It was great to see East Sussex DM Contractors’ 1974 Massey Ferguson 400 crawler at work. It has recently been purchased by David Mansi from Graham Tapp who has retired from his business. The MF 400 was made in MF’s north Italy factory of the time and is part of the 200- 700 line with the larger machines having Hanomag connections.

MF took over the crawler line of this company when it went bankrupt in the 1970s. Eventually all the Massey Ferguson plant equipment line was sold off to Terex. However, the 400 was made from 1971 until 1976 and there was even a 400C produced, but the 400 featured the Perkins A6.354 engine. This was rated at 85fhp and has a torque converter shuttle, twospeed forward and reverse, transmission. The steering was of the dry type and similarly the brakes, on the original design. It carries a foot-operated throttle and a Rubery Owen four-in-one bucket made at Darlaston, Staffordshire.

The crawler is very clean and carries the optional equipment in the three tooth ripper, which has been used already with great success. David finds it heavy on fuel, but it’s great to see this nearly 40-year-old machine at work. The later 400C was a much more beefed-up machine and was offered in powershift or six-speed direct-drive in three ranges. It is a very interesting machine.

This is what people who have used these types of machines say: “They are well built, but with no parts availability, lots of corrosion and also usually in need work on various parts, but a great machine. “You need to be mechanically adept to keep them running properly. It’s a bit big for small jobs, and slightly small for the larger jobs. It’s great for back dragging and has enough mass to take down big trees. Undercarriage parts are a major problem, but the machine can be modified with other parts from other makes.”