John Deere R

The John Deere "   R "  was built from 1949 till 1954. There were 21923 R tractors built. It was the first John Deere tractor with a diesel engine. The two cylinder engine had 415 cubic inches and at 1000 rpm produced 34 hp. It utilized a 2 cylinder "   pony "  motor which had a displacement of 24 cubic inches and ran at 4400 rpm. On a Nebraska test in 1949 it was found the R produced a fuel economy of 17.63 hp hour per gallon of fuel.

We have 4 "R"  tractors in our collection. It was our hope to collect one of every year built, but we have not reached our goal. We have serial numbers #3705, #4701, #5748 and #8784. One was driven home from Ninette, another came from Morris, another from Langruth and  the last one from the Pierson area.One of the tractors has a unique feature of a rope recoil on the pony motor.