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Rod Clifton - burning with a passion for old tractors

Rod Clifton’s wife wishes he’d collected stamps instead of vintage tractors – he now has 200. It all started when someone gave Rod a tractor for scrap and the former farm boy with a No 8 wire mentality got it going.

His passion for old machines is shared by a strong following worldwide, and led to the Horowhenua Vintage Harvest, held on the weekend of February 12-13.

One of the Horowhenua entrants drove his tractor all the way from Taranaki.

Traction engines took two days to travel here from Feilding to avoid peak traffic, and Rod was responsible for transporting about 50 machines to the site before and after the event.

He and a group of local Horowhenua enthusiasts formed the Vintage Machinery Club nearly eight years ago.
The recent Harvest weekend was their second such event. Months of planning included the planting of special crops by Grahame and Sue Cottle on their property. The Cottles’ commitment of 1.6ha of hay as well as two rows of maize and two of potatoes is fundamental to seeing the machinery in action.

Rod’s collection includes a unique Rushton tractor. Only 350 were made in Britain between 1929 and 1932. Just three are left in New Zealand and only five in the UK. Rod’s Rushton came from Mangatainoka, where it had been lying unused in a paddock for over 40 years.

Dedication, skill and time will soon have the old icon running again.
(About a third of Rod’s collection of tractors – which includes bulldozers – are used for parts.)

Horowhenua Vintage Harvest is one of four such local events. They are held in rotation so collectors can support the other clubs.

Rod and the committee of seven shared their pleasure in restored machinery at the Harvest.

Those who attended saw displays of working draught horses, traction engines, binding and threshing machines, tractor-drawn machines for cutting, threshing, binding, harvesting, digging and sawing.

Plus there were stationary engines, vintage cars or the old guy who drives a traction engine and has a cow being milked on the trailer.

The Harvest is quirky and committed to honouring New Zealand’s proud farming history.

Above: Bruce Irwin at the controls during a Vintage Harvest demonstration, Levin

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