New Holland TSA 125 [125hp]

When we last visited Surrey contractor Tony Leach he was concerned that the air conditioning in his New Holland TS 125A wasn’t keeping the cab as cool as it should. So how has it coped with highest temperatures for years?

“An independent air-con engineer traced the fault to dirt in the evaporator. This stems from a previous problem with the original recirculation air filter, which blocked up too quickly because its mesh was too fine, so we took it out,” he says.

But the trouble was that after removing the offending filter it wasn’t replaced with the coarser version, allowing air to pass through unfiltered and plug up the evaporator.

After hedge cutting the tractor swapped over to drilling 320ha (800 acres) of maize in the spring and from there moved straight on to round baling hay, silage and now straw with a New Holland BB740, making a total of about 15,000 bales.

“It’s been no trouble at all. And apart from regular services it has not been touched in 1240 hours.”Average fuel consumption has been about 15 litres/hr (3.3gal/hr).

Mr Leach has no complaints with the six-cylinder engine or the 16 X 16 Electro Command transmission.

The four-speed powershift, he says, is easy to use and provides speeds slow enough for hedge cutting right through to a good top speed (40kph) for roadwork.

He adds that in the field the operator is able to select the range and then use the buttons to change through four speeds without using the clutch.