John Deere 520: An Overshadowed Gem?

good day and welcome back to the channel where we dive deep on some of John Deere's most famous tractors and some of the little known facts today we're talking about the 520 John Deere but before we get started if you're a fan of farming videos or John Deere tractors you're definitely in the right place all right let's get into this video now to recount the tale of the John Deere 520 it's necessary we got to go back 1934 on the release of the John Deere B Farmers really started to become attached to this size of a tractor being small enough to get into tight places it's still big enough to pull a two bottom plow the bee was on the assembly line for 18 years and became one of John Deere's best-selling tractors of all time and in 1952 The Bee would be replaced by the model 50. the 50 would bring along many new features to upgrade from the bee including power steering better Hydraulics more power and all-around more comfort from 1952 to 1956 John Deere would sell nearly 33 000 of these John Deere 50s but it'd be time for even more upgrades and those upgrades would come in late 56 with the release of the 520 rolling in at 41.4 horsepower the 520 was definitely an upgrade from the 50 with nearly a 10 horse increase using 189.8 cubic inch engine it had a 4 and 11 16 bore by five and a half inch stroke but the engine wasn't the only thing that was different the 520 would see a new yellow stripe coming down the hood and down to the front of the hood where the decal would rest these 20 series John Deere would be the first time you'd see that iconic yellow stripe that's still used to this day another cosmetic addition was the landing deer logo in the very front of the hood one of the most note notable changes on the 520 was at the distributor instead of driving it off the governor like John Deere done in the past they decided to move it and drive it off the camshaft the theory behind moving it to the camshaft was to keep the timing more precise and there are fewer ways that the distributor could come out of time with component wear some other things John Deere would upgrade on the 520 would be in the transmission sticking with the six-speed unsynchronized transmission it would come to see a couple upgrades they would strengthen the transmission in a couple different places including better final drives and a new higher final drive ratio they'd also include larger brakes and allow for better performance and a longer life of the brake pads moving on to Hydraulics the main difference that John Deere offered on the 520 was the PTO now the John Deere 50s had live power but John Deere improved this by offering a foot operated PTO pedal replacing the hand-operated lever the 520 would be equipped with an 18 gallon fuel tank now this was a slight upgrade from the 50 with the 50 only having a 15 gallon fuel tank allowing you to stay in the field for a little bit longer now for row crop tractors at the end of the 50s John Deere was producing the 520 620 and 720. the 520 would appeal to smaller Farmers but yet many claimed it could pull a three bottom plow the 520 would also see a new muffler making the tractor a little bit quieter now a cool fact about the 520 is is only produced as a row crop tractor and never came to see a Wheatland or an orchard version some of the main options that were offered on the 520 was dual remote Hydraulics which was huge for the day along with other options including a float ride seat cigarette lighter and fenders along with what is possibly the best one among collectors which is a three point now in the late 50s the going price to upgrade your seat to a float ride was 35 dollars and came in either yellow or black moving on to front ends Farmers had a couple different options you could use the regular or the heavy duty roll-omatic standard front end which was a fixed front axle adjustable wide front end and a high clearance front end now this high clearance front end isn't very well known and it was beneficial for working in crops with taller vegetation with a total of Thirteen thousand and forty eight five twenties being built the rarest of which being all fuel with 244 built all fuel is kind of like the flex fuel of today the tractors were designed to make use of a variety of non-gasoline burnable by-products these all fuels would have a secondary tank that you could start the tractor on gasoline and switch it over they would also have slightly different compression ratios achieving this by changing the head they would also offer 764 propane variants of the 520 in 1958 ever just over a year of production the 520 received some upgrades it got a new plastic covered steering wheel sealed beam lights and a black painted Dash it was also in 1958 you'd see the addition of a step now this was an axle mounted step which you see on many two cylinders today another cool thing that would come along in 58 that'd be a first for some of the two cylinder gases was a pre-cleaner another cool fact about these tractors is some of them were marketed and sold by the industrial division and with this being by the industrial division it is possible that some of them left in all John Deere yellow however none have ever been found and confirmed this fact now in the late 50s John Deere was really experimenting with things one of these would be with a paint they would go on to use a yellow primer on some of the 520s along with the early serial numbers leaving the factory with black headlights tail lights black generator and a green Dash but then on the later serial numbers they'd paint the generators green and change the dash panel to Black final sale price of twenty three hundred dollars in 1958 this was a very economical tractor for most farmers and even small farmers it was in July of 1958 when it was officially replaced by the 530. the 520 would be the second to last of this series to be produced before John Deere would leave the two-cylinder design behind following the 520 the 530 would come out for a two-year production run with many collectors going after five twenties today to restore them it's no surprise they've held their value anyways guys that's been a short history on the 520 and I believe the 520 was a stepping stone for deer as it continued to upgrade and upgrade as the years went on until they finally reached Peak Performance of a 5 30 which is the true Big Brother of the John Deere B which started it all anyways guys thanks for watching and I got this video idea from some of the comments of my other videos so if there's a tractor that you want to hear about go ahead and let me know and we might make a video about it but anyways you guys have a good day don't forget to like comment subscribe and we'll catch you in the next one

Channel: Locust MotorWorks

Views: 20,529

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Id: WRR3UWwJ6YQ

Length: 7min 2sec (422 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023