J-D 1010

pfoxy · Mar 20, 2002

Love them "pony start" Deeres. I'd give my left, um.... "appendage" for an 820 or 830 pup start. The later electric direct starts were okay once they got the system figured out, and they eliminated the maintenance on the pony engine. Dang near as expensive to rebuild a pony engine as it is to rebuild the main.../w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Electric start is not nearly as manly as the pony tho /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

vutch · Mar 20, 2002

Yeah, maintenance was one of the drawbacks of the pony. And yeah, once they did some work on electric start (as well as made diesel engines themselves easier starting) it was the way to go. I doubt anyone nowdays wishes they had a pony on their new Deere! But at the time they were probably the best answer, and darn cool to boot! Of course they weren't designed to last like the rest of the tractor, and nowdays it's hard to find a good one and harder to find parts to fix a not so good one. I have heard of someone adapting a Briggs (or something) in place of the pony on an old diesel (I think it was on a 70, but I'm not sure). I haven't actually seen it, though.

P.S. I agree that the 820/830 rank near the top of my list of coolest tractors ever!