{"id":464650,"date":"2026-06-06T23:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/464650\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T23:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:42:09","slug":"hauraki-dairy-family-keeps-farm-thriving-while-growing-vintage-machinery-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/464650\/","title":{"rendered":"Hauraki dairy family keeps farm thriving while growing vintage machinery collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

He has been collecting for a while but didn\u2019t consider it \u201ccollecting\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n

\" The Ruston would have been used to power milking machines, shearing plants and water pumps before electricity. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes with tractors, it\u2019s harder to change the implements than it is to do the actual job you\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier to buy a tractor for each implement and keep it attached. <\/p>\n

\u201cI bought quite a few secondhand tractors for that purpose \u2026 and I still have them all, so I suppose that\u2019s collecting,” he said with a smile.<\/p>\n

As time has passed, Keith has added several stationary engines to his collection and has restored some of them with his diesel mate, Graham Ware. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got an early 1900s, English-made Ruston diesel stationary engine. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the late 1990s, it was sitting in a paddock at fellow Hauraki Vintage Machinery Club member Neil Fitzgerald\u2019s paddock, and I acquired it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Ruston<\/p>\n

The Ruston came from the Mercer Quarry and needed to be taken apart and rebuilt using a mixture of new and original parts. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe used new rings, bearings and valves alongside old bits.\u201d <\/p>\n

The one-cylinder engine is all cast iron apart from the pipes and tanks. <\/p>\n

The engine has a water tank to feed the heat-exchange cooling system. <\/p>\n

\" The engine has a water tank to feed the heat-exchange cooling system. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

It has flywheels on either side and fabric belts, although leather was sometimes used in the old days. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt produces 3.5 hp with heaps of torque and would have been used to power milking machines, shearing plants and water pumps before electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" The Ruston needed pulling to pieces and rebuilding using a mixture of new and original parts. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

It has a crank start, which Keith said was much easier when he was younger, and now uses Neil Dalgety\u2019s starting motor to start all his stationary engines.<\/p>\n

The machine is very heavy and is loaded onto the ute using a front loader on the tractor to go to the crank-up days. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe stationary engines always promote conversation when they are on display, and I enjoy talking about them with younger generations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He has been collecting for a while but didn\u2019t consider it \u201ccollecting\u201d at the time. The Ruston would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3115,235432,3246,138,21642,7224,2109,3233,29188,226,51628,29137,26522,44180,19720,2882,17374,111,139,69,17286,211856,32260,2069,27557,8229,67015,27627,6123,1842,18457,19135],"class_list":["post-464650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-allowing","tag-barriball","tag-both","tag-business","tag-collection","tag-dairy","tag-family","tag-farm","tag-formula","tag-growing","tag-hauraki","tag-keeping","tag-keeps","tag-keith","tag-land","tag-love","tag-machinery","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operation","tag-peggy","tag-proved","tag-stay","tag-supporting","tag-they","tag-thriving","tag-vintage","tag-while","tag-wife","tag-winning","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}