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When you receive a Siromer tractor, you find a not-quite-flat package made up of 1,200kg of metal, fiberglass, rubber and hundreds of nuts and bolts. In addition to this, you will also find various strange looking black nuggets. If you look closely, you’ll also see what looks like an engine and steering wheel lurking somewhere inside.
The question is how on earth will this seemingly mountainous collection of parts ever do the essential farm work. Will it ever spread dirt or climb that steep hill while I tend to my sheep?
When my old John Deere broke down, I just didn’t have the money to buy a new one. I’d been looking at some rickety old Masseys and spoken to a few people at the Great Yorkshire Show and that’s when I was first told about the Siromer tractor.
At first I scoffed. I mean a tractor you build by yourself?
Well the prices seemed almost too good to be true. In fact, I was offered about a third of the price of a similar tractor from Europe or America. So, my arm twisted by my wife, who was a bit worried I was going to succumb to some horrible mishap on my old Deere, I ordered somewhat skeptically and in front of me was the Siromer tractor…or at least the heap of components were!
I looked at the pile and laid them on the grass. I took out the battery box, roll bars, fender, weight bars, wheels, electrical, fuel tank, hoses, air filter, and what seemed like countless other “parts”. In fact, identifying the parts was easier than I thought it would be, and pretty soon I had a fairly organized layout on my lawn.
Next, I sat down with a cup of tea and read the manuals. Now if you thought an Ikea flat pack was bad – you didn’t see anything! That gave me a 105-page parts list, a 25-page service manual and a 70-page owner’s manual – obviously no risk here! It was almost like having a giant Meccano set.
First I attached the wheels to the chassis. job done!
Over the next 2.5 days I methodically worked my way through the manual and little by little the tractor came together. Apparently a mechanic can assemble a Siromer tractor in about a day. The record is said to be 2 hours. The process might take longer for others, but Siromer is proud to announce that they haven’t had anyone who couldn’t put one together yet.
My last task was to fasten quite proudly on the immaculate looking seat. I then filled up with diesel and water quite nervously. I don’t know what I was expecting when I turned it on, but I wasn’t expecting to be chugging around my farm in minutes – amazing!
Siromer tractors have proved extremely popular, with thousands in use every day across the UK. Besides farmers and smallholders, there are some rather unusual uses. A window cleaner in Liverpool makes his rounds to one. They have gliding clubs as well as helicopter companies and schools. There’s even a farm school that she bought for the sole purpose of showing students how to build them.
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