The Operation, Care and Repair of Farm Machinery

[Peanut]

Found this last night, published by John Deere. I think this belonged to my dad, he’d have been taking ag in school after ww2. This is the 22nd edition, published Jan of 1948, $30 on amazit, $15 on ebay. This was a series of books that began with the first John Deere tractors. They were random at first. Starting in 1934 with the 8th edition, they were printed almost every year into the 50’s. The book covers tractor and major implement repair.

The title is “The Operation, Care and Repair of Farm Machinery”. Might be handy if you have old farm equipment. There are many editions available spanning many years.

 

[Supervisor42]

Found this last night, published by John Deere. I think this belonged to my dad, he’d have been taking ag in school after ww2. This is the 22nd edition, published Jan of 1948, $30 on amazit, $15 on ebay. This was a series of books that began with the first John Deere tractors. They were random at first. Starting in 1934 with the 8th edition, they were printed almost every year into the 50’s. The book covers tractor and major implement repair.

The title is “The Operation, Care and Repair of Farm Machinery”. Might be handy if you have old farm equipment. There are many editions available spanning many years.

View attachment 105929View attachment 105930View attachment 105931View attachment 105932View attachment 105933

That is so cool! Nice to see the JD Model A in the pics (I actually owned one ).
It was a 'dual-fuel' machine. You started it on gasoline, closed the 'radiator shutter control' in front of the radiator to bring the engine temp up high and then switched it over to "tractor fuel" to do work.

Tractors designed for distillate could operate on gasoline, and were usually started with gasoline, but since they operated at a much lower compression ratio than gasoline-engined models, they developed less power on gasoline and had to be warmed up before they could switch to distillate. Compression ratios for distillate could be about 4.7:1, while gasoline engines would run at 7:1 or more. Such machines were provided with small gasoline tanks for starting and warming up. However, distillate was often substantially less expensive than gasoline in farming regions, either because it was a less-refined product or because it was taxed at a lower rate or untaxed.

321 cubic inches = 34 horsepower, we were awesome!!!

 

[Wingnut]

Cool book... unfortunately, here at the ol' hacienda, I AM the farm machinery, lol. Well, I have a weed whacker, maybe that qualifies, lol... everything else is manually operated.

Somehow that reminds me of the old joke about the president of Mexico: Manuel Labor!

And of course I'm a racist for saying this, lol...

I wonder if I'm any LESS of a racist if I do all the work here myself? Hmmmm...

 

[Bacpacker]

That is so cool! Nice to see the JD Model A in the pics (I actually owned one ).
It was a 'dual-fuel' machine. You started it on gasoline, closed the 'radiator shutter control' in front of the radiator to bring the engine temp up high and then switched it over to "tractor fuel" to do work.

321 cubic inches = 34 horsepower, we were awesome!!!

I love the old A's and B's. Even knew a couple old guys that farmed with G's. They had more land than we did.
Dad had a B. Uncle had a A and a B. Good old tractors. They are what I learned to farm with. I'd love to find one at a decent price. Nothin sounds any sweeter

 

[montanabill]

As a youth we had a john deere with the two tanks. It was a flywheel start two cylinder crawler. That is it had tracks on it for working the steep hilly orchards in eastern washington. I would do anything just slowly.

 

[Supervisor42]

I love the old A's and B's. Even knew a couple old guys that farmed with G's. They had more land than we did.
Dad had a B. Uncle had a A and a B. Good old tractors. I'd love to find one at a decent price. Nothin sounds any sweeter

You shoulda got to play with a Model R!
A diesel with 415 cubic-inches in 2 huge jugs.
We had one in the shop at trade school that the gasoline 'pony motor' (starting engine) had blown up on, and we were building an electric starter under it.
Since the pony motor was mounted to the top crankcase cover plate, we had it off too.
This tractor was one of those that you pushed the throttle against a spring up below idle to shut it down. When you released it, it popped back to 'idle'.

We were testing the starter motor, and to our surprise, it came to life!
Permanently etched in my brain, is watching those huge connecting-rods dancing in a circle tossing those huge pistons in and out of those huge jugs!
Cachunk, cachunk, cachunk!

 

[Bacpacker]

Wow that would be something to see

 

[Alaskajohn]

Great looking book!

 

[Spikedriver]

"Johnny Poppers" are quite popular where I grew up, along with the old Farmall, Allis Chalmers, and Oliver tractors. The old farts love to restore them. There are actually guys who have a side hustle, taking the old rust buckets and bringing them back to showroom condition. I had a roommate, back in the 90s, who was a John Deere mechanic. He found an old 40 somewhere and brought it back to life. Next he did a 50. It's like an addiction. We even have antique tractor rides, where people will get together and make a convoy, holding up traffic for miles.

@Peanut I'm surprised I've never seen one of those books before. Very cool!

 

[Peanut]

Was looking through the hay mower section last night. I still have a working sickle mower. Runs off pto/3-point hitch. It's amazing how little the basic function has changed through the decades.

Before the tornado of '74 we had 2 mowers like the photo at the bottom, horse drawn. Much of it including the axle housing was cast iron. Both were broken beyond repair in the nado. I still have the hay rake just like in the photo.

 

[Peanut]

Here's a pic of my old hay rake.

 

[Spikedriver]

We have one of the old drum style rakes out at the farm. It's ground driven and has steel wheels. We don't use it any more, my brother went half with another farmer on a wheel rake that works so much better. But those antique rakes are cool. Makes me think of the Amish implements...

 

[Bacpacker]

Was looking through the hay mower section last night. I still have a working sickle mower. Runs off pto/3-point hitch. It's amazing how little the basic function has changed through the decades.

Before the tornado of '74 we had 2 mowers like the photo at the bottom, horse drawn. Much of it including the axle housing was cast iron. Both were broken beyond repair in the nado. I still have the hay rake just like in the photo.

View attachment 105960View attachment 105961View attachment 105962

I've got a similar rake and mower

 

[Supervisor42]

I just gotta wonder how far a 'gen-z' would make it, taking this JD-50 thru the gears:

 

[Bacpacker]

Even if they can drive a straight shift, I wonder how many could find the clutch

 

[Peanut]

I remember being asked as a teen "can you drive a straight shift?" Just laughed and thought... I grew up driving tractors w/10 speed transmissions. Guess my answer should have been yes.

 

[Spikedriver]

I just gotta wonder how far a 'gen-z' would make it, taking this JD-50 thru the gears:
View attachment 105979

That right there is a millenial/gen z anti theft device...

 

[Peanut]

I just gotta wonder how far a 'gen-z' would make it, taking this JD-50 thru the gears:
View attachment 105979

Was looking at that shift pattern, a really bad place for reverse. I'd have hated it. I understand why they did it, still wouldn't have liked it. The reverse gear would grind every time I shifted between 1st n 2nd or first and third.

Come to think of it, I never liked the shifting on a jd4020 either.

 

[Spikedriver]

@Peanut that ol' Synchro-Mesh 8 speed on a 4020 might have been a little grindy when you shift, but I bet you never broke one! I know that old 4020 out at Pops's place survived all the abuse I could throw at it. That 6 to 8 shift could be a bearcat under a heavy load. The 4 to 7 shift wasn't that much fun either!

 

[FarmOR]

I scored about a four thousand dollar discount on my loader tractor because the original numbers were worn off the shift z-gate and someone had incorrectly written them on with a sharpie. The dealer assumed the transmission was having problems!

 

[joel]

Was looking through the hay mower section last night. I still have a working sickle mower. Runs off pto/3-point hitch. It's amazing how little the basic function has changed through the decades.

Before the tornado of '74 we had 2 mowers like the photo at the bottom, horse drawn. Much of it including the axle housing was cast iron. Both were broken beyond repair in the nado. I still have the hay rake just like in the photo.

View attachment 105960View attachment 105961View attachment 105962

I have the horse drawn Mower & the hay rake in the bottom photo.