If you just read my post about the 730, then know that the 630 is the little brother to the 730. It came in only two fuel types–“all-fuel”, which is for lower-grade fuels, and gasoline. This machine is a gasoline only model, 1958 model year.
The 630 was the direct replacement for the “Model A”. I’ve always enjoyed the A, and the 630 is basically a late-style A.
In this video I’m taking a hay bale over to the beef cattle with our custom made bale feeder. It’s a conversion from an old round bale bagger (which would put the round bales into plastic sacks).
The 730 Diesel is a pretty impressive machine. It was Deere’s largest row-crop two-cylinder, and also happened to be the last series to feature the two-cylinder before their introduction of the “New Generation” machines in 1960. The 730 was about the same size as the 3010, which according to Deere literature at the time, was its direct replacement.
Driving a 730 Diesel is unlike any other machine, before or since (with the exception of the 720). This particular machine is a direct-drive electric start. The 720, which was a near-identical model before it, had more pony engine starters than electric starters. The Pony, or cranking engine, was a small gas engine that you would start up first, which would then be used to turn over the large diesel engine. The electric starters were large 24 volt starting systems.
Since not everyone will have an opportunity to drive a 730 Diesel, I thought I’d share this video to replicate the experience as well as I can.
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog last. Basically, as far as farming goes, my spring/summer can be summarized as the following.
The first project was the restoration of the 1957 John Deere 420 Utility. I went to Utah and picked up another 420 parts tractor. I was pretty fortunate to stumble across one online for a good price, so I jumped at the opportunity to take it. I brought it home, and used it to fix my current 420 utility. They were both the same year, too, so it worked pretty well.
After that, the crank of my 1959 John Deere 630 was finally fixed. I brought it home too, but then had the 420 project come up, so I spent time getting that done instead. Once I was finished with the 420, I spent some time working on the 630 and was able to get it working as well. The 630 project was completed after spring planting and alfalfa cultivating, which cut into the projects time, but was a priority.
Afterwords, it rained. It rained and it rained. The good thing was, we never had to use the sprinklers for first crop. It did stop raining, and instantly went to very hot/dry temperatures, so I was able to cut the alfalfa with the John Deere 4230 and 945 MoCo (mower conditioner, aka swather). We then waited about 3/4th of a week, then raked the hay. I used the newly restored 420 Utility for most of the raking–and it worked great! It was fun spending some seat time on a machine that I spent so much time with the restoration process.
After the raking came the baling. With all the rain we had, there was a very good high yield of bales. The yield was much higher than last year. I used the JD 4640 and Hesston 4790 3×4 big baler for the baling.
Anyway, that about sums it up. I’ll post some videos here and in future posts. Enjoy.
Where we’ve received a lot of snow the past few days, I used it as an excuse to get some seat time on the G by making a little road though the field to feed the cattle with. I think it did a pretty good job–even if it did snow a lot the following night… Guess I’ll have to do it again. If you get bored, there’s GoPro footage at the end. There’s no sound because the sound wasn’t worth including.
This video shows some hay (alfalfa) being hauled with a 1950 John Deere Model G. The model G was the largest row-crop John Deere at the time, with more CI displacement than even the 4020 at 412 (vs 404, but not near the horse power). The G was replaced by the 70, which was replaced by the popular 720 and 730 series of John Deere two-cylinder tractors. The other tractor in the video is a John Deere 4020, which loaded the bales.
Taking the tractors out for a nice winter stroll is a lot of fun–especially when you are able to take more than one out at a time! Here’s a video I shot of the John Deere Model A and Model 630. I was riding the A (same tractor that I restored), so the video mostly shows the 630.
Enjoying a hobby in old tractors means more than just tinkering and working on them. It means taking them out for a ride! Here’s a video I took while on the 1959 John Deere 630 while going over the dry farm.
Update: I also recorded a video that’s similar, but with the A and 630, on New Years Day.
This year I took the opportunity to have a little fun with planting oats in one of our smaller fields. I used the 1947 John Deere Model A that I recently restored, as well as our old grain drill (aka planter, late 1950s). It may not have been the quickest way to plant the oats, but I, and the dogs, had a lot of fun doing it!
The three videos here show us getting the drill ready and making sure everything on it works. The second video shows the John Deere 4230 disking the field. Last year we used the Model A as well as the John Deere 2010 to plow the field. Since it was plowed last fall, you disk it before you plant it to break up the larger chunks into a more fine powder, so the drill can do accurately seed the crop. The final video shows the actual planting process.
less than 18 months ago this tractor was a ‘fence line tractor’. I dragged it down to the barn and the engine, brakes, and clutch were seized up. The radiator cap was gone and the cooling system was completely full a junk. A mouse nest was in one of the cylinders… I looked it over and almost gave up. I never thought that in this short amount of time not only would I have it running (and well too!), but pulling a plow!
This is a video of my restored 1947 John Deere A pulling a wagon loaded with 3×3 straw bales (1/2 ton alfalfa sized). Although we have newer and more appropriate tractors for such a task, it is fun to see the A that I worked so hard on over the past year doing some real work. Not to mention that it sounds good too! I can’t begin to describe how much work, time, and effort has gone into getting it where it is now. Even though she isn’t painted nor the most pretty tractor, it is much further ahead then I thought it would be at this point. When I pulled it out from its resting place (where it had been as long as I can remember) a year ago I told myself that I would work on it ‘a little here, and a little there’ and that it would take about ten years to complete. I never would have imagined that I would have it to the point where it is currently at only a year later. The list of things that were wrong with it include a locked-up motor, seized up brakes, rotted rims, missing carburator, no front tires, rotted/leaking water return pipe, rotten/gone mag, rusted valves, completely-filled with debris cooling system (hadn’t had a cap on the radiator in years), and on and on! It also had a mouse nest in one of the cylinders! It had been sitting out for as long as I can remember–so when I brought it home I looked at it and asked myself, “what have I done getting myself into such a project!”. Needless to say, now that it is starting to bear some fruit from my labors, it makes it all worth it. Plus it’s been fun, too!