your favorite 2 cylinder

swindave

Member
hey, what your favorite 2 cylinder deere, be it one you own, or want to own,
or one you used or just one you always wanted!
mine would be a 730 , nf, electric start with fenders, i dont own one, but my dad and grandpa each had one
i have a 1949 model a and a 1959 530, and i like them all
 
I don't own any 2 cylinders but I can say without a doubt that my favorite is the 630. My maternal grandfather had a 70 row crop gas so that would be second. Would not mind having a very late A.
 
Grew up on a 420c it’s in the process of being restored . I would love to have an unstyled model D and a model R 80 820 or 830
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If I was to be on a two cylinder in the field day after day, year after year I vote for a 620 or 720 for the row crop farming I do. . Reason being the vertical steering wheel is more comfortable to me as opposed to the slanted steering wheel on a 30 series. I have put many Thousands of hours on a 630 both in the field and in the yard and I never fell in love with the slanted steering wheel. For yard work With lots of turning the slanted steering wheel Is better though because my hands are up and away from my legs. For planting corn I liked the 51 A over the 630 because my hands rested on the As steering wheel more comfortably when I sat for days on end staring straight ahead.
 
Our JD 520 with 18.4 x 30's is a perfect fit for our acreage .......

This model of tractor in our neck of the woods.......this is the only JD 520 I've ever seen in 67 years...
JD 50's are still in the area..........

Bob..
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My dad had a 730 diesel he traded in on a 3020 gas. He always regretted that. So I always wanted a 730. The diesels are way too expensive so I wouldn't mind a gas.
 
On the Dubuque side that would be the M that started it all. Lots of improvements with the later models but I always thought the look deteriorated with each later model.

On the Waterloo side I love the look of the spoker A & B. The one I would love to have though is an R. It's raw ground jarring power reminds me of the muscle car days when with a little uptick of the camshaft on the old big blocks would shake the ground standing beside one idling. Just tremendous raw power!
 
I can still remember the cool autumn mornings when my Grandfather would fire up the 28D. That sound was and is so unique and with smoke rings flying through the air its tough not to say that is my favorite John Deere!
 
My Dad was a 720 Diesel with a pony start. He was around one as a kid bailing hay and finally bought one in his 70's to play around with at plow days etc. I was found of the 70 he had when I was a kid, so we found one and just finished fixing it up to match the one Dad had when I was a kid.
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Love all the two cylinder tractors. Own two of my favorites 60 and 70 both totally restored the 60 with a Power Block.
 
Our 1950 A. Bought new by my grandfather. My kids are the 4th generation to run it. It will be featured in the July WI Agriculturist.
 
I guess I don't have a favorite. Some are better suited for jobs more than others. Anymore the type of jobs I do 2 cyl. are not well suited for any of them. I use a more modern utility tractor with 4x4 and loader.
 
Any of the 30 series. I had a 730 diesel. Sure was a pretty tractor to look at. Not so great as a main tractor.
 
We have a herd of them, starting with 1942 B Bought new & still on the farm, 47 M, 53 & 54 model 60's 57 , 620 Black dash, 60 530, 630 & 730 pony start & 730 electric start. + there is a 40 that isn't running but will someday. Out of all of them is My 620.
 
And, the vertical steering wheel is great for those times when you want to stand up. Which is quite frequent on long, long days.
 
(quoted from post at 18:24:00 06/17/20) John Deere D,

I just noticed what looks like a category 3 draw bar attached to the front axel, care to elaborate.
Good evening Dan........
What you see is a 2.5" square solid steel bar. My dear Father at 91 years of age drops by to do some ploughing! He owned and operated a JD 730 .
When he comes to the end of the field......instead of turning, he shoots through a tree line 10'>20' deep into my next field! He ran into several trees.....destroyed the grill. Now he flattens the willows, makes the turn , heads back with the 2 14's in third gear full throttle.
Sinks the plough in until the Tach is at Standard PTO speed.
Yes the solid bar has never failed.
Bob.....North Western Alberta on the 120 th parallel of longitude
 
Of the two I own, the MI painted green. Grandpa cosigned for the guy who bought it new, then took over payments and ended up with the tractor. Low and short, it was a vineyard model before there were vineyard models. Super nimble.

When the neighbor passed, he insisted Grandpa inherited his 40S, but Gramps felt obligated to pay retail price to the widow. Here it sports our three-point sickle bar mower (Number 9?).


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I like them all, but strictly from an appearance standpoint I've always been partial to the A. You can tell it was the first tractor Deere made, because all the proportions are exactly right. When the B and the H came along, you could tell that they took the original design and shrunk it down. And when they made the G you could tell they took the A and expanded it, or puffed it up some. All good tractors, but you can easily tell which came first.
And this carried through to all its descendants as well (the various numbered series).
 
I like the reply the one I am driving. My favorite was my 41 B serial #110108 was my grandfathers. I had to sell it when I was 16 parents were moving to florida. Next was my 1960 630 #6311318
 
My only two cylinder is a 1930 GP. A lot of love for old iron went into saving this old girl. Re-sleeving the block and every thing else that went into it made it a nice running tractor.

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Well, it's kinda up in the air on that one. The long story includes my Grandpa owned a local general store here in SWMI. He was known for leniency during wartime rations with accepting/trading/facilitating use of ration coupons. He even got "blinged' for it by the Feds, apparently. He looked out for fellow farmers who needed tires or fuel, and city folk who needed eggs or milk.

Through his connections buying groceries and general store items (coal, feed, tires, fuel, appliances, etc) he bought a lot of goods in Chicago and trucked them here. He found out about a JD tractor that was available and bought it- our barn had been hit by lightning and burned down in 1950, an IH tractor was lost. This MI is serial number 10103, a 1950 model.

The story was that the State of Illinois ordered a large number (100?) of tractors from both local companies (JD and IH) for the State Road Department. Supposedly, whichever company could deliver the tractors first got the bid, the other was out of luck. IH won, and Deere had a surplus of industrial tractors. The first tractor was an M, painted yellow, and of the more traditional configuration- rear drive units turned 90 degrees to raise the rear and the front end extended forward and up to match. It may or may not be an actual MI model, I think it is.

The JD was sitting on his flatbed truck at the store that day, and a local farmer inquired about it. Ever the salesman, Grandpa sold it to him (at a modest profit, no doubt) figuring he could get another. He did, and that one sold as well. When he sold the fifth unit, the local JD dealers got wind of these new, yellow Deeres flooding the local farms, and Grandpa's time as a tractor dealer ended abruptly. I could at one time, lay hands on three of these units within two miles of our place, not sure of the other two, I think one ended up in Galien, the other up north by Holland, MI.

One of the buyers could not pay the total, and needed help getting a loan. Grandpa may have loaned a lot of money out of the store over the years, or at least coordinated loans between individuals with cash and those needing it. It always sounded like he actually cosigned a bank loan for this fellow, who could not make the payments at some point, and Grandpa took the tractor and paid it off.

This MI has been green my whole life (1965). The paint under the green is yellow, and not the yellow chromic primer color, but more industrial yellow. All the other MIs from Spear Store sales were yellow as far as I know, and Grandpa wasn't the kind to pay to have something painted. It may have been green from Deere, or perhaps the first owner had it done. I think it had all the normal stickers showing, to indicate it was a good job, one way or another.

[b:d9f71612b9]tldr; maybe, likely yes, kind of?[/b:d9f71612b9]
 
Out of the 3 I inherited when my grandpa died iy would have to be the 50 that he built for pulling. 70hp and the sound of a megaphone stack brings back many child hood memories. The 420c would be second because i helped restore it and the 630 is my sons favorite since he rides on it the most. Still trying to find the last one that he restored that my grandma sold which was a 520
 

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