Tractors (real ones)

[yackee]

I had the great pleasure, unexpected, to get to drive a 1950s John Deere Model 70 tractor this weekend. A friend of a friend had a 900-acre hilltop spread in tiny Hillsboro WI. His "shed" had an aircraft-hangar door on one end and was bigger than my house. The shed contained numerous antique tractors in various states of repair, a at least four mid-century Deeres. They had one half-apart; the PO had mis-timed it after a rebuild, and the pistons had smacked the valves, leaving very neat half-circle dents in the piston crowns and bending the pushrods.

Sometimes I hear the old Guzzi Tontis described as "agricultural", but I've got to say, they are soooo much smoother and refined than the Deere 70! It is started by a "pony motor", which I had never heard of before--a separate gas motor used to start the two-cylinder flat diesel and its gigantic flywheel. The racket that those engines made when running together was almost unbearable. It was only slightly better when the gas engine was shut off, leaving just the pinging of the main engine. Well over 100 db I would guess. Old-time farmers must have been near deaf by the time they retiredThe clutch was a gigantic lever that you threw forward to engage; the brake was a pad that pressed against a gigantic exposed spinning cylinder. I chugged along at full power (1000 RPMs) for about five minutes, bouncing over the field. It was almost relaxing, given the tremendous "white noise" from the banging diesel and the not-too-violent rocking back and forth. .

Anyway, I'll no longer call my T3 a "tractor" after having ridden a real one...

Jason

[Kent in Upstate NY]

I have a modern  Kubota that while more refined than  the Deere is still loud as heck and just as bone shaking.

[Sheepdog]

The fellow who introduced me to Guzzis had a late forties �Johnny-Popper.� His pony Motor was run by kerosene (I believe that is what he said) and it had an exposed flywheel for running implements by leather belt! He had restored it and drove it up and down the bosque (the cottonwood trees around the Rio Grande) just South of Albuquerque for grins. Some of you around Chattanooga, Tennessee or Albuquerque, New Mexico may remember him. His name was Bob Steen and he was a regular at the Datil Rally back in the nineties. We lost him a few years back, but not before he and I did a great deal of riding in NM, CO, TN, KY, GA, and NC. The photo below is from a Class C race we attended shortly before his death. A navy corpsman in Vietnam Nam, his nickname was BRO. Not like �brother,� but an acronym: Big Red Orangutan. An extraordinary guy...who really loved his red Mille.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I saw a couple of "real" tractors yesterday in the back lot of a dealership while out riding my Guzzi.

Big Deutz with steel wheels, previous owner was Amish obviously.




Nuffield 460 (built by Morris Motors in the UK)




Deutz D30. Want, want, want, want... 

[Seventy One]

Pony motors sure sound neat. They're actually V-4's with aluminum rods and run at 5,500 rpm. The contrast between them and the giant parallel diesel twins is incredible. My friend has a dozen or so of these on his farm. He still farms with 'em.

My Dad collected 2 cylinder Deeres and at one point had 19 of them. The ones he sought out and bought had the more desirable electric start. He had to drive to Canada to get his 830 Diesel wide front. That was a big tractor for this area and few were sold here.

My favorite was the '36 A which was started by grabbing the flywheel and spinning it with your hands. The oil pressure gauge was a bobber in the floor. If it was up, you had oil pressure. If it wasn't, you didn't.

730 start-up video. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veOcZjuQoko

 

[rider33]

my '52 8N, doesn't get much realer than that:
[img width= height= alt=GEgh4O.jpg]https://vgy.me/GEgh4O.jpg[/img]
Henry fighting his board decided to make a machine that would
revolutionize farming the way his Model T did autos, move it
from the wealthy to the everyman.  My grandfather traded a
team of mules for one in '48, it helped him to put 4 kids all
the way thru school.  'Great old tractor that's apt to outlive
me and by a considerable margin.

[craigclu]

Audiologists that see a specific wave length in hearing loss can easily diagnose that their patient spent time on a John Deere 2 cylinder....

[Aaron D.]

Ford 8 and variants sure were well distributed, I think it's the first tractor I drove.

Pony engines-they were in big Allison Diesels too, those are singles with a hand crank. Kicked back on occasion!

So the old Deeres-were they Diesel or were they like the "oil" engines in the Lanz Bulldog?

[rdbandkab]

Karen and I have been exposed to a few tractors in the last year or so.   Probably something to do with my obsession with hit and miss engines..

My favorite tractor.   Plow the land and take the gang to church on Sunday!

[Toecutter]

I've got two tractors... but nothing that old.


One's a mid-70s Case 644... fantastic little rig. Kohler 14hp engine, great little workhorse. Been hunting for the backhoe attachment for it (gonna cost me as much as the tractor when I finally find it).


The second is a BCS 749. Beautiful machine. You want Italian engineering? BCS is it. Simplifies the garage gadgets in a huge way.

(edited for atrocious typos)

[Rough Edge racing]

 My neighbor has about 12 JD and Farmall vintage tractors. 4  of them are set up for "stock" pulling classes. He also just got a JD two cylinder Diesel with a pony engine...The John Deere Diesel is a true Diesel...He has a Furgeson out for sale right now, looks like a Ford N tractor. This agricultural town seems every vintage tractor known ...We had a 2N Ford and original Dearborn  2 bottom plow for quite a few years....Now we have a 1981 Kubota 4x4 compact Diesel tractor that is more useful for us..

[Testarossa]

my '52 8N, doesn't get much realer than that:

I learned to drive on an 8N. It had a weird X-pattern gearshift lever and I think the rear brakes were independently controlled by two pedals under the right foot. There are still thousands of them around, and working -- I see them all over the place.

[sidecarnutz]

This thread is making my 90's Craftsman Lawn Tractor jealous.

[Rough Edge racing]

 Some of my neighbors stuff...They all run and some are used for pulling competition

       


  He's asking $1000 for this Ferguson...It runs well but smokes, has the two speed auxiliary gear box

   
     

[dguzzi]

You guys would like Stiener tractor...with videos "Wrenching with Rachel"  better than youtube !!