1940 John Deere Model AR - New Acquisition

I guess my previous post let the cat out of the bag. And I forgot to make a blog entry for this new tractor. And this particular tractor put me over the edge, so to speak. My saying to folks when they've asked how many tractors I have, I could always say, "More than one and less than 10." I can't say that anymore (but only IF you count my H parts tractor). I never thought I'd have that many. I did have nine tractors three years ago but sold several, and I do have one for sale now and the parts tractor should come up for sale in the near future, if things go well, so there's that. Moving on, here is my new tractor, a 1940 John Deere AR.

The Model AR was the "standard" version of Model A line (versus the "row crop" version). The A started in 1934 with a 309 cubic two cylinder engine, about 26 horsepower, and that was hand-start only, like all their tractors at the time. To start these tractors, you open up compression relief petcocks, and then turn the engine over by hand using the large external flywheel on the left side of the engine. The A had a two speed transmission with high and low, so four forward speeds and one reverse.

As you can see below, the rear wheels are round spoke, and they were made by French & Hecht (F&H) for John Deere. The particular tires on these wheels are very small and kind of get lost in the large rear fenders. These next two photos below are in the previous owner's (Frank's) shop.

Coincidentally Frank had sold me his John Deere BO two years ago (read about that here), which I still have. My problem is, he makes me offers I can't refuse. When he still had the BO, he had picked up this AR and the rear round spoke F&H wheels were on the BO, so he put them on this AR before he sold the BO to me.

Getting back to current times, a couple of months ago he mentioned he might be selling this AR. I told him I'd like to have a chance to buy the F&H wheels to put on my BO, and said if it involved buying the AR, I might be up for that purchase, depending on how much he wanted for it.

Well, a John Deere Model AOS (a rare tractor) popped up in our tractor club's radar a few weeks ago. Frank has always wanted one, so on his trip to look at it, he started making me offers via text to buy his AR because he really, really wanted this AOS. I didn't really pay attention to the texts because the price was a bit on the high side (starting at $6k). Well, time started ticking by and the price kept coming down. Finally he made a final offer and I broke down and said I'd buy the AR. I don't really want to say how much I paid, but it was significantly less than his original offer. One caveat though, he wanted the F&H wheels for his new AOS. I was OK with that, mainly because the AOS's rear wheels and tires were more suited to my AR than the F&H wheels and tires. Also, I was getting a new AR. I think I like it better than my BO, but I really should give it time, as any new-to-me tractor becomes my favorite for a while.

The next two photos below show the AR's tight fit side to side into my little dump trailer. There was a couple inch gap on each side, but it would be much less back where the tailgate hinges poke inward from the trailer sides.

This next photo shows the small tire in the large fender opening.

While it is still not ideal, these larger tires do fill out the fender better. These wheels and the F&H's are both 24 inches in diameter, it's just the tires that are bigger on these solid center wheels. JD did sell an optional 26 inch wheel which would be ideal, but I can live with these wheels and tires. They didn't cost me anything additional, and they weigh probably 500 pounds more than the F&H wheels and tires (I'm guessing the tractor would tip the scales at or above 5,000 pounds now). I also like the beefy look of the "new" wheels. The rear round spokes looked nice but just a little.... spindly for this big tractor.