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Central Kansas | Was running my 4020 today doing some mowing with my bat wing mower and got to thinking, I bet they were a NICE planter tractor back in there days. They seem to get around so easy and turn on a dime...a very comfortable tractor to run. I havn't had mine that long and bought it as a "collector's" item so am learning all about it. How big of a planter did they pull back in there days? I suppose every planter back then was a pull type.
My planter tractor back in the early 4020 days was a 656 IH and just pulled a 4 row wide. |
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central Indiana | Biggest planter I had on a 4020 was a 6R 7000 with a 15 1/2 foot FC in front of planter, with 220 saddle tanks, it was aload on hills but my 4020 never, ever failed me. It is now a loader tractor. |
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SCPA | In "here" in the early part of the 4020 market it was regarded as "to big" to be practical. The 3020 was THE tractor of choice.
Planter tractors in here in mid to late 1960's
JD 520's with 4-38" planters There were even a few "square axle" A's used on 4-38's in here
IH 350's 4-38's
Oliver 77's (Super and straight) 4-38's
Heavy tillage tractor would have been an 1800 Oliver, 3020 JD, 706 IH, even the 2 row choppers were handled(????) by these tractors.
A 4020? 806? What in the world do you need anything that big for???????
You just brought back many, many pleasant memories of my father and uncle "chattering" about the "monster John Deere" 3 miles down the road, a 4010!
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East Central Illinois | I know my dad had a 12row 30inch planter white air planter on both 4010 and 4020gas. |
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Concordia,Kansas | Granddad used the `65 4020 as primary tillage and had an IH M to pull a 4 row wide lister. Grandpa had a `67 4020 as primary tillage and a IH 460 pulled a JD494. Dad had a `70 model with a blower put on it for primary tillage and pulled a IH400 6x30 with a 730 case. The `67 4020 pulled the IH 400 and a JD 7000 6x30. I used a `70 4020 pulling a JD 7100 12x30 when I started farming.
Kent |
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| Same "here" Russ. 4020 was considered a heavy tillage/ chopper tractor and even then how much damage was being done by all that weight. |
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| For years a neighbor pulled a 16x30" Kinze with his 4020. The planter was one of those that folded into 2 8row planters side by side with a carrying wheel on each corner, don't know the model #. He still uses the planter, only now pulls it with a 7810 2wd. |
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West Central IL | Dad used it as the big tractor from '65 to '76 then he bought a 4430. He pulled an 8 row 30 7000 with it until 1998. We still have it and rake hay with it and mow. It was the first tractor I ever drove and still my favorite. |
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| We planted with 6 row 40" mounted planters with the 4020. |
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Somerville, Indiana | I used a 656 on a 4 row wide, Dad and I bought the first two Cyclo planters that JL sold, Midwest harrow on both, PTO driven, first thing we did was drill out the shear pin and replace with 3/8 bolt. Before that we had 56 IH plate planters, pulled mine behind a mounted field cultivator on the 4020 some. I needed the 4020 to work ground then so it saw very little use on the planter. Until the Magnum got here it was the nicest tractor I had ever driven. Never could figure how the 4020 could get rid of heat while the 1256 blew it right back in our face. |
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Brazilton KS | Our 4010 arrived as a planter tractor, 6-30 Deere 7000. We went to the 4430 and a 15' field cultivator in front of the planter after a couple years. I pulled the drill and midwest harrow, then later 315 cultipacker with it. Much later I pulled the 8-30 7200 with it a couple times. |
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Lapel, In | Bought a new 1967 4020. Planted with a 730 Diesel. Knock, knock, knock knock .The 4020 was my primary tillage tractor until I bought the first(to hit the state) abortion JD 220 disk with semi cone blades and brakes (spring loader scrapers) on each blade. Bought a used 4320 and the 4020 then pulled a 12 row front fold 12-30 front fold Deere planter for many years. Also had 220 mounted sprayer tanks on it. Its still parked in the barn and hasn't been run in a few years.Have always said I am going to be buried on it sitting in the seat. Feeling kind of poorly lately. Bout time to get it up in shape.lol |
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Central Nebraska | Sidewinders took this area by storm for a few years in the late '60s and most of them were 6 row 30" mounted on 4020s. Here are a couple pictures of mine with 6 John Deere 71 planter units and three Demco insecticide boxes. I don't remember the size of the Snyder fiberglass tanks (200 gal?) for fertilizer/herbicide which was sprayed in front of the Sidewinder to be incorporated. This outfit was a huge load for the tractor and the second year I put a M&W turbo on it which helped but was still a load. It was a nightmare to run, no moniters of any kind to let you know if a planter or nozzle was plugged, just had to eyeball things.
Edited by karl 8/4/2008 08:42
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Leesburg, Ohio | Never had a 4020 until I bought a nice used one about 15 years ago for a mowing & auger tractor. Handiest tractor on the farm.
My early memories of helping Dad fill the planter in the early 60's was of an 8n ford pulling a jd494 on 38" rows. Tillage by JD 60, 3-12's, and KBA drag-type disc. 227 mounted picker on the 60 with a No. 50 sheller on the back, and a No. 30 pull type combine. Learned to plow on the ford following dad on the 60.
Then in the mid 60's went to a 3020 diesel and 4-14" semi-mounted plow, 12' IH wheel disc, and Massey Harris 50 gas pulling a 494A planter on 4-36" corn rows, converted to 6-28" row bean planter by sliding the rows in and adding extension units from deere. Had to change the planter around in mid-season. Used JD 45 roundback with 2 row cornhead and 10' platform. Followed dad plowing with the Massey Harris and a mounted plow, later sold the Massey, got a 3010 for planting.
The 3020 got traded for a 4430 in the early 70's, so that kinda by-passed the 4020 at that time. A 55 combine, then a 4400.
That some 3010 and 494A was around until after I planted my first crop with it in the late 70's. Dad and I rented some more land together and decided it was time for an 8 row 7000, so the 4430 became the planter tractor, and we got a new 4640 for the heavy work, and a new 6620 combine.
4430 was traded on a 4450 that was the planter tractor until the 8420 this year, 4640 traded on an 8300 that pulls the drills, and bought a Cat that does tillage. Now on our fourth 9000 combine. Still have the 4450 and a more recent 4250 that do mostly hay work and mowing, but the 4020 is still the handiest. |
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just a tish NE of central ND | Used a 5 - 14 moldboard plow with packer and 6 ft pda JD pony drill on my 69- 4020 diesel for years. Pulled in 5th gear.It too was quite a load in rolling ground. |
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| pull a 6-30 with rawson colters and a 300 gall spraytank and have ext. on the dry fert. and I have to have duals on to pull it. |
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Both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line | We have two 4020s; Both are diesel, dual remotes, side console. The one with the cab had an M&W turbo added to it before we bought it 20 years ago. The drill is a 1590 with a 50 bu box. The cabless tractor pulls our 6X30 7000 or the 7000 with the splitter unit (cowhater will recognize it). The tank on the framerail is a foam marker system that we just mounted this spring. I mounted the controls right next to the hydraulic lever. I put quick couplers in the foam lines so we can run foam on the corn planter, bean planter, or our pull type sprayer.
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SW Ontario | I planted 90a of beans this spring with a 12-15 interplant pulled behind the 4020 with no added weight and no duals. She will spin a bit on some sharp hills, but what a great planting tractor! |
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Brazilton KS | Holy cow, Karl, that 6-30 Sidewinder was a load for a 4630. We used a Roterra in front of the planter for one year. The 4430 wouldn't really handle it. Went to a field cultivator instead. A guy we were working with at the time pulled the Roterra and our planter with his 4000....not sure how that worked because our 44 would barely pull it.
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Huntington, IN | We used to do quite a bit with our 4020 and 3020. We still have the 3020 but the 4020 is long gone. That was the first tractor I drove and I sure do miss that old powershift and straight pipe. It would really snort pulling a 7 knife anhydrous bar. The 3020 is one of the later ones made and will never leave. I hope to get it back to mint shape someday when the money is there to do it. |
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Concordia,Kansas | 5th gear? I`ve wore out a JD 145 plow, and I don`t think I ever plowed in 5th. Most of the time it was 4th and the hard spots were in 3rd. If I rember right, 5th was 5 mph, 4th was 3.5 mph and 3rd was under 3mph?
Gets me to thinking, we would never think about letting the front end come off the ground these days. Back then you wern`t working it without the wheels in the air.
Kent |
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so.wisconsin | theese storys are great!!keep them comming my 4020 story is:first tractor that i was taught to drive only after i tried to drive it as a 5-6 year old. it was sitting on a hill where we had a ground pit/bunker and they were useing it to pack silage, grandpaw droped me off told me to sit on tractor and wait for dad who was bringing up a load from the marsh so there i was and it seemed like it was taking for ever for him to come get me so i thought i would drive out to meet him i pulled the lever on the dash that he always pulled on and away i went !! but i didnt know that it should be running and it seemed to steer real hard and go real fast but i was heading towards the barnyard fence and it wouldnt steer away and i couldnt reach the brakes or maybe didnt even know what they were (i dont remeber)anyway iran over the board fence for 50 feet and then it stopped, about 1000 steers got out (it seemed like that many) and headed towards the road and corn fields dad said i just stood there witha death grip on the wheel, grandpa was on his way back with the farmhands and met the steers on the road, dad snatched me off tractor and went back to the field to get more help. all i rember after that was alot of hollering and then alot of laughing after the steers were but back!!! good thing gramps was also bringing beer with him then they had to start thinking about there story to the women and told the help to not say any thing man i never lived that one down with the workmen and the 4020 still has the ding inthe front hood dad told the guy restoring it to leave it as a reminder sorry for the length i couldnt stop smoke |
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SW Ontario | ok, what are you drilling into grass that tall? |
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| Karl great pictures there ! I sure do enjoy seeing older photographs of those by-gone days. You sure do have some beautiful straight rows with that rig also. |
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Central Nebraska | It was a load plowboy. The turbo gave it about 125 HP, but the heat guage usually ran right up to the red. At that time (1967) the 4020 was the biggest row crop tractor JD made unless you went to a 5020 with adjustable axles. Between that tractor and sidewinder I was in hock up to my ears the way it was but I was young and didn't worry about those things then. We had a shattercane problem and the only herbicides that would kind of control it had to be incorporated soon after spraying and the sidewinder did a great job of that. I think I used it about five years before changing operations but there were some in use around here a lot longer than that. Of course they had bigger tractors to use them on by then. They did do a beautiful job, but were a pretty high maintinence machine. |
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Central Nebraska | Thanks for the compliment on the rows! Coming from you I consider that a quite an honor. We used it to culitvate too, pulled a lot easier for that because we took several of the knives off. If you got off the row just a tad it wiped everything out. I found another picture when I was cultivating, this one is is color. I know the year these pictures were taken was 1967 because I had a beard and the only time in my life I had a beard was Nebraska's centennial year which was 1967. Just thought I'd add a little trivia there.
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Both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line | Soybeans; the beans being planted in that pic made 50 bushels/acre |
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SW Ohio | Well I posted my planting story yesterday but it dissappeared???
Funny you should mention hood dings, way way back we used to make a silage pile with an ear corn elevator, cause pulling the wagons onto the pile was not working. Used 4020 to pack with, I got a little squirrely one day and rammed the hood into the end of the elevator and put a nice tight crease in the part that sticks forward from the mesh screen, and that crease is still there today! |
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Cleveland, MS. Own small farm near Booneville, MS | Great stories that bring back many memories.
My dad bought a new 3010 in 1964. It was one of the last two our dealer had. All the neighbors wanted him to pack their silage with that "big" tractor. Referring to Karl's post, I pulled a 4 row (38" rows) Sidewinder "Tillavator" (sp?) with the 3010, but the 4010 bought a few years later handled it much better. Either would have had a lot harder time without the tail wheel on the Sidewinder that carried some of the weight. Dad bought a 12' RWA JD disk with the 3010 that we continued to pull with the 4010. Later on a late model 4020 was added to the stable among various other tractors of other colors. We put duals on it and pulled an 11 tine IH chisel plow or a 14' BWA JD disk in 5th gear. We didn't have any weights for it so I put water in all four tires. It would still raise the front wheels off the ground in sticky spots with the chisel plow. We also pulled a 9 tine Oliver (?) chisel plow with the 4010 in 4th gear. Our neighbor pulled a 3pth 8 row Max-emerge with a pre-1969 4020, but he had a "lift kit" for it. For a few years we had an older model 4020 power shift that handled a 14' 3pth grain drill remarkably well. After Dad retired he sold the 3010 to a neighbor hobby farmer. It is still running. I would love to buy it back some day. The 4020's left the farm after some "down" years in the early to mid 80s and Mom sold the 4010 after Dad passed on in 2001. Really wouldn't mind having any of them back, but I have nothing for them to do anymore. |
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4020 question for you older fella's
