Farm buggy performs well

Press, 28 October 1977, Page 16

Farm buggy performs well

This home-built “farm buggy” is a particularly valuable piece of equipment on the coastal property of Mr C. R. (Clem) McLachlan and his son, lan, at Coldstream about 40 km from Ashburton. Mr McLachlan says that it has been a lot more successful than they had envisaged. When they set out to build the buggy they were wanting a vehicle with enough traction to pull their irrigation spraylines and also which they could get in and out of quickly during the lambing round. It was built on a Volkswagen Kombi chassis. The Kombi was acquired for a mere §3O being, in what Mr McLachlan described, as a very sad state with, among other things, the brakes being full of water. It was stripped right down to the chassis, which was also shortened by 15in, with a rusty section being eliminated. In the rebuilding the controls were placed in the centre and smaller 13in diameter wheels were fitted on the back. A stock pen was included on the front to take three ewes. The boot at the back takes the lambs — up to six at a time — which travel in comfort with heat ducted into them. A rubber pad on the right hand front mudguard serves as a perch for the dog. There is no door on the driver’s side so that he can dismount and mount again without any trouble. At lambing time it also pulls a light trailer. In the most recent lambing it had a fair test. Almost throughout the lambing period the farm was swept by storms and

in spite of tne wet conditions, which w.ould have sorely tested even a Landrover. Mr McLachlan says that the little vehicle kept going seeming to stay on top of the ground. When not in use for lambing the covers or lids over the boot can be removed and it has proved an attractive place to carry children holidaying on tire farm. It also serves as a general farm hack taking the place of a light truck. Recently it has been towing a trailer out to the paddock while drilling has been in progress. Very well sprung, it rides surprisingly smoothly over the paddocks. On and off Mr McLachlan and his son worked on it for two years. The storm in August, 1975, interrupted their work for the wind carried away the plans for it which were in a farm shed, and the extra three months or so of work that resulted from the storm also meant that work on the buggy was delayed. While Mr McLachlan did the electric welding and lan most of the gas welding they found a pop rivet gun particularly useful in completing the body work. The farm buggy has been registered as a farm car. Mr McLachlan puts the cost of it, including their labour, at about $BOO to $9OO. Some of the spare parts that they needed were quite costly, he said. A reconditioned 1200 cc motor cost them $2OO. Naturally odd pieces of equipment on hand on the farm were included in it. The rear windows of the cab were, for instance, once the side windows of an old Bedford van.