John Deere Model R History (First JD Diesel)

good day and welcome back to the channel here at Locus Motorworks we like to dive deep into some of John Deere's coolest technology and check out some of the best tractors ever built today's topic is the John Deere R now this tractor provided a lot of Firsts for deer and we're going to look at what this Ground Pounder brought to the table so I hope you enjoy and if you do go ahead and like And subscribe now I've got a lot of requests to do this tractor and I'm happy to finally get to it so let's hop in the model R didn't find its way to Fields Across America to the late 40s after 10 years of development it was released on 1949. previous to the model R the John Deere D was the biggest tractor that John Deere offered coming in at roughly 40 horsepower the model D was a tried and true plowing machine having a run from 1923 to 1953 one of the tractors that was in direct competition with the John Deere D was the Oliver 99 now this was a standard tractor that came in at 52 horsepower at the drawbar John Deere knew they needed something bigger with more power and that was the main reason behind the r during the design they decided to go with a diesel engine this would be John Deere's first diesel engine that they'd put into a tractor and at that time diesels weren't all that common as they are today and more Farmers like sticking with gas due to reliability and easier starting the model r as an idea can be traced all the way back to 1935 when really little was known about the diesel engines but by 1936 John Deere had come up with a couple ideas the first was an engine that started off on gasoline and once it got to operating temperature could be switched over to diesel the second was a diesel engine design by Mr hellermann now Mr hellerman had had previous work in the automotive industry trying to use diesel engines and had some experience that he brought to the deer leaders and by 1939 both of these test engines were rebuilt into something that would fit John Deere standards and on June 1st 1940 engineering order 8059 was released which gave the order to start building which would eventually become the r but before it was the R John Deere it was the model MX they originally built eight of these MX experimental tractors and sent them to the field for testing throughout the years leading up to 1947 John Deere would build a handful each year slowly improving on their design now the tin work on these earlier ones looked nothing like a John Deere they did however update the 10 and 47 making it look a little closer to the r we know but it still carried the MX name to build a good diesel engine from the ground up was no easy task the pressure inside these cylinders is nearly double what it is for a gasoline with it being around 875 PSI this equivalates to about 22 000 pounds of pressure against the Piston John Deere needed to build a stronger crankshaft than they've ever built before and to help them out they called in lessel and Associates these Engineers helped John Deere out in creating the crankshaft that would go in the model R the design process of this tractor would go on to be one of the longest running in John Deere history they wanted to try and get this tractor right being their first Diesel and not have a flop John Deere sent these tests tractors all over North America from way up in Canada in the cold to Mexico in the Heat and they even sell one as far away as Argentina to be tested between all the tractors that were sent out over 66 000 of test hours were put on them it's said that none of these MX tractors made it until today and were all destroyed after they were done testing and it was on January 12 1949 the first production one left the factory this had the serial number 1000. the John Deere R boasted A Powerhouse of an engine having a 415 cubic inch engine which equivalates to a 6.8 liter today this engine got its lugging and torque power from a five and three quarter inch piston by an 8 inch stroke now one thing that was very common in those days was using Pony engines to start the big diesels caterpillar had done this in the past along with some other manufacturers so deer went ahead and went down the same path putting a two-cylinder pony engine to start the r now this wasn't the first diesel to be put in a farming tractor but definitely a revolutionary one as it helped usher in the Reliance and power of new diesels today these tractors weighed in at roughly 7 600 pounds giving you all the weight you need to keep the tractor from spinning out with good tires another John Deere first on this tractor was live power now live power meant you could independently control the PTO using its own clutch and lever assembly and this feature had become standard on John Deere tractors to follow in the 50s moving on to the transmission this tractor offered five forward gears and one reverse gear with a top speed of 11 and a half miles an hour another cool John Deere first on this tractor was the availability of a cab now they aren't super common and they are pretty rare today but John Deere did build some during the six year run on these tractors John Deere kicked out 21 293 with a final asking price of 3 650 in 1954. this was about a thousand dollars more than the John Deere D but was still a fairly economical tractor option the John Deere RS Cosmetics would feature a fully styled design ushering in the mesh Grille which would be used on later style tractors and into the future this tractor would be considered a standard with a fixed front axle as the only available option it would also feature two fenders that John Deere had never used before that curved over top of the tire some people claimed to have a rice version or a wheat version of the r but there was only one R produced one thing that was different about some of the r is the tires that it's shipped with and this sometimes gets confused to be a rice model another small thing that was added to some of these tractors that were shipped with cane tires or rice tires was a mud guard but these are few and far between in today's world and considered fairly rare the model R was a major success in the rice fields being able to pull a two bottom pan breaker many farmers in the day would pull a 414 plow with this which is a four Bottom by 14 inch plow it's also stated some farmers use five and six Bottoms in light soil now this tractor isn't one of the most sought after old school John deers but it's definitely one of the coolest I believe one of the reasons that it's not as popular of a collector tractor is finding Parts they could be a little hard to get parts for and fixing a lot of these John Deere R's never had power steering and it's become kind of an add-on kit with some people adding a steering cylinder into the steering rods the John Deere R was significantly replaced by the John Deere 80 which surprisingly came in at 200 cheaper now the John Deere 80 would only run for two years selling around 3 500 units I'm curious if you ever been around a John Deere R and what you've thought of it anyways guys thanks for watching this history video about the John Deere model R it's been a fun one to make and I thank you guys all for watching we'll catch you in the next video

Channel: Locust MotorWorks

Views: 113,133

Keywords: John deere r, john deere diesel, john deere tractors, old john deeres, model r, diesel tractors, two cylinder, john deere two cylinder, locustmotorwoirks, locustmotorworks, lmw, john deere history, farming, old farming, plwoing, john deere plowing, john deere r plowing, first diesel tractor, old diesel, diesel cold start, john deere r resteration

Id: LkXRe_C4XPM

Length: 7min 43sec (463 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2023