Friendly mammoth

Gerwin remembers Renault tractors from his youth. "My father has had a 781 on the farm for a long time. At some point he got the chance to buy an 1181-4. I thought it was a dream tractor, but my father thought it was a bit too big and too powerful. And he was right, of course.

Gerwin's first Renault from the famous 1-series of the 1970s was a 981-4, with a 5.7 litre 6 cylinder M.W.M. engine. Before that tractor I had already visited someone who had a Walhalla of Renault parts. I went there again two years ago for a few specific things. I almost bought an 1181-4 in Alsace at the time but unfortunately I was just a day too late. That was a beautiful tractor with only a broken engine."

"The parts supplier had so many Renault parts that it would have been easy to put together a complete tractor from them. That was my aim. I looked for a chassis for an 1181-4, plus also the rear axle, front axle and much more."

Despite the language problem, the man put an important question to Gerwin, "What do you actually want?" Gerwin wanted an 1181-4. There was one on the premises. Broken engine, rotten wings, damaged steps and no upholstery. In short, a wreck, but complete with papers. I bought it on the condition that all the missing parts were included. My brother picked it up and I could then start.

And Gerwin made a dynamic start. He has a shed on his father's farm where almost everything has to do with Renault. "I got up early in the morning so I could spend a couple of hours working on the tractor before I went to work."

He found another engine because the original MWM D 226-6  had a 56cm crack in the block! Gerwin was surprised that there was hardly any play on the front axle. He attributed this to its use in  French clay, where an axle has less wear. Mechanically the tractor was not too bad. All parts were blasted and painted. "I mixed 80 litres of orange paint myself. I want to rebuild two more tractors from scratch. With the rare 1451-4 I'm already well on my way as I have finished several parts of it. I also mixed enough paint for the wheels for several more. It's a little less beige than the original paint."

Just before he was about to put the cab on after the whole chassis, axles, swingarm and engine had been freshly painted by a friend, Gerwin ran the engine for the first time. Within the first few strokes he could hear that the head gasket was leaking so he had a lot of tinkering to do.

On some small points the tractor deviates from the factory original. Gerwin replaced the rotten mudguards with wider ones to be able to mount wider and slightly higher tyres. The rear plates of the steps are a perfect match. Because the rear tyres have a larger circumference, the tractor is perfectly level when viewed from the side, whereas the large six-cylinders of the time stuck their noses in the air a bit more. Also, the dashboard is not covered with black vinyl. The painted dashboard looks very good on the tractor and matches the new condition of the cab. Beside the standard 117 litre fuel tank, he mounted a second one holding 205 litres.

Gerwin is happy that his family supports him in his hobby. "My wife sees my passion and understands it. She also sees that I finish things and don't let projects fail, such as an intermediate project for a steel pole to hang the illuminated sign from a Renault agriculture dealer. They always say that behind a strong man there is an even stronger woman, and that is certainly the case with me.

All the stickers on Gerwin's Renault 1181-4 are new. Some of them, especially the ones on the outside, were made in Kalmthout. This includes the black bars on the bonnet and the Blocamatic stickers directly under them. Gerwin goes to great lengths for this. "The Blocamatic letters and the frame are individual on my bonnet and were not printed on transparent sticker material. He found all the stickers for the cab in France. Both the window stickers and, for example, the stickers on the levers of the Tracto-Control linkage.

At the same time as the restoration Gerwin put the documentation of the 1181-4 in order. That was not always easy. The registration certificate was in the name of a Bernard Duprez from Croisilles in the Pas de Calais. That is quite close to the business location of dealer Gueudet Motoculture.

Although Gerwin likes restoring tractors, the final result must be usable. That's why he regularly connects an implement to the linkage (with an extra lifting ram) to do some jobs. Afterwards he power washes the Renault completely clean!

For the R7674, 400 examples were built as 1151-4 from the 1st of June '74 till the 1st of December '76. From 1 February '76 till 14 November '80, 2,557 units of the 1181-4 were produced. Of its successor, the 1181-4 S, Renault produced 622 units from 14 November '80 to 30 September '82. So a total of 3,579 units.