{"id":633756,"date":"2026-10-17T20:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633756\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T20:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:58:12","slug":"fordson-e27n-crawler-waikato-collector-roger-benton-preserves-rare-machinery-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633756\/","title":{"rendered":"Fordson E27N crawler: Waikato collector Roger Benton preserves rare machinery history"},"content":{"rendered":"

He has 24 tractors (including other brands), two bulldozers and three County crawlers. <\/p>\n

While he admits he isn\u2019t great at the bodywork side of things, he is more of a mechanical engineer and thinks nothing of swapping engines in and out and looking after the mechanical side of his machines. <\/p>\n

After driving a Fordson E27N with a Perkins P6 engine as a teenager, Benton developed a liking for this classic engine.<\/p>\n

He has a 1949 Fordson E27N crawler, complete with a factory-installed Perkins P6 engine. <\/p>\n

\u201cI bought it pre-Covid from a deceased estate in Levin, so I don\u2019t know too much about its history.\u201d <\/p>\n

\" Factory-installed Perkins P6 engine. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

The crawler is a County CFT (County Full Track) built on a Fordson E27N skid unit. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a 4.73 litre Perkins P6 diesel engine with around 50hp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has three forward gears and one reverse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two first and second gear ratios available, and this one has the slow version.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crawler would have carried out discing, ploughing and general cultivation in areas that were too wet for a tractor to work.<\/p>\n

\" Roger Benton with his 1949 Fordson E27N crawler. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

A bulldozer blade attachment was available, and the crawler has a three-point linkage system.<\/p>\n

Benton has hitched it to a trailer plough and ploughed with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a belt pulley on the side so with a belt fitted, the crawler could run as a stationary engine for threshing mills, cow sheds, water irrigation and similar tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" The nostalgia of a dashboard from yesteryear. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

Benton said his crawler would have been expensive in its day.<\/p>\n

He said, compared with what was available pre-World War II, it was advanced technology, as wars create innovation through necessity.<\/p>\n

\" Large tracks for manoeuvring on wet ground. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

Benton is a member of the Waikato Vintage Machinery Club, where he is an active participant in their social outings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He has 24 tractors (including other brands), two bulldozers and three County crawlers. While he admits he isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[47179,3225,95,665,310532,138,51688,184182,48901,4480,310531,2109,2209,9064,1888,126530,134831,305,1861,5511,17374,111,139,69,1864,34540,72605,8205,6372,7811,6182,210,1524,1530],"class_list":["post-633756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-4yearold","tag-according","tag-and","tag-around","tag-benton","tag-business","tag-collector","tag-crawler","tag-decided","tag-drive","tag-e27n","tag-family","tag-father","tag-fathers","tag-first","tag-fordson","tag-gate","tag-have","tag-history","tag-just","tag-machinery","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opened","tag-passed","tag-preserves","tag-rare","tag-roger","tag-since","tag-stories","tag-through","tag-waikato","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633756","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=633756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}