# Sure would like to have a JD 730



## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

I have always had a sweet spot for the two stroke Deere's. My papaw raised me on his little JD 420. I currently have a 1937 restored unstyled A sure wish I could put a hydraulic remote on it. I have always dreamed of having a JD 730 diesel wide front to pull out and rake, ted, and square bale with from time when I get tired of all the electronics on my new tractor. Those who have owned a 730 what's your opinions on them.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Well I have a 720 gas because I did not want to have to keep 3 different injector pumps in time with the diesel. But that said, it is a blast to drive, takes lots of getting used to backing a wagon with a hand clutch especially when you keep instinctively hitting the left brake thinking you are hitting a foot clutch. for for straight pulling, hard to beat. and make sure whatever you point it at, you want to run over because the torque on these guys is to die for. As soon as Green Magazine talks to the 720 4wd owner featured this month about his rops and reports it, I am going to add one so I can put a metal canopy on it. then I will use it more.


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## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

The diesels run very efficiently. In fact, I have run them out of fuel because you just can forget to fuel them up when using for small jobs. Don't be afraid of a pony start one. If that little engine runs, the big engine will regardless of the weather. I used to start the pony at -20 degrees, let it idle for 5 minutes and the big engine will start. Original flywheels are notorious for getting loose on the diesels. The newer taper lock flywheels solve the issue. Gassers are nice and quite and LPs are too and have a lot of power. Ive been around those too and had a 730 LP for a while.

I don't currently have a 730 but do have a couple 720's which are the same other than the sheet metal and steering. Here is one of my 720's.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I have always loved the look of a 730 and thought about buying one a few times but never having been on a 730 or any 2cyl deere for that matter I just can't get my mind wrapped around using a hand clutch. The had clutch just doesn't seem to be very user friendly in my mind......maybe it's not bad once you get used to it. If it wasn't for that I would probably own one.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I've got a 720 gasser that I restored last winter. They are fun to drive and pull a Tedder or rake when I'm not in a hurry. Also hook a sickle bar mower to it once in a while. Got a chrome exhaust on it but I think that's gonna be replaced with the standard muffler. Just too loud!


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Guys thanks for all the info.... How is the fuel efficiency of the gas 730's? Would you all stay away from the diesel and get a gas instead?

Farmercline I grew up on my papaws 420 which has a foot clutch. Then I got a styled A of my own when I was 14 and have had a hand clutch ever since so I am really used to them, and really like them for every thing except for backing wagons like hayman1 said.

Are the LP tractors reliable? Can you fill them up with a regular LP tank or is there a special hook up?


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I used a 720 on our 6star tedder for years. Put hundreds of hours on it, it doesn't take a whole lot of fuel. My 70 on the other hand - it likes to drink fuel, but maybe you only notice when you're running them side by side? The problem with the diesels, is you either have a pony motor, or the 24volt electric start. Both have their quirks, but unless it's plugged in the 24volt will not start when it drops below 40 and it's not plugged in. If a guy is going to use it everyday, then a gas would be the way to go - they are simpler. Don't forget the black dash 720 and the 730 are identical, except for sheet metal, so pick whichever one you think looks nicer! I think the LP connections are the same as what's used today, but you can't use a little 20lb tank to refill them - it has to have 2 hoses.

Rodney


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

We have several 2 cylinders, 720 western gas, 620, B , H. All gas and fun to drive. Would love to have ROPS and canopy for hay work.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Rodney R said:


> but you can't use a little 20lb tank to refill them - it has to have 2 hoses.
> 
> Rodney


I'm not implying one can fill the LPG tank with a 20# tank but what's the need for 2 hoses? All one needs to fill tractor LPG tank is a wet line from a home 250 or 500 gallon LPG tank


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Hayman1 said:


> As soon as Green Magazine talks to the 720 4wd owner featured this month about his rops and reports it, I am going to add one so I can put a metal canopy on it. then I will use it more.


This is the only JD 2 cylinder MFWD I've ever heard of or seen a photo of and IIRC it's in Scotland . Speaking of hand clutch's one could get an Argentina built 730 with a foot clutch.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

I remember our neighbor pulling our 5x18" plow in heavy soil with his 730 tricycle on a dare. Front bottom wasn't cutting a full width and not enough weight on the front of the tractor so it was in the air more than the ground but he moved right along.

Back in the early 60's dad bought a 70 with a pony motor at an auction. The pony never seemed to run right and turned out somebody took 2 piston out of it, it would run but didn't have much power.

I grew up running a 520. Many hours. I guess I am not nostalgic enough, they are nice to look at at shows but I don't desire another hour of operation on one of those hand clutch contraptions. Now a 4020, sign me up!


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## dubltrubl (Jul 19, 2010)

SVFHAY said:


> I remember our neighbor pulling our 5x18" plow in heavy soil with his 730 tricycle on a dare. Front bottom wasn't cutting a full width and not enough weight on the front of the tractor so it was in the air more than the ground but he moved right along.
> 
> Back in the early 60's dad bought a 70 with a pony motor at an auction. The pony never seemed to run right and turned out somebody took 2 piston out of it, it would run but didn't have much power.
> 
> I grew up running a 520. Many hours. I guess I am not nostalgic enough, they are nice to look at at shows but I don't desire another hour of operation on one of those hand clutch contraptions. Now a 4020, sign me up!


I'm with you on both counts! I love the old iron and would like a 4020 one day too, but as far as having a hand clutch unit for normal work,,,nah, don't think so. I spent way more hours than I care to admit running an old LP Moline GB. Ran that sucker in front of an 8' heavy 2 way plow breaking down rice levies to make fields to plant soybeans. Talk about getting a new respect for our forefathers! Usually spent from sun-up to sundown either standing or sitting on the back deck of that old tractor and when you'd look back to check the plow it just scared the bejesus out of ya to think what would happen to you if you fell off in front of that plow! I was just a kid and worked by myself mostly. No phone for mile, or houses either for that matter. Took lunch, Coleman water cooler and not much else to the field in the morning and got dropped off, and didn't see another soul for the rest of the days most times. I look back at that time and I realize how much I enjoyed it, but really don't want to relive those days either,,,


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

I have run 3-16s mounted on my 720 in fairly virgin ground meaning many decades since it was in cultivation with solid clay hills. It does it but like it the first time. Had an old JD mechanic tell me that the 720s in the north country did more to get rops started than any other tractor. Apparently the tires would freeze to the ground and farmers trying to free them by popping the hand clutch would flip them over the torque curve is so high. I have the 7 wt set on my front and can still pop it off the ground. The hand clutch is exactly backwards to the foot clutch so in a rotational movement of the front coming off the ground your body lurches forward throwing it further into gear and compounding the problem as opposed to the foot clutch which the same movement disengages the clutch.

TxJim that is the one I am talking about-written up in this months GM but it also has a ROPS on it so I plan to ask GM to run a story about that as well.

I think if you look in the archives, the 720/730 diesel held the national fuel economy/hp record for decades. I think the 40 series may have nudged it out, not sure.

I have not used mine for rotary raking yet as last year was my first season with my Krone 38T but the way you can run these things with the throttle barely open makes me think they might work really well with a rotary. I would need a canopy before I would do that though. I can remember as a kid catching 1000's of bales and stacking behind our neighbors 420 and 14T. Who would have thought that possible given todays horsepower hogs. For my neighbor, the 420 with independent pto was a huge upgrade over a mid model B.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Nate- I forgot to mention, when my 6100D went down two years ago (lost main seal at 250 hrs) and I was in the middle of cutting a field, I pulled out the 720 and went to work. Was pulling a 9-3" NH1409 diskbine. It pulled it in 1st gear but it did not want any more. Pulling the 570 baler was no issue.

Attached are two pics of my 720, one pulling my old 258 rollabar and one with the current wfe where I was the hit at a kids Birthday party. rick


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Tx Jim said:


> I'm not implying one can fill the LPG tank with a 20# tank but what's the need for 2 hoses? All one needs to fill tractor LPG tank is a wet line from a home 250 or 500 gallon LPG tank


Hoo boy... memories come flooding back!

Grandpa had a Ford NAA and a Golden Jubilee he had converted to LP back when they were new (or practically new) in the 50's... The NAA we called "Junkpile" because that's what it was... had to tow start it because it'd kill a battery before you could get it running, so Grandma traded it back in early 83 for a new Ford 2310 (3 cylinder diesel version of the same tractor, basically). The
"Jubilee" was what I learned to run about that time (Grandpa passed in Feb. 83). Dad fueled the thing up for me until I was in high school-- didn't want me getting blown up or frostbitten. We'd pull up beside the old propane tank behind the house, you removed the cap from the filler valve connection, inspected the hose for damage, opened the tank valve under the tank lid, then opened the filler valve on the filler end for a quick "crack" to blow any spiders, webs, or other junk out of the filler valve before coupling up. Then you screwed on the filler lock ring down tight (watch getting squirted by LP when you tightened it up-- better be quick!) and then opened the filler valve. Then you had to get the bleeder out of the toolbox of the tractor, blow it off right quick to make sure it was clean and clear, unscrew the tank bleeder fitting cap, and then start screwing the bleeder on slowly until a little vapor started escaping from the tractor tank. You then stood clear and opened the bleeder a little more to let vapor blow out of the tank fairly rapidly-- you know if you opened it TOO much, because it'd freeze over quickly with ice/frost and and the LP vapor would turn white, and you'd probably start seeing droplets of liquid blowing out because the LP in the tank was boiling and frothing up spray droplets in the tank that blew out the bleeder valve. There was a "liquid level" indicator that you could turn a little thumbscrew to bleed vapor out, and then turn the indicator (it was basically a little piece of tubing indexed to the indicator needle/handle outside the tank) lower and lower until liquid LP would squirt out, then you closed the thumb screw right quick... that would indicate the liquid level in the tank.

As the bleeder continued to blow out LP vapor, the liquid would be forced up the fill hose from the tank to the tractor tank, due to the pressure difference between the bulk tank and the tractor tank, which was being bled off. The odor of the mercaptan stink agent in the LP would draw a cloud of several hundred flies from wherever in short order, so you fueled in the midst of a swarm of buzzing flies... Dad told me not to use the liquid level thing, because it would leak a little unless you cranked it down REALLY tight; so I usually just bled the tank until I started getting droplets of liquid LP start spraying out with the bleed vapor. You didn't want to bleed the tank pressure too quickly, or basically the LP would boil off to vapor in the tank as quickly as it would fill. The tank would get pretty cool on the tractor fairly quickly, even in summer, and so you could basically tell by where the "condensation line" was on the outside of the tank where the liquid level was anyway. Once the tank was about 75%-90% full (the bleeder was set up so it'd blow liquid LP out before getting over full, to prevent the tank from blowing up from insufficient head (vapor) space above the liquid if you overfilled...), you'd unscrew the bleeder, which stopped the flow of vapor out of the bleeder valve, and drop it back into the toolbox on the tractor. Then you'd re-cap the bleeder filler (to keep field dirt and moisture out of the valve mechanism). Then you'd close your liquid fill valve on the end of the hose, and the liquid fill valve on the other hose end under the tank lid, and then rapidly unscrew the filler coupler from the tank valve fitting, being careful not to get squirted with liquid LP as you uncoupled. Then you'd re-cap the larger filler fitting on the tractor tank, hold the hose out away from you, and open the fill valve a little to let the liquid LP in the hose vaporize and blow out, so the hose wasn't stored under pressure, and then re-close the liquid fill valve, and put it back onto the tank.

That's what we ran until the late 80's when we finally replaced the old Ford 501 sickle mower (that was made to fit those little Fords, not the 5200 and 6600 Fords we were running then) and I started using the "big tractors" for everything, and pretty much retired the Jubilee for everything except occasional raking duty. You had to be careful or you'd run those old LP jobs out of fuel somewhere-- when I was doing custom work, that was a big risk. Grandpa had a ~20 gallon (I suppose-- it was about four feet tall and about 1.5 foot in diameter or so) "portable" LP tank outfitted with a filler and bleeder to fill from the bulk tank in the yard, and a hose and filler valve to couple to the tractor for when he ran out... with no guage, it was pretty much guess-work as to when you needed to refill... Dad took Jubilee to his little hunting place he bought out at Junction, TX, for a few years, until he let it go when my sister started college. A flood on the river had partially swamped the tractor, and we brought it home, but I never bothered getting it going again-- no real need for it and I was busy enough row-cropping at the time. We eventually sold it to the tractor salvage my brother worked for-- when they disassembled the engine, other than the spark plug threads being corroded away due to moisture condensation from the LP (which makes water as a byproduct of combustion) the valves and pistons were in like-new condition, despite having NEVER been rebuilt... and the rest of the engine was spotlessly clean inside! That was one REAL good thing about LP-- it burns SO clean, the engine lasts practically forever, compared to gasoline and diesel...

More later! OL JR


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Not long before my brother quit Eagle Tractor Salvage and went to work for the county, I made a deal with the owner on an LP Farmall Super M that had come in on trade or something. Not much demand for them anymore, especially LP models, and I needed a higher-clearance narrow-front tractor for spraying cotton late-season, and the "big Fords" were too low under the wide fronts to really do a good job.

SO, I go to fuel the thing. Now, I hadn't messed with propane in probably 10-15 years at this point, but it's like riding a bike. I grab the bleeder out of the drawer in the house and my heavy leather welding gloves, and go out to fuel up. I hook up and bleed the tank as I fill, get her filled up, and turn the bleeder off, and set it aside, and re-cap the bleeder fitting on the tank. I then turn off the filler valves and to to unscrew it from the tank, and it starts squirting liquid LP all over the place, so I screw it back down right quick. Of course, LIQUID LP is cryogenic-- boils at like -20 degrees or something (I'm not looking it up right now) so it REFRIGERATES anything it touches... which can give you BAD frostbite if the liquid drips on you for any length of time (I had a great uncle that used to drive a propane delivery truck that had a hose burst and spray him with liquid LP, and he was in the hospital several days or so with frostbite). SO, I push in on the valve while unscrewing the clamp ring, and then try to "pop" the valve loose (with the ring still attached) and NO JOY-- another flush of liquid LP... SO, I quickly push the valve back in (to seal it off, more or less-- O-rings seal the shoulder of the filler tube to the tractor fitting when you tighten up the lock ring, sorta like an air chuck on an air hose/impact wrench). Of course liquid is dripping everywhere and my leather gloves frost over and freeze up pretty darn quick... I get the lock ring back mostly tight, and stop all but a little drip of liquid LP... I backed off and doffed my frozen gloves, since my hands are getting pretty darn cold by this time, and the gloves are soaked in liquid LP that's slowly boiling off as white vapor and being replaced with ice frost from the air. I went into the house and called the old man for advice...

"Yeah, well, sometimes those things do that... probably hasn't been filled in forever and got something in the poppet that seals off the liquid from the tank when you unscrew the fill valve... get a block of wood, and loosen the valve lock ring up a turn or so, and then kinda smack on the tank/valve area until the poppet finally seats... may take a bit, but eventually it'll snap shut under the pressure, then you can uncouple..." SO, I get my block of wood and go back, and loose the filler valve, starting a shower of liquid LP dripping all down the tank and side of the tractor engine (which is why you always fill them with the motor COOL, NEVER HOT!) and start smacking the valve area of the tank-- not the brass valve itself, but the steel boss into which it's screwed that's welded onto the side of the tank. I wiggle the valve, smack on the thing, etc for about ten minutes, in a cloud of white propane vapors from all this liquid LP boiling off the sheet metal, side of the tank, and engine block... and of course go through another cycle of the gloves freezing up and having to thaw mid-stream... I stepped back to remove the gloves again, and notice that a cloud of propane is being carried downwind, VISIBLE in the air, over halfway across the field behind the house towards the highway. I realize then that all it takes is ONE car going by and tossing out a cigarette butt, and it'll blow the entire place off the map! I go back to tapping and smack it a little harder, and FINALLY the poppet snaps shut on the tractor tank fitting, and the liquid stops dribbling out the filler fitting. I let the valves all thaw out, and then unscrew everything and put the hose back under the bulk tank lid, and inspect the filler poppet valve on the tractor tank-- there's a little bit of spider web or some junk visible where the filler valve pushes in on the poppet to allow liquid to flow into the tank when you open the filler valve-- either I didn't crack the valve enough to blow everything out of the filler valve fitting end before I coupled up, or there was some crud under the filler fitting cap I didn't notice before I hooked up. Lesson learned!

All's well that ends well, BUT, that sort of finished my desire to deal with LP fueled stuff anymore... didn't get frostbit (but close to it!) and my welding gloves were pretty much ruined from the stink of mercaptan being washed into the leather by the liquid LP gas, but other than that, everything was okay. A few months later Eagle Tractor got an ancient four-wheel hi-boy sprayer in that I got for practically junk price, that I restored and used to defoliate cotton, and I sold the Super M... If I'd kept the old Deere 620 we had a few years before (picked up cheap somewhere) I could've sprayed with that... oh well! Still have the old hi-boy down in the barn behind the cotton pickers-- it's got the four cylinder Hercules motor from a "Pony" tractor (massey?? can't remember what brand a "Pony" was) coupled to a four speed floor shift transmission and a banjo-type rear end from like a Model A car or something, with sprockets welded to the brake drums to turn the rear tires via a big #80 sprocket... kinda neat, it worked, and it was cheap.

My brother's buddy used to have propane powered 99 and 299 cotton pickers... pulled a big bulk tank on a trailer axle behind the pickup to the field to fill them up. Problem was, it was about to bankrupt them buying LP for those pickers... We had gasoline cotton pickers until we bought a 9900 Deere picker, which was LIGHT YEARS ahead of the old IH 214 and 414 pickers we had been running. I told him they could probably pay for a nice used 9900 Deere and sell the old 99 and 299 pickers for less than what they were spending on $3.00/gallon+ propane every year... When Grandpa had those old Ford's switched from gasoline to LP in the 50's, he told me it was a no-brainer (when I asked him WHY he switched them to LP when gasoline was SO much more convenient (probably after running out for the fifth time that year) and he told me "well, when propane was 4 cents a gallon and gasoline was 8 cents a gallon, you bet I switched!" True enough, I guess, but with propane at over $3.00 a gallon (in the recent past-- don't know what it runs right now-- my house is all electric and I haven't asked my brother lately what he pays) and gasoline is under $2.00 a gallon (currently) it's really a no-brainer to use gasoline, aside from the convenience factor...

PLUS, propane contains less energy per gallon than gasoline, or especially diesel. Natural gas is worse yet... I don't remember the exact proportions, but basically the same work you can do with one gallon of diesel, takes 2 gallons of gasoline, or 3 gallons of LP gas, or 4 gallons of natural gas (or the cubic feet equivalent of a gallon, since NG usually is just super-compressed, not liquified due to the extremely low cryogenic temperatures and vapor pressures of LNG... IOW it has to be refrigerated and handled carefully to keep from blowing the tank apart due to excess boiloff vapor pressure). So basically, a gallon of LP can only do say 2/3 the work of a gallon of gasoline, which makes it even MORE expensive when you consider the fuel consumption to do a given amount of work...

Anyway, good luck with it, but other than the "nostalgia factor", I wouldn't want to mess with propane for a "work tractor"... YMMV... 

Later! OL JR


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

I just fell asleep.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

8350HiTech said:


> I just fell asleep.


Awww...

Gee, didn't ANY of you guys ever sit around with your Grandpa or someone and listen to stories as a kid??

I had a great-uncle on my mom's side, Uncle Red... We'd go up to his place in the Deep East Texas Piney Woods and visit... we would sit for HOURS beside a red-hot wood stove burning split pine logs, watching the rain and wind outside and listening to the stories he'd tell... about the War, or working for the WPA, or the Depression, farming corn and raising cattle and baling hay in the little red clay clearings that passed for fields and hay meadows in the big yellow pine forests back in the early days... or stories when he was driving trucks or working in the wood mills or working for the highway department... or just stories he was told as a kid, some of them dubious-- like the time he told us all about the "Swamp Buggar" (basically a Yeti, Bigfoot, or "boogie-man" type monster that he was CERTAIN lived in the deep woods of East Texas... "he'd seen it!". Course, Uncle Red was ABSOLUTELY convinced that 1) wrestling on TV was REAL, and 2) the moon landings were FAKED! Nothing could shake him from those two conclusions.

He's been gone a LONG time now, but what I wouldn't give to be able to sit around a hot wood stove on a cold day and listen to some of those stories again...

Seems like now, with ALL the modern communications capabilities we have, that NOBODY wants to pay attention to ANYTHING if it takes more than 10 seconds of their time to listen to or read. We've become a "sound-bite" society, which is why we have such a completely ignorant and scientifically/ real life illiterate society, and ESPECIALLY the electorate. We rely on a bunch of idiots with THEIR OWN AGENDA (that is usually 180 degrees apart from our own values) to spoon-feed information to us in tiny doses that only tell the side of the story they want you to hear, and then gripe and complain when reality turns out to be completely different from what we were told... or we end up electing some moron that shouldn't have been appointed dogcatcher, because people have the attention span of a common housefly and rely on this "non-information" to make up their minds to vote for him. Oh well... I guess I shouldn't expect anything else in this day and age.

Guess I'll just leave it with what Uncle Red used to tell us kids when we'd get fidgety or fussy... "If you don't want to listen, go play and let the GROWNUPS talk"...

Go watch some more "Sex in the City" or keep up with the Kardassians or something equally as vacuous and worthless, and don't bother reading my posts anymore if it bothers you so... nobody's holding a gun to your head ya know...

Later! OL JR


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

This is about JD 730s, right?


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

8350HiTech said:


> This is about JD 730s, right?


Yeah, but the question was asked about propane tractors, so I thought I'd share what I know about them from experience...

Gee... I thought a FORUM was for SHARING INFORMATION...

My bad... LOL 

Some of yall sure get worked up over a reply longer than you'd like...

Oh well...

Later! OL JR


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Guys thanks for all the information. I do like how simple the gas tractors are to work on, I feel much more comfortable working on them. Hayman1 that sure is some good looking deere's you got there and a mighty fine future hay crew


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Nate926 said:


> Guys thanks for all the information. I do like how simple the gas tractors are to work on, I feel much more comfortable working on them. Hayman1 that sure is some good looking deere's you got there and a mighty fine future hay crew


Well, in all fairness, the propane jobs are about the same... carbuerated engine, only real difference is the pressurized fuel system and added-on vaporizer. You can advance the timing a little more (IIRC) on the propane engines because it burns a little slower and a LOT more stably (propane is 110 octane IIRC, versus 87 for the typical 'pump gas'... If you're building for power, you can raise the compression ratio A LOT with propane without risking predetonation (pinging/knocking) and burning holes in your pistons. The ignition system is identical to a gas engine, and the carbuerator is usually quite a bit simpler on a propane engine... (actually a "mixer" in proper terminology, since it meters and mixes the propane vapor with air, unlike a carbuerator that sprays liquid gasoline into incoming air via the venturi effect and meters that mix into the engine via the throttle plate). The biggest difference is you have a "vaporizer" on a propane engine, which is sort of like a round heater core in a car... it takes hot coolant and circulates it around in a spiral pattern, and there's an interlocking spiral pattern within it through which liquid propane from the engine flows, absorbing the heat and boiling off into propane vapor, that then flows out of the vaporizer to the mixer (carb). Propane systems run off the vapor, but if you're doing heavy work and burning a lot of propane, the tank will refrigerate itself to the point the propane won't boil off fast enough to keep the engine supplied with vapor, so hence the reason for the vaporizer. Usually you start an engine by opening the "vapor valve" on the tank to bypass the vaporizer, especially in very cold weather, so that the engine starts and runs on vapor from the top of the fuel tank. Then you open the liquid valve once the engine warms up to run liquid through the vaporizer to send fuel to the mixer.

In the heat of SE TX, we never really had to worry about it. We just started from the liquid line all the time; there was enough vapor in the vaporizer and once it started, enough latent heat in the 'cool' engine coolant circulating through the vaporizer to boil off the propane until the engine warmed up.

One other big bonus-- propane burns EXTREMELY clean-- practically NOTHING going up the exhaust pipe but carbon dioxide and water vapor... no excess carbon and junk that wears the engine out like gassers and diesels...

Later! OL JR


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## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

FarmerCline said:


> I have always loved the look of a 730 and thought about buying one a few times but never having been on a 730 or any 2cyl deere for that matter I just can't get my mind wrapped around using a hand clutch. The had clutch just doesn't seem to be very user friendly in my mind......maybe it's not bad once you get used to it. If it wasn't for that I would probably own one.


The hand clutch is very nice when you are used to it. I started out with JD hand clutches so I didn't have the same problems I commonly see when adults who have always used a foot clutch have. They will try to use the left brake for the clutch if they aren't thinking. A well adjusted hand clutch is better and smoother operating than any foot clutch. They don't make a good loader tractor, but I did see a 730 diesel with wide front and heavy loader that had foot hydraulic controls rigged up similar to Bobcat skid loader controls. That was a good idea. Imagine trying to steer, shift, clutch, and throttle all with two hands. It can be done but its a bugger.

When I started running the small square baling tractor when I was a kid, Dad used his WD45 Allis. When you operate the hand clutch on those it goes the opposite direction as the JD. That confused me at first.

What I am saying is don't be afraid of the hand clutch tractors, kind of like like starting off using a smart phone and then having to figure out how to use a flip phone ... a little different but pretty easy.

LP tractors run pretty nice. They take a hose off the liquid valve on your tank and screw to the tractor with the common large fittings similar to those on anhydrous tanks. Any LP place can set you up to fill off your tank if you have a wet valve on your nurse tank.

Gassers are simpler than diesels or LP, but they do use quite a bit more fuel than Diesels, probably over double. Also gas now days gets old and crappy in no time and messes up carburetors so there is more maintenance on the gas tractors if they sit around too long without running.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Thanks Nate. And the picture doesn't even include the good lookin chick 5 years younger than me that took three rides with me-I was about to think she was going to ride home with me...


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Haha Hayman1 I use my lab pup as a woman getter, but tractors work to!


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Dagnabit now I want a 730


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

endrow said:


> Dagnabit now I want a 730


Well here you go endrow....up in your country.

Regards, Mike

http://reading.craigslist.org/grd/4800924086.html


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## mntractoraddict (Dec 7, 2014)

Love the JD 30 series two cylinder, sometimes we like to take ours out on the rake!!


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Nice looking 730 and rake!! Is it a gas or diesel?


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Send more cold rainy days my way Luke and I could read your "How we used to do it for hours". Have some experience with most of what was discussed.Started cutting hay with a JD A in early teens and used it until I got a NH 907 swather in 84.Would have to watch that backward clutch on a JD as I learned on Cats first and still us a old D6 for all tillage work. Did experience propane with a old AC K crawler,but never any cotton growing.

I also would like another JD 2 cylinder as I baled a lot of hay with the old A and balers with there own engine.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Ok Nate.. Looks like Wengers of Myerstown has some new ones. A 730 wide front gas with loader, a620 narrow gas, a 520 narrow gas, a 50 narrow and a 330 U. All are weighted front and back except the 330. There you go, have at it or anyone else for that matter. Website is www.wengers.com


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Nate926 said:


> Nice looking 730 and rake!! Is it a gas or diesel?


its a gasser.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Yeah, I hear ya... 

Thankfully never had to mess with those Wisconsin engine balers myself... WAY before my time... (born in 71). Dad and Grandpa, though... heard plenty of stories bout those old engine powered balers to know that I'm glad I never had to mess with them... They'd get hot, vapor lock, wouldn't start, sit for hours waiting for it to cool down enough to start, all that sort of jazz...

On that old Jubilee we had, the rear part of the right fender had a terrific dent and crease in it where the metal was rolled down like a can opener... Dad told me that one time the flywheel on one of those old engine-powered balers worked loose and got thrown off the front of the baler and slammed into the tire and fender of that old Jubilee and just bounced off and kept going-- about 50 yards out into the field before it finally rolled to a stop and fell over. He said luckily my Grandpa was turning at the time when it went flying or it would have slammed right into him and killed him most likely. Dad was like 15 at the time and raking hay a little ways away and saw the whole thing.

Later! OL JR


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## mntractoraddict (Dec 7, 2014)

Its a gas, bought new by Grandpa


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