Making a turn as soon as possible I went back to the bright green John Deeres, to find that they were, indeed, sporting very new coats of John Deere green paint. While walking around the pair and examining them closely, the owner came out to gab. It transpired that he had fairly recently restored the two and now proudly displays them beside the street in front of his house.
Through the production run of the M the famous
Johnny Popper, the John Deere D, remained in production. While the D used a large, 465 cubic inch (7.6 Litre) horizontal two cylinder engine running at a mere 800 RPM, the M was powered by a much smaller 100.5 cubic inch (1.6 Litre) upright two cylinder engine turning at just over twice the speed, 1650 RPM.
The John Deere M was manufactured from 1947 to 1952, as a small utility tractor for use on small farms, orchards, market gardens, etc. There were three other variants of the M: the MT tricycle and MI industrial models, with a Crawler version, the Model MC, being added in 1949. The M replaced the
BR series, manufactured from 1936 to 1947, and in 1953 was replaced by the
John Deere 40, an example of which stands beside this unit.
This unit, sporting serial number 40079, was built in 1950, in the middle of the production run. A 3 point hitch was, to our knowledge, optional equipment. A PTO and belt pulley (at the rear) were standard equipment. This was the first model to use Deere's Touch-O-Matic hydraulic system.
Following are some of the specs. on the John Deere M series.
- Weight: 2,600 lbs - 1179 kg
- Power: Drawbar (tested): 18.15 hp - Belt (tested): 20.45 hp
- Chassis: 4x2 2WD
- Steering: Manual
- Brakes: differential mechanical disc
- Cab: Open operator station.
- Transmission: 4-speed unsynchronized gear
- Speeds (mph): 1.6, 3.1, 4.3, 10
- Reverse: 1.6
- Engine: John Deere 1.6L 2-cyl gasoline
- Displacement: 100.5 ci - 1.6 L
- Bore/Stroke: 4.00x4.00 inches - 102 x 102 mm
- Air cleaner: oil bath
- Compression: 6:1:1
- Rated RPM: 1650
- Firing order: 1-2
- Starter volts: 6
From Tractordata
