What's the story on 4030s?

rockyridgefarm

Well-known Member
Hey all,

From what I've read searching the archives on here, the 4030 wasn't really a bad tractor, it was just considered underpowered as compared to a 4020. But some old literature I have shows it replaced the 3020, not the 4020. I figure it got a bad image because people asked too much of it and abused it.

Grandpa had one with SG cab and synchro. I never thought of it as a poochy tractor because his other two tractors were a 3010D and a 3020D and all of his equipment matched those tractors. I didn't care too much for the synchro in a SG cab, though, only because dad has a 4430 with quad range, not because it was a bad transmission.

If someone had one and expected to use it as an 80 hp tractor and not a 95-100 hp tractor, is it an acceptable unit? I'm looking for a planting, cultivating, raking, bopping around the farm tractor. No heavy tillage and no heavy wagon pulling.
 
I have a 4030 with over 12000 hrs on it.It has been an excellent tractor.The biggest problem with them was cavitation of sleves.If antifrese was kept changed with additive you had no problem. Over all an excellent tractor. Lloyd
 
Additive is at the JD house in a pint. Directions are on the back. Seems you need to use the right amount, not too little and not too much. Seems too much is as bad as too little.

I use it in all my tractors even though all are diesels and none are sleeved.

Mark
 
(quoted from post at 09:29:08 12/14/13) Additive is at the JD house in a pint. Directions are on the back. Seems you need to use the right amount, not too little and not too much. Seems too much is as bad as too little.

I use it in all my tractors even though all are diesels and none are sleeved.

Mark

Ford tractors don't have sleeves and are prone to cyl wall cavitation. I own a Ford tractor that had a crate motor in when I bought due to cavitation.
 
Cavitation is a common problem, and there are many different ideas on the control of it,, and just as many out comes, The 4030's were a bit light in the frame rails, and this was only a problem when they had a loader mounted on them, where they bolted to the clutch housing was not a good idea along with that style engine not having side frame bolt bosses in them, the engines were fine, the drive lines were fine,, a very good "light" duty tractor,, and just because the "looked" like their bigger brothers did not mean that they would preform the same tasks,, they are much better than the troublesome utility tractors that were produced at the same time. The 4030's were a very good chore tractor, and great for hay operations, we sold a lot of them at our old dealership, and most of them are still around here, preforming the same duty as they have since the day I unloaded them off the delivery truck.
 
A lot of answering your own questions going on.
I never knew anyone who tried to compare a 4030 to a 4020.
You're not going to tear up the tractor from "heavy wagon pulling". That would have more to do with tractor weight. Of course speed would be limited by power.
I was always amazed about the guys who liked synchros in 3020, 4020, 4620 etc. but wouldn't consider one in 30 series tractors. There are several jobs that synchros are better than quads. Plus that is one less thing to worry about going bad in an old tractor.
Changing antifreeze each year helped with the cavitation problem but again an old tractor might already have cavitation.
As far as 4030 problems there were several that broke the fronts of the transmission cases. I don't know the cause but there were more that didn't.
My biggest objection was AC on top of engine instead of the side.
 
Yes the AC compressor was mounted in a flimsy way,, it was just part of the Dubuque design,, that part of the John Deere Company was not in tune with the better ideas of the Waterloo division..Unfortunately...
 
(quoted from post at 08:57:37 12/14/13)
I was always amazed about the guys who liked synchros in 3020, 4020, 4620 etc. but wouldn't consider one in 30 series tractors. There are several jobs that synchros are better than quads.

Name a job where a synchro is better'n a quad. A synchro is a good transmission. A Quad is a synchro with an extra clutch pack, giving the tractor twice as many speed options. There are no jobs a synchro can do better.

You are right that it's one less thing to go wrong on a 30 plus year old tractor. Still, the quad range is more useful.
 
I agree with you rockyridgefarm, the extra speeds make for a nice way to deal with different jobs,, and the High/low planetary gives very little problems,, even after 30 years or so of service,, I rarely have one in here for a failure in that area,,when they were offered it was a bit cheaper on the invoice,,and at that time a lot of old Farmers were apprehensive about a hydraulic shift, due in part to all the bad publicity of the old Ford power shift nightmares...
 
I wouldn't consider the synchro in the 30 series because the console shifter for the synchro was a malfunction. The dash shifter on the 20 series was great but something terrible happened when it was moved to the console. Even with few hours gear cross-up was a real problem for the console synchro shifter with a driver who wasn't a JD synchro guru.
 
Between a 3020 and 4020 for power.The 404 in the 4230 seemed to have a little more than most 4020s.Still many around just have to be satisfied with 80+ H.P.They should have called them a 3030 and people would not have expected them to replace the 4020.I know guys that have have had many years of service at minimal cost.
 
Thanks for all the good replies.

Tim,

You say they're too light for heavy loader work. How about a 6 row front mount cultivator?
 
Our neighbor bought a new 4030 when they first came out. It was the first gen2 tractor I had seen. It was claimed to be the replacement for the 3020. It was open station and he had a Deere loader on it. He did not use it for heavy loader work but traction was lacking. He was always spinning the wheels. The only time it was in the field was when it pulled the square baler, the rest of the time it did loader work. A couple of years after he bought it a sleeve cracked but that's about the only trouble he had with it. He sold it on his farm sale and whoever bought it got a good, lightly used tractor. Jim
 
I was working for a Deere dealer when the 4030 was
new. The BIG problem was the model name. Many
people assumed that the 4030 was the next version of
a 4020. That makes sense and was the usual Deere
format and calling it a 4030 was very misleading and
ridiculous. A 4020 has a Waterloo engine with a 404
diesel or a 340 gas A 4030 came with a Dubuque 300
series engine with a 329 diesel or a 303 gas.
 
I replaced a 3020 with a 4030, and never looked
back. That tractor became our big one for a few
years as I was building, and did anything we asked
of it at the time. The quad was a huge
improvement over the synchro, and the overall
machine was much more than a 2520- even though I
have to admit, I still have the 2520. The only
reason the 4030 got traded was for the loader. I
moved to a 4x, and it got caught up in the trade,
or it might still be around. I used it to cut and
bale hay, plant and do most of the chores we do.
Overall, great mid-sized tractor. And, if I spot
one at a sale, I may just get another....
 

Our elderly neighbor to the east farmed 160 acres with a 4030 for a loooong time. That and a 730 gas. The only 2 tractors I ever remember him having. He even had a little Deere 5 shank disc chisel that I would love to try and pull with my 830...

Adrian
 
Loader work. Any other work where you have to open gates getting in and out. Only one stick to contend with. Quads are better suited for field work where you can benefit from more speeds.
 
You mean select-o-matic? That fear should have been eliminated by Deere's power shift long before 30 series tractors. They might have been fearful because of IHs TA.
I have had to redo several hi-lo units over the years. Tho not as serious a fix the most common problem was that Mickey Mouse clamp on the side.
Price seemed to be the biggest incentive for synchros. You see more in the South than here.
They still are handier for loader work and barn lot work where you have to get on and off than having to work with two sticks.
 
You are right there. I was never a Dubuque fan. They were not as good in the two cylinder days or anytime since.
 
You mean 3020 don't you? I think they share some tran parts? Most had 3020 size axles tho they were also available with 2510/2520 sized axles. I can't think of anything else common to 2520 that wasn't common to 3020.
 
That was a question I had for a long time and never got an
answer. Was it due to sleeves, long hours/thousands of miles for
OTR trucks, or nature of the diesel engine? Never heard about it
with gassers. So for a non-sleeved diesel vs a non-sleeved
gasser, how does the cooling system know what kind of fuel is
used?

Answer: I think someone said something about it being
compression related. Well with no back up to the blerb from that
respondent, just mind telling me how the cooling system knows
that the compression is 16:1 rather than 7:1? Sounds like some
more old wives tales or coffee shop BS from the local know it all
self appointed point of information. If you disagree that he
knows it all, just ask him. Have one of them next door.

Mark
 
A friend and his father bought an early 4430 with a syncro range transmission. The syncro worked fine in my opinion, except one fall I had a heck of a time shifting it, so one day I oiled the crap out of the shifter (an open station with a roll bar) and it worked great again. He agreed it shifted vastly better, but then he chewed me out because some of the oil leaked out on the axle.
 
(quoted from post at 14:39:25 12/14/13) Loader work. Any other work where you have to open gates getting in and out. Only one stick to contend with. Quads are better suited for field work where you can benefit from more speeds.

Setting aside the fact that a skid steer is far better for loader work in most situations, the quad range is still better (though not as good as a power shift). The Synchro pretty much allows you two gearing options forward and reverse(3, 1r and 5, 2r) with one clutching. The quad gives you three ranges with two gears for one clutching (a1, a2, a1r, a2r, b1, b2, b1r, b2r, c1, c2, c1r, c2r), and faster shifting between ranges. The extra 2 seconds it takes to shift a quad into park is well worth having the ability to go a bit faster in the field with the option to drop a gear when the going gets tough.

There's only 1 reason to by a synchro range in a 30 series - they're cheaper.

We're gonna have to just disagree on this one.
 
Thanks all for the good input so far.

Is there an advantage to getting a 1977 model over a 1973? I know the seat is supposed to be better, but what else?

I'd pry end up trying to find a quad range open station with 16.9-38 inch rubber.
 
I have to disagree. I have a dozen synco tractors and bought a 4230 with a quad and I have to say I hate that shifter. I would much sooner run a syncro.But I do love the sound guard cab with heat and air.I wanted a 4030 when I found this low hour 4230.For what you want you will like a 4030.
 
(quoted from post at 07:56:43 12/15/13) What was the big difference in a 4030 and a 2840?

A LOT. 2840 was built as a utility tractor on "steroids" while the 4030 was a rowcrop tractor. The hyd systems of each although were closed center were totally different. I had several 2840's have severe hyd failures while they were in warranty. One 2840 that I remember required a trans case be replaced under warranty because the hyd pto clutch came apart. 2840's were known as very hard to get engine started because of hyd drag on starter. If a loader was mounted on a 2840 mounting brackets to rear axle were needed to support the clutch housing to prevent it from cracking/breaking.
 
One observation. The cavitation seems to always be on the same side of the block. Early 4020 blocks had very little cavitation problems. Later 4020 blocks were narrowed and had more cavitation on that side. Usually gases are smaller bore than diesel engines with the same sized block.
Then with 466 engines even less coolant area on that side and much more cavitation problems.
With 300 series the 219 seemed to be much worse than the 202.
Just seems less coolant area might have something to do with the cavitation. Maybe as much as all the theories you've heard.
 
That is a correct theory,, and the thicker liners made it take longer for them to erode,,yes it always seems like the one ,and same side of the liners take more of a beating,,seems like the front side, even tho the water is inducted through the left side of the block.
 
(quoted from post at 10:46:20 12/15/13) One observation. The cavitation seems to always be on the same side of the block. Early 4020 blocks had very little cavitation problems. Later 4020 blocks were narrowed and had more cavitation on that side. Usually gases are smaller bore than diesel engines with the same sized block.
Then with 466 engines even less coolant area on that side and much more cavitation problems.
With 300 series the 219 seemed to be much worse than the 202.
Just seems less coolant area might have something to do with the cavitation. Maybe as much as all the theories you've heard.

If owners and operators would read and follow the operator's manual. Then test and change/add additive as instructed. There would be far fewer sleeve failures.
 
(quoted from post at 13:50:03 12/15/13)
If owners and operators would read and follow the operator's manual. Then test and change/add additive as instructed. There would be far fewer sleeve failures.

b&d
Most customers I sold new equipment to back when I worked for a JD dealer never read the operators manual.
 
Back in the 70's I had a new 4230 open station come in for a bad fuel gauge, the customer pulled it into the shop, and got off of it,, I got on and pulled the lever to tilt the steer wheel out of the way and he looked at me in amazement and said "How did you do that",, I showed him the latch and how it worked,, and he said I always thought that wheel was too low but didn't know it was adjustable....He ran it all summer that way....
 
Add to Tx Jims reply.
Operator comfort, inferior transmission w/inferior hi-lo, inferior brakes, and a rockshaft housing that was known to break.
All that being said, some seemed to last a long time.
 
Were there upgrades done throughout the run that would make a 1977 model 4030 (or the 4230, 4430, 4630 for that matter) more desirable or reliable versus a 1973, 74, 75, 76?
 
We used to joke one of my college classmates wore
John Deere pants... the size was 40x30.... we
called em 4030s.


I know, bad joke.
 
(quoted from post at 22:45:06 12/15/13) Were there upgrades done throughout the run that would make a 1977 model 4030 (or the 4230, 4430, 4630 for that matter) more desirable or reliable versus a 1973, 74, 75, 76?

The rear axle planet pinion carrier & shaft were updated at SN 004241 on a 4030
 

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