# John Deere Two Cylinder Tractors



## catmando

I worked on a farm for a couple of summers that had a 730 diesel. I really fell in love with that tractor. I think that John Deere missed a good bet by not keeping it. 

This farm used to swap work with dad. Kind of adopted him when their father died. One summer we put the 4 row cultivator on our B John Deere to cultivate corn and sugar beets. The B used to go through about 15 gallons of gas in a good day. The next year put the cultivator on the 730. It would use about 5 to 7 gallons of fuel to do the same work.

The other observation says something about an engine that is running at its torque peak rather than at its hp peak. We were filling silo and decided to use a gas powered 2020 John Deere to run the silo filler. The 730 was used to shuttle the wagons to and from the corn field. Both tractors were about the same hp, ie 55 - 58. 

I noticed that when the 2020 would get a slug of corn that it would start lugging down, and there wouldn't be enough air to keep the corn blowing up the pipe. So the corn would fall to the bottom of the pipe and plug the blower.

I switched and put the 730 on the filler. When It would get a slug of corn it would just work a little harder without slowing down and the pipe wouldn't plug.

Since the 730 was running at the torque peak it didn't have to slow down to get to the peak. Therefore it could pull through better. 

The philosophy on the new tractors is to get the hp through RPM. Forgetting that it is the torque that is the force to pull the load.


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## MowHoward2210

Interesting story and observations, catmando. HP has always in the forefront when *torque * is actually a better measure of work.


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## Ingersoll444

A lot like my old Gravelys. Yup "only" 6.6hp. OMG torque that will pull a house down though. Old tech, was not always bad. High HP motors have there place, but nothing like the grunt from a oldtech,long arm, heavy flywheel, chunk of iron.


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## MowHoward2210

Here's a pic of a very nice JD 730 Diesel.


<img src=http://www.tractorforum.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=72102>


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## MowHoward2210

Sorry, I don't. I got the 20kb pic here.


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## catmando

Interesting thing. Heard it in relation to plowing, but holds true for all work. On the average it used to take 1.5 gallons of gas to plow an acre of land. It didn't matter if you were using a single bottom, or multiple bottoms, enough power to move at 1 mph or 5 mph!

Goes right back to the physics I learned as an engineer, " no matter the path you take from the start point to the finish point it takes the same amount of work to get there".

Yes silo filling is like snow blowing, both cases are running a blower.


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## catmando

*Hey Mow nice picture*

Would I love to sit on the seat of that 730. Pulling 4 16s in the spring. The smell of the freshly turned earth. The sound of the tractor working! The feel of that two lung power!

Driving into the country I sometimes see a farmer working in the field. Sometimes it is almost more than I can resist to stop and volunteer to drive for awhile.


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## Greg

Tom,

Here's a bigger one for ya!

<img src=http://www.tractorforum.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=74389>


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## catmando

*730 John Deere*

That is the exact model that I fell in love with Greg!


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## slipshod

*horse power*

A fine example of a hard working machine that does not have much horse power is a Farmall Cub, just over ten H.P. on a good day and they work like the dickens!


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## Live Oak

On Classic Tractor on RFD TV tonight, they showed a running John Deere 830 which was the largest and most powerful of the 2 cylinder Deeres built at 472 cubic inches and 81 pto hp. Talk about a mega thumper!  This one had the electric start instead of the pony motor start.


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## bontai Joe

I've probably told this story somewhere here before, but its worth telling again here. Every summer I used to go to the Flemington NJ Ag Fair on Farmer's Day to watch the local farmers (including my neighbor) at the tractor pulls. One year in the late 1980s. in the lightest weight class (I believe it was 3000 pounds and under< but I could be off a little) a lot of the tractors were small Fords, Kubotas, Massey Fergusons and other small utility tractors used on the large estates that were spring up at the time. You had to see the majority of these machines, they were all shiny, never used on a farm for plowing, and among these was one little John Deere 2 cylinder from the 1930s (unstyled) with a local farmer's wife driving. She hooked up and that engine just popped along........ the weight slid up the trailer and that engine never changed rythm, just popped louder........ weight creeped........ popped louder. She won by pulling over 50 feet further than any of the new pretty diesels. That monsterous amount of torque and big flywheel sure made a difference.


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## zed59

I have been looking for a 42' JD model B which is a hand cranker; but found a 52' with electric start it has two levers on the stalk next to the steering wheel instead of one. I know this is common on the later A's and B's but I don't know what the second lever does. I know this will be a rather silly question to all of you 2 cylinder enthusiasts; but, I just thought I would ask. When I first looked at it I new the one lever was the throttle and thought the second activated the choke, but it clearly has a additional choke pull.


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## ben70b

Shutters


Would you rather pay a buck for a burger or eat a free sh!t sandwich?


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## ben70b

Originally it would have a set of shutters in front of the radiator, u would use the other lever on that pedestal to crack the shutters open or closed to control the engine temperature while operating


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## ben70b

So post some pics of that '52 A please!


Would you rather pay a buck for a burger or eat a free sh!t sandwich?


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