Farm buggy

Press, 30 October 1981, Page 9

Farm buggy

A very stable, economical vehicle that is a farm bike, utility vehicle and light tractor, all in one, is being produced on a farm near Amberley. The Off Road Vehicle Company of New Zealand. - ORVCO — operates in a workshop on Solway Downs, the Anderson’s farm in the Broomfield area. This is an ideal setting, since prospective clients are able to take one of the ORVCO vehicles out on to the hills to put it through its paces in real farm conditions. Production of the first prototype began five years ago when engineer-designer, lan Taylor, started out on his own.

Now the shareholding of the company is spread between lan Taylor, Dennis deal, Mrs Anderson — the firm's secretary — and, to a lesser extent. Andrew Ander-

son. himself an engineer before becoming a farmer. lan. the general manager, is still the chief ideas man, with responsibility for the technical design. To start with, about 10 prototype vehicles were produced, powered by Briggs and Stratton motors, with the intention of perfecting a three-in-one vehicle that would climb anything and operate at the cost of a farm bike.

This was achieved with the development of an efficient, general purpose machine that could pull harrows, a hayrake or a light haybaler, or safely climb precipitous slopes oh tough, back-country farms.

More than 50 ORVCO vehicles have now been produced, mostly bought by farmers, though there is one used as a spraying vehicle in an orchard up north and another, down south, used to move beehives around. The latest one went to the Chathams. The basic machine is a six wheeler with rear axle drive to all four rear wheels. The firm adds to it whatever the client wants, such as a cab, doors, a stock crate and headlights. Most are bought with cabs and doors, and a stock crate serves as a safety frame as

well. The choice of motors to fit the same gearing is now very wide, including single cylinder, four stroke, 16 horse-power motors, or twin 16-horse motors, and the Escort water-cooled engine. ORVCO is now starting to jsut in three point linkages and economical 21 or 30 horse-power Ruggerini diesei engines, only recently available in the South Island. These ■ variations turn the vehicle into a tractor for heavy work like ploughing, and allow it to maintain speed up extremely steep slopes.

Over recent months, the firm has aimed to produce two or three vehicles a month. At the moment it is trying to raise that to four, and there will be one on display at the show tomorrow.