"Phil & Diane Martin" wrote in message ...
Can anyone help.We bought a second hand Howard and would some help to find
out what model it is,if there are any manuals available and also a place to
get spares.

Thanks in advance

Phil and Diane Martin

Can you put up some pics on a webpage? I should be able to give you an idea of model and vintage. Spares are still
around if you know where to look. The big ones ('Gem') are still the preferred pedestrian rotavator of landscapers and
growers and the service people they deal with will keep them going as long as possible. For that reason the Gem is
probably easiest to maintain. Even when engines are beyond repair the modular construction of the machine makes 3rd
party replacement easy using a wide range of standard industrial engines. The Gem was first made soon after WW2 and
continued with many different engines and little other change into the 1990s iirc even though by then the company
ownership changed. The we bought the one I've been using today 27 years ago and it is a 1960 machine with a 14Hp Kohler
Magnum engine we fitted about 20 years ago. Just like grandad's axe but nobody makes anything remotely comparable. Using
them is an aquired taste but well worth the effort of mastering ;~)))
Smaller ones? There were some about 12inches wide that I didn't use much and know little about. The 350 was an
intermediate machine rather lightly built like the little ones but a very useable machine, then there was the 400 - not
much bigger than the 350 but built like the Gem.
Early machines were made by Clifford, then by Howard Clifford until early 1960 when it became Howard until about 1980
when they were taken on by a company called Dowdswell engineering who I believe stopped making them in the 1990s. Don't
take the dates as gospel - this is just from my deteriorating memory. I'm unsure of Dowdsell's current status - I think
a rump of the firm may still be around suppying spares from their remaining stock
Sometime in 1960 just after ours the Gem became a mark 2 Gem and I'm told by our service guy all that changed was an
idler in the gearbox.

Rod