JD H - First tractor I ever operated. Loved pulling the flywheel through to get her going. Loved the barking little 2 banger. Hated that goofy 1 bottom plow that you raised and lowered with a long hand lever. Have forgotten whether it had a PTO or not. Think it might've. It did have a belt drive takeoff. My Dad used it to drive a couple of old wood planers he had. Planed a lot of wood with the old H banging away. 3 forward speeds seemed enough for what we did then. Brakes were always an issue. Our 40 was pretty rough. The guy I worked for on my very first job had one in showroom condition (did they have showrooms for those things?); but ours ran alot better. Dad knew magnetos cold.
JD40 narrow front replaced the H. Still got it. Up until last year, it was A#1 on reliability. It would always start and always get the job done, albeit slowly. Amazing versatility for a tractor this small and low powered. 4 speeds forward with this one...but often an arm wrestling match to change gears. Reverse was usually a fight. Clutch was very grabby. 6 volt system was poor, but all it took to go to 12 volts was a new battery, different bulbs in the lights, and a 12 volt coil as I recall. Great tractor for raking hay but power steering would've made it better. Our first 3pt. hitch...and it was a good one. Very easy on fuel and will run on almost anything. When the premix got too old to be trusted in the outboards or the chainsaws, the 40 would lap it up.
Late sixties Ford 2000 supplemented the JD40 when we got 50 acres. Still got the 2000. 3 cylinder gas engine with 4 forward speeds. Good, tough little tractor with plenty of power; maybe too much. Sort of an 8N on steroids. Both brakes are on the right side where they belong. First gear was not low enough so couldn't use the power effectively in many cases. Also had traction problems but filling the rears would've helped. When the going got tough, the engine would never slow down, you'd just lose traction and watch the wheels spin. Replacement carburetors are very expensive. Has a bad tendency to collect grass clippings, leaf fragments, whatever in the elbow at the bottom of the gas tank eventually reducing fuel flow to virtually nil. Every couple of years it would die in the middle of a job and have to be cleaned out. Elbow was hard to get to. Transmission PTO made bushhogging interesting at times. Manual steering made it tiring. Tractor will work all day on only 2 or 3 gallons of gas. Probably our least reliable tractor, but only due to minor things.
'74 Ford 4000 diesel started life as the power unit for the neighbor's self propelled string bean picker. The bean picker wore out somewhere around 2000 hours and was scrapped but the 4000 was rescued and reassembled as a tractor. My Dad got it with about 2800 hours on it and spent 6 weeks stopping all the leaks. It was kinda rough but a good runner. Lotsa guts, lotsa gears (8!) and dripping with luxury (power steering and independent PTO). However no 3pt. hitch arms and no fenders. Installed a set of TSC hitch arms that work great. Tractor is a real sweetheart, but it should have been built with glow plugs. Below 50 degrees it doesn't want to start, below 30 degrees it needs ether. Have to keep adding power steering fluid, but that's the only serious leak right now. Another fuel sipper; surprising for how powerful it is. Very reliable until the mice ate the wiring. Seems fine now that I've rewired it.
Oh yeah, there was a JD60 in the barn for a few years. It worked pretty well but drank fuel like mad if you worked it. Had the compression release petcocks....cool. Sitting up the way that thing did, it was scary on the hills. I miss its bark, but was glad to see it go.
The JD40 and the 2000 will be sold, hopefully next year. Would like to get an M-series Kubota, maybe an
M6800 for haying. But right at the moment I could keep something like a
B3030 alot busier than an M-series. I'll probably keep the Ford 4000 and my Kubota
L4300 forever.
Bob
