For the tractor lovers

[C.W. Richter]

73 Ford 8000, recovering from surgery so I'm moving a little slow I'll grab some other pictures in time. View attachment 531065

My Dad had this entire series from 2000 up: Never a problem w/ anything other than the occasional flat tires, dead batteries, generators replaced w/ alternators, snapped tach cable-super reliable! 'Sold all of 'em to my neighbors over the years and I'm still able to use 'em if necessary. My 2018 MF crapped out last week-a fuel pressure sensor got fouled as I was working on hills and the fuel tank sediment was getting stirred up-sent a "bad fuel pressure" code and shut it down. 1+ miles downhill from our place. in the hot sun at the end of a long day's work. Grinning neighbor towed me all the way up to my shop using our old '73 Ford 5000 (without a a fuel pressure sensor.)

 

[Stormy Kromer]

That's right. Palm that steering wheel. Dad taught me to drive in a '66 Chevrolet pickup at age 11. A few years later I caught hell from my drivers instruction trainer when I palmed the wheel. The poor SOB had never driven a truck without power steering. I told him what my dad told me "grip the wheel and you''ll break you hand someday". I lost a couple points on the test for that.

 

[ActionBob]

@C.W.Richter
I was my own boss once. I was the biggest bastard I ever worked for.
I wouldn't give myself a pay rise and when I call up sick the phone was always engaged.
Ended up sacking myself and going back to being an employee. Less hassle, and heartache.
Bob

Bob, although I agree on your points about calling in sick and having to work for such a hard ass.... I had a real job once for about 2 months and really didn't care for it much I decided that I'm unemployable.

I have to agree with @C.W. Richter that "it's good to be da boss"

 

[ActionBob]

Here's my personal baby, (vs the many larger tractors we have at our other farms) I love this modern tractor. (old enough to NOT burn DEF) Comfortable, convenient, has a passenger seat for @Just Gina or grandkids. It has a very adjustable swivel seat that is even heated. The AC works great. It has an IVT transmission and honestly seems to out pull the 140 HP tractor I used to have. And it is so cool to just set the ground speed and the engine automatically adjusts to whatever RPM's it needs.

 

[ActionBob]

Same field a few months ago....

 

[ActionBob]

I love that 6125R, but I'm passionate about these old John Deere's. Especially the 435's

John Deere was working on the New Generation tractors, moving on from the 2 cylinders. However in 1959 they wanted to offer a small diesel tractor but the new line was just not ready yet. So their answer became the 435, from the line of Dubuque tractors such as the M, 40, 320, 420, 330, 430, and the Industrial 440.

The 435 is basically a 430 transmission and rear end, painted green hood from the yellow 440 ( wider than the 430) and a two cylinder, 2 stroke, Detroit or GM diesel engine. (Both this diesel and a higher RPM, higher HP version of the 430 gas engine was offered in the 440).

They built approximately one 435 per dealer and built them in 1959 and part of 1960. So it is one of the rarer JD tractors and possibly the rarest diesel. They built fewer 330's which is a scaled down, cheaper, lower RPM 430. They bring some major dollars nowadays We do have one of those as well as 430 and a 420.

The JD 435 is a very unique sounding tractor with that 2 cylinder 2 cycle high reving engine! It of course fires as often as a 4 cylinder 4 stroke. But the sound is unique and LOUD! LOL

The first tractor i drove without dad helping was a Farmall Cub. I was 5 years old. Shortly after that I was taught to drive the 435. My dad had bought the only one sold by the local dealer in Pierz MN. It remained the only brand new tractor he ever bought. I think he was 19 or 20. My mom was working as a cashier in the local grocery store while they were dating and commented;

"It was always such a cheerful tractor and had a unique sound,when I was dating Richie and worked at Grubers store and Richie would go by with the 435 I would get all flustered cause I knew it was Him"

Dad passed away at 44 but my brother still has that 435.... Mom is 78 and and lives in town but still loves the tractors

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Old tractors are fun, they bring me back to my youth.

We wouldn't have old tractors if it weren't for the old dealerships. When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's most towns big enough to have a water tower had at least one implement dealership. My Hometown in Minnesota had a John Deere dealership (K&S Implement) and an International Harvester dealership (Smith's Implement). Both were located in the business district, one on Main Street the other a block off.

It was like going back in time going into those places. The farmers would gather there and visit. Ash trays were on the counter. There would be a pop machine with the coldest 10 oz bottles of pop you could find.

The show rooms were small, maybe a couple lawn mowers and some parts aisles. The owner was behind the counter.

John Deere Day was almost a town holiday. Our school would let parents take their kids out of school to go. The dealer had an open house and display the new models coming out that year. Then we'd all go next door to the movie theater and they'd show a film from Deere that had all their new equipment demonstrated. I remember my uncle walked out of the movie and pulled out his checkbook and told the dealer "get me one of those tractors" That was then the 4020s were leading the pack. He wrote out a check for abut $10,000 and took one home. Soon after that the Sound Guard cab series came out, about 1973? The dealer had a 4430 idling in the lot and we took turns going in the cab, closing the door and taking off our coats. You could hear the radio. It might as well been the space shuttle to us kids who grew up on B's and 60's, then grew into an open cab 4020 with an AM radio bolted onto the fender. In the plowing season we'd put on a heat houser.

Those Implement Dealers were important people in our small towns. They provided a valuable service, employed a lot of people and supported the community. The ones in our town were veterans, volunteer firefighters, Lions Club members and church going folks.


I loved those old dealerships. We lost them in the 80's. A poor farm economy, high interest rates and corporate consolidation ended it all. I live in the middle of farm country and you almost need an airplane to get parts when you break down. Dealers are few and far.

 

[ActionBob]

Old tractors are fun, they bring me back to my youth.

We wouldn't have old tractors if it weren't for the old dealerships. When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's most towns big enough to have a water tower had at least one implement dealership. My Hometown in Minnesota had a John Deere dealership (K&S Implement) and an International Harvester dealership (Smith's Implement). Both were located in the business district, one on Main Street the other a block off.

It was like going back in time going into those places. The farmers would gather there and visit. Ash trays were on the counter. There would be a pop machine with the coldest 10 oz bottles of pop you could find.

The show rooms were small, maybe a couple lawn mowers and some parts aisles. The owner was behind the counter.

John Deere Day was almost a town holiday. Our school would let parents take their kids out of school to go. The dealer had an open house and display the new models coming out that year. Then we'd all go next door to the movie theater and they'd show a film from Deere that had all their new equipment demonstrated. I remember my uncle walked out of the movie and pulled out his checkbook and told the dealer "get me one of those tractors" That was then the 4020s were leading the pack. He wrote out a check for abut $10,000 and took one home. Soon after that the Sound Guard cab series came out, about 1973? The dealer had a 4430 idling in the lot and we took turns going in the cab, closing the door and taking off our coats. You could hear the radio. It might as well been the space shuttle to us kids who grew up on B's and 60's, then grew into an open cab 4020 with an AM radio bolted onto the fender. In the plowing season we'd put on a heat houser.

Those Implement Dealers were important people in our small towns. They provided a valuable service, employed a lot of people and supported the community. The ones in our town were veterans, volunteer firefighters, Lions Club members and church going folks.


I loved those old dealerships. We lost them in the 80's. A poor farm economy, high interest rates and corporate consolidation ended it all. I live in the middle of farm country and you almost need an airplane to get parts when you break down. Dealers are few and far.

Old tractors are fun, they bring me back to my youth.

We wouldn't have old tractors if it weren't for the old dealerships. When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's most towns big enough to have a water tower had at least one implement dealership. My Hometown in Minnesota had a John Deere dealership (K&S Implement) and an International Harvester dealership (Smith's Implement). Both were located in the business district, one on Main Street the other a block off.

It was like going back in time going into those places. The farmers would gather there and visit. Ash trays were on the counter. There would be a pop machine with the coldest 10 oz bottles of pop you could find.

The show rooms were small, maybe a couple lawn mowers and some parts aisles. The owner was behind the counter.

John Deere Day was almost a town holiday. Our school would let parents take their kids out of school to go. The dealer had an open house and display the new models coming out that year. Then we'd all go next door to the movie theater and they'd show a film from Deere that had all their new equipment demonstrated. I remember my uncle walked out of the movie and pulled out his checkbook and told the dealer "get me one of those tractors" That was then the 4020s were leading the pack. He wrote out a check for abut $10,000 and took one home. Soon after that the Sound Guard cab series came out, about 1973? The dealer had a 4430 idling in the lot and we took turns going in the cab, closing the door and taking off our coats. You could hear the radio. It might as well been the space shuttle to us kids who grew up on B's and 60's, then grew into an open cab 4020 with an AM radio bolted onto the fender. In the plowing season we'd put on a heat houser.

Those Implement Dealers were important people in our small towns. They provided a valuable service, employed a lot of people and supported the community. The ones in our town were veterans, volunteer firefighters, Lions Club members and church going folks.


I loved those old dealerships. We lost them in the 80's. A poor farm economy, high interest rates and corporate consolidation ended it all. I live in the middle of farm country and you almost need an airplane to get parts when you break down. Dealers are few and far.

I remember skipping school to go to JD days with my dad! And yes we went down the street to the movie theater to see the JD show

There are still some good dealers and they still have those annual meetings I've been taken to Germany twice on forage Harvester promotion trips.... of course those things list right close to $1m so they have a bit of room to work and a strong incentive to get you to buy Green, or the other Green. LOL

 

[F. Vaccaro]

I remember cleaning horse stalls with an old Ford 9N years ago.

 

[ActionBob]

I'm thinking (dangerous) again, but I have thought that throughout the vast farming acreage in this country and elsewhere throughout the world, tractors that could run on 100% corn ethanol from local sources would have been manufactured? I would think over time it would be much cheaper than having to bring in and/or rely on the market prices for diesel or gasoline? For many decades here, tractors ran on gasoline before diesel, so why not ethanol now?

Because Diesel is for making power and gasoline is for washing parts.... Or so my brother says. In fact he was at a tractor pull where they had a rather mono-tone announcer so when my brother filled out his info sheet on his tractor that the announcer reads, he added than on the end.... The announcer read it verbatim

I told my brother he should have added "pause".

In all seriousness;
1. Agriculture runs on Diesel. And most of us keep many of those engines around a long time. It would be a monstrous task and extremely expensive to switch over.
2. Diesel makes more torque which is what pulls a plow. Horsepower wins Daytona.
3. Ethanol was never "the answer". Yes you can make fuel from crops and in fact ad much of the US corn crop goes to Ethanol as goes to livestock feed. But much like wind and solar, it never made sense in the US at least. It was all political to start. In the beginning I think it took as much energy to produce a gallon of Ethanol as it produced. Possibly more. Like wind and solar, nobody wanted to do ALL the math. It isn't just growing the crop. There is harvest, there transport from the field, drying the corn, storage (getting it in and out, construction of bins, etc.), transportation to the ethanol plant, running the plant. Transporting the ethanol. How about all the Natural gas it takes to make nitrogen to grow the corn? Ethanol production has gotten more efficient but it is still a supplemental fuel. I'm unaware of anyplace in the World where it has become the solution to Agriculture for an energy source.

 

[steve white]

@CowDoc Turning dirt and the smell of that fresh ploughed earth is amazing BUT driving around in ever decreasing circles is as boring as bat shit no mater what way you look at it. I've done my fair share to dislike it nowadays.
Bob

Yeah, but those ever decreasing circles as you are MOWING and almost at an agreed signal every rabbit, quail, armadillo, rat and any other critter go scattering out of the too small circle! A real unsuccessful rodeo if you had a shot gun slung over your back and tried to get it in action while the whole thing bucked to a stop.

 

[steve white]

My old Ag teacher always dreamed of putting a three cylinder tractor diesel motor in an old pickup. Might have been as good an idea as he thought it was....he never did it.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Because Diesel is for making power and gasoline is for washing parts.... Or so my brother says. In fact he was at a tractor pull where they had a rather mono-tone announcer so when my brother filled out his info sheet on his tractor that the announcer reads, he added than on the end.... The announcer read it verbatim

I told my brother he should have added "pause".

In all seriousness;
1. Agriculture runs on Diesel. And most of us keep many of those engines around a long time. It would be a monstrous task and extremely expensive to switch over.
2. Diesel makes more torque which is what pulls a plow. Horsepower wins Daytona.
3. Ethanol was never "the answer". Yes you can make fuel from crops and in fact ad much of the US corn crop goes to Ethanol as goes to livestock feed. But much like wind and solar, it never made sense in the US at least. It was all political to start. In the beginning I think it took as much energy to produce a gallon of Ethanol as it produced. Possibly more. Like wind and solar, nobody wanted to do ALL the math. It isn't just growing the crop. There is harvest, there transport from the field, drying the corn, storage (getting it in and out, construction of bins, etc.), transportation to the ethanol plant, running the plant. Transporting the ethanol. How about all the Natural gas it takes to make nitrogen to grow the corn? Ethanol production has gotten more efficient but it is still a supplemental fuel. I'm unaware of anyplace in the World where it has become the solution to Agriculture for an energy source.

Oh, I agree. I clean my dirt bike/ATV parts with kerosene and my old Ford F250 runs on diesel. However, my father in law's old Ford tractor/front loader runs on gas. I might be mistaken, but I believe the tractors in the early 1900s to '40s in the last century ran on gas, just like ALL of our military vehicles back then. Gas is a very inefficient fuel unlike diesel. But it doesn't freeze very readily either. I guess my point is, if they could have turbo charged gas powered tractors (we had them on aircraft) back in the day, it would've been an easy transition to using ethanol from corn today and since the farmers are growing it anyway, a cheap source of locally grown fuel? They could make it in their own copper stills and have enough left over for "white lightning"? LOL

 

[Safari Dave]

I cut my teeth on my dad's old 8N Ford. My brother and I nearly cried when he sold it.

He sold it and bought a Kubota (Can't recall the model number), but I know that it is difficult to find parts to fit. (needs a drive shaft to the front axel). I bush-hogged with it for two hours today... Therapy...



I just inherited a Ford 3000, but can't quite figure out what I want to do with it. I need a 4WD, because I work steep terrain.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Oh, I agree. I clean my dirt bike/ATV parts with kerosene and my old Ford F250 runs on diesel. However, my father in law's old Ford tractor/front loader runs on gas. I might be mistaken, but I believe the tractors in the early 1900s to '40s in the last century ran on gas, just like ALL of our military vehicles back then. Gas is a very inefficient fuel unlike diesel. But it doesn't freeze very readily either. I guess my point is, if they could have turbo charged gas powered tractors (we had them on aircraft) back in the day, it would've been an easy transition to using ethanol from corn today and since the farmers are growing it anyway, a cheap source of locally grown fuel? They could make it in their own copper stills and have enough left over for "white lightning"? LOL

Oh yeah, I once had the opportunity to look at a WW2 P47 Thunderbolt up close and even got to sit in the cockpit. Awesome! Anyway, when you open a compartment on the left rear of it, there's a GIANT turbo. I'll bet it's 18" around. If I had been an enterprising farmer/mechanic back in the day after the war was over and they were regrettably (Korean War proved that) dismantling prop driven aircraft, I would have "acquired" one of those turbos and see if I could have mounted it on a gas powered tractor. Maybe it wouldn't have worked but it would been worth a try.

 

[Safari Dave]

When you really do a deep-dive into WWII fighter planes, it is amazing at the technology they had then.

 

[Safari Dave]

Actually, IDK...

We couldn't even put a man on the moon now...



It's amazing that a lunar landing is to my kids, what the Holocaust was to me...



Both happened more than 20 years before our birth!

 

[CM McKenzie]

I cut my teeth on my dad's old 8N Ford. My brother and I nearly cried when he sold it.

He sold it and bought a Kubota (Can't recall the model number), but I know that it is difficult to find parts to fit. (needs a drive shaft to the front axel). I bush-hogged with it for two hours today... Therapy...



I just inherited a Ford 3000, but can't quite figure out what I want to do with it. I need a 4WD, because I work steep terrain.

I’m in the middle of rebuilding an old Ford 801 right now. I love that 8N platform.

 

[ActionBob]

What percentage of ALL these "older" tractors mentioned here were diesel versus gas? The reason I ask, is I have read where MANY/MOST of the tractors from the '30s-'50s were gas because the American oil companies back then knew how to produce one thing, "gasoline and lots of it"- unknown author. Look at our War Machine in WW2. ALL gasoline powered tanks, trucks, etc. Not a drop of diesel anywhere. Just curious.

John Deere at least had multiple fuel options in their 2 cylinder series of tractors. Including the popular "duel fuel" option where you started the tractor on gasoline then after it was warmed up, often accomplished by manually closing shutters in front of the radiator. Then you could switch it to "tractor fuel" which at the time was cheaper. Someone else may know more about this but I believe it was kerosene or close to it.

They also made gasoline only and Propane powered tractors.

See what I found below regarding their first successful diesel tractor. The R was replaced by the model 80 as well as the smaller but much more popular model 70 which was the "big" tractor my father and uncle had when I started to learn how to drive tractor (age 5, on a Farmal Cub). My brother owns a couple 70's. The 70 was replaced by the 720 which was replaced by 730. I have one of each of those. My brother also has an 820. An 830 is on my wish list. The 70 and it's successors were also available in gasoline and propane versions.

I believe that in addition to the challenges of engineering a reliable injection system for diesel fuel, even the basic starting was a challenge as diesel has much higher compression thus much harder to "turn over" the engine to get it started. Especially in cold weather.... so all the above models were available with a gasoline "pony start" engine... not every kid (or adult!) could start such a tractor They also had a compression release lever. If I could figure out how to post a video, I could show the process.

<After years of testing, Deere & Company released its first proper diesel engined tractor in 1949, the Model R. The R was also the first John Deere tractor with a live independent power take-off (PTO) equipped with its own clutch. The R also incorporated live hydraulics.>

In 1959 John Deere came out with a small diesel tractor as i mentioned in another thread and I think in this one. My favorite JD 435. The screaming little beast with a 2 cylinder 2 stroke supercharger fed Detroit GM Diesel

All this lead to the New Generation JD tractors with 3, 4, and 6 cylinder engines.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Oh yeah, I once had the opportunity to look at a WW2 P47 Thunderbolt up close and even got to sit in the cockpit. Awesome! Anyway, when you open a compartment on the left rear of it, there's a GIANT turbo. I'll bet it's 18" around. If I had been an enterprising farmer/mechanic back in the day after the war was over and they were regrettably (Korean War proved that) dismantling prop driven aircraft, I would have "acquired" one of those turbos and see if I could have mounted it on a gas powered tractor. Maybe it wouldn't have worked but it would been worth a try.

Funny you mention the P-47. I just took these at an air show today.