

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