Old Iron in Star Valley

Tag: Tractor

  • John Deere 630

    My grandpa helping me load the 630
    My grandpa helping us load the 630
    Doing some work on the 630
    Doing some work on the 630

    Nephew on John Deere 630

    John Deere 630 Front

    1959 John Deere 630

    I’ve always enjoyed the look of the 20/30 series two-cylinder John Deere tractors.  Once upon a time (before I was born), we had a 630 on our farm.  I believe they had a loader on it, and used it to load hay with, but I’m not quite certain.  Because of this, the 630 has always had a special interest to me.

    A quick history on the 630.  If you know me, you know I enjoy the John Deere Model A.  The A was replaced by the 60, and the 60 was replaced by the 620, and the 620 was replaced by the 630.  In other words, the 630 is basically a late-fifties Model A.

    I knew I would like to own a 630, I just didn’t think the opportunity would present itself quite as quickly as it did.  My dad has a co-worker that was talking about selling a 630, and knowing that I enjoy the two-cylinders, dad mentioned to me that he was selling one.  It wasn’t running at the time, and had been sitting for quite a few years.

    Of course, I had to jump on the opportunity.  Who wouldn’t, right?  I ended up purchasing the tractor, and was fortunate that my grandfather was also able to go with me to pick up the tractor.  As much as I enjoy spending time with grandpa, it’s even more fun getting an old tractor with him! He also grew up on and spent his entire life on a farm, and as such gives us opportunities to talk about the “good old days” when these tractors were in their prime.

    To spare you the boring details, I had to do quite a bit of work on the tractor throughout the summer and fall.  I don’t mind a good project though–that’s the best way to learn about a machine and become acquainted with it.

    Although the project is not completed, as you can see from the photos and video, the project paid off.  I now have a nice 1959 John Deere 630 to enjoy.

    Till the next big thing…

  • Planting with the John Deere A and LL-A Grain Drill

    This year I took the opportunity to have a little fun with planting oats in one of our smaller fields.  I used the 1947 John Deere Model A that I recently restored, as well as our old grain drill (aka planter, late 1950s).  It may not have been the quickest way to plant the oats, but I, and the dogs, had a lot of fun doing it!

    The three videos here show us getting the drill ready and making sure everything on it works.  The second video shows the John Deere 4230 disking the field.  Last year we used the Model A as well as the John Deere 2010 to plow the field.  Since it was plowed last fall, you disk it before you plant it to break up the larger chunks into a more fine powder, so the drill can do accurately seed the crop.  The final video shows the actual planting process.

  • Christmas Video

    Here’s a little video that goes along with my last post.

  • Christmas Season

    Christmas was good to me this year.  All of the family was up, and everyone seemed to have had a good time.

    Growing up my cousin and I both had toy pedal tractors.  We had a lot of fun on them, and tried to take them everywhere.  My little nephew (slightly under two) is currently obsessed with tractors, so I thought it would be fun to get him a little pedal tractor as well.  Christmas morning, to his delight, he opened up a beautiful John Deere 720 pedal tractor.  Needless to say, he really enjoyed the gift and had fun sitting on it for most of the remainder of the time they were here.

    JD 720 Pedal Tractor
    My nephew on his 2012 Christmas gift.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The following day we went and fed the beef cattle.  After I parked the cab tractor we fed with, his eyes glazed over the lineup of “big” tractors.  He pointed at the Model A and called it his own.  Seeing how it resembles his toy tractor made him want to go ride it.  So, I fired it up and took her out for a little drive through the snow.  You can tell by the look on his face that he had a good time!

     

  • Plowing with the 1947 John Deere A and No 55 H plow

    less than 18 months ago this tractor was a ‘fence line tractor’. I dragged it down to the barn and the engine, brakes, and clutch were seized up. The radiator cap was gone and the cooling system was completely full a junk. A mouse nest was in one of the cylinders… I looked it over and almost gave up. I never thought that in this short amount of time not only would I have it running (and well too!), but pulling a plow!

  • John Deere A Pulling Straw Wagon

    This is a video of my restored 1947 John Deere A pulling a wagon loaded with 3×3 straw bales (1/2 ton alfalfa sized).  Although we have newer and more appropriate tractors for such a task, it is fun to see the A that I worked so hard on over the past year doing some real work.  Not to mention that it sounds good too!  I can’t begin to describe how much work, time, and effort has gone into getting it where it is now.  Even though she isn’t painted nor the most pretty tractor, it is much further ahead then I thought it would be at this point.  When I pulled it out from its resting place (where it had been as long as I can remember) a year ago I told myself that I would work on it ‘a little here, and a little there’ and that it would take about ten years to complete.  I never would have imagined that I would have it to the point where it is currently at only a year later.  The list of things that were wrong with it include a locked-up motor, seized up brakes, rotted rims, missing carburator, no front tires, rotted/leaking water return pipe, rotten/gone mag, rusted valves, completely-filled with debris cooling system (hadn’t had a cap on the radiator in years), and on and on!  It also had a mouse nest in one of the cylinders!  It had been sitting out for as long as I can remember–so when I brought it home I looked at it and asked myself, “what have I done getting myself into such a project!”.  Needless to say, now that it is starting to bear some fruit from my labors, it makes it all worth it.  Plus it’s been fun, too!

     

  • JD 4230 with 945 MoCo Swathing Alfalfa Video + Timelapse

    This is a video of me swathing (windrowing) a small alfalfa field next to my parent’s place.  I love seeing old footage and videos on our farm–which not much exists of.  So, I try to record this type of stuff because maybe some day someone will find it as interesting as I do.

    The video is of a John Deere 4230 pulling a John Deere MoCo 945 pull-type rotary windrower.

    To create the video, I used two cameras, my cell phone (located on the top of the barn, doing the time-lapse), and a GoPro mounted onto the tractor and swather.  I used three mounts on the swather–one on the back of the cab, one on the front-right of the swather, and one on the back of the swather.  I didn’t point the camera down far enough when it was on the back to get anything that was really useful, so I didn’t use much of that video.  I tried to show time-lapse and footage that show roughly the same thing.  It’s not the greatest video in the world, but I thought it was pretty impressive for a first attempt.

     

  • John Deere 4020 FWA Loading Hay HD 2012

    This is a video of a John Deere 4020 loading half-ton bales onto a wagon being pulled by a John Deere 4230 on August 1, 2012.

     

  • Drive to the beef cattle on a 39 John Deere A

    I took a nice little stroll to the beef cows that are currently on the dry farm on the 1939 John Deere Model A.  I’ve been working on the tractor most of the winter, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to warm the motor up a bit and let it stretch its legs.  It was so pretty that I decided to film it.  Since I’m just holding my camera, it’s a little bumpy.  The video shows the beautiful west hills in Freedom, Wyoming (which is actually in Idaho) on the Robert Weber farm.

     

     

  • Photo Journal Jan 2012

    This year I’ve decided to once again do a photo journal.  However, unlike previous attempts, I am only going to take one photo a day, and upload the entire month as a single post, instead of a post every day.  These photos are just that–a journal.  They are not meant to be glamourous or overly beautiful.  They are meant to show aspects of my day.  Every day.