Really off color auction find - yellow John Deere

Does anyone happen to have any production information on this little guy? It's a 3 cylinder gas 301-a made in 1974, but the kicker is the USN number painted on the hood. It's serial number plate has all sorts of data including the Department of Navy number and information. I am hoping to find out a little more about it. I haven't decided if I should keep it for my collection or if it needs to go live somewhere else. If I can find out how rare it is, that will probably help my decision making. Thanks in advance. I will try to upload a picture later. My phone isnt cooperating.

Deere Dubuque works in the two cylinder vertical engine days for small tractors offered them in several colors. Likely because they were often used by cities and counties to mow roadsides and parks and the customers wanted them to be more visible than the standard JD green. I'm guessing the 301 was also from Dubuque (if not from Germany) and given the same treatment.

Gerald J.

musta been in storage since 1975!

darrel in ND wrote: A John Deere from 1974 that still runs. .   ? Yup, that's rare! Darrel

Oh man, my 2640 is going to crap out this year?

With 14,000 hours on it, I guess it's allowed to. But shows no sign. And it's been used hard.

First some of you fellows need to remember that Deere still builds tractors and Allis doesn't and in 1974 Deere was selling three tractors to every one of Allis. (But I do understand this is the Allis Forum).                                                                                                          The 301 utility was the industrial version of the 1520 tractor. They were used in lots of applications and have been found in some very unusual colors. The plant at Dubuque would do almost whatever the customers wanted. You could contact the Two-cylinder Club and for a fee they will do a serial number research. That should give you build date and build codes. Dubuque keep very good records. The more you know about it the more it is worth but it seems that collectors are not paying the big money for the utilitiy tractors yet. Definitely an interesting tractor and a way to add some color to a collection. Tom  

Thanks for the information. I couldn't even find a total production for the 301a tractor let alone the number produced for the navy. The motor sounds good and the tractor sure drives nice but I don't know if I could get used to 3 cylinders!

JohnCO wrote: I can't help you with the JD but back 50 years ago when I was in High School I worked part time for the Ford Tractor dealer in town and he got a contract for some Ford 3000's that he had us sand and paint Olive Drab.  He got a machine somewhere that stamps out letters onto metal, kind of like a typewriter.  He had most all the info on how to service the tractor on the plates so if the manual got lost, (Manual, what manual?), the operator and shop guys could keep them going.  The were shipped to an U.S. Air Force Base in Turkey to mow the area.

Here is a Tractordata web page about the 301a:

Gerald J. wrote: I'm driving a three cylinder turbo'd Ford Fiesta hatch back. It runs smoothly above 1100 RPM or so. I rattles the load at slower engine speeds. Its red lined at 6500 RPM and the computer practically shuts it off when it gets that fast. The computer grumbles when loaded below 800 RPM too. The engine at low speed and close throttle has no guts, its easily killed. So far that hasn't broken anything. Beginning about 1970, MF-135 came with three cylinder Perkins gas or diesel engines. Before that the gas engine was a 4 cylinder Continental but the diesel was the three cylinder Perkins. Seemed to work fine. In the days of the two cylinder vertical Deere engines from Dubuque like the 420 and 430 the diesel option was a two stroke GM engine. Sounds like a 4 cylinder engine. Gerald J.

darrel in ND wrote: tomstractorsandtoys wrote: First some of you fellows need to remember that Deere still builds tractors and Allis doesn't and in 1974 Deere was selling three tractors to every one of Allis. (But I do understand this is the Allis Forum).                                                                                                          The 301 utility was the industrial version of the 1520 tractor. They were used in lots of applications and have been found in some very unusual colors. The plant at Dubuque would do almost whatever the customers wanted. You could contact the Two-cylinder Club and for a fee they will do a serial number research. That should give you build date and build codes. Dubuque keep very good records. The more you know about it the more it is worth but it seems that collectors are not paying the big money for the utilitiy tractors yet. Definitely an interesting tractor and a way to add some color to a collection. Tom   I am not gonna strike up a fight, but just have to add, that don't think for a minute that the John Deere fanatics don't bash allis to beat hell too. Probably worse than we allis collectors ever think of bashing Deere. Darrel

Both Deere and Allis built good tractors but seeing as how Deere essentially copied the AC 8000 series tractors with their 7000 and 8000 series tractors someone in Moline must have thought the AC had some better features.  

I'm a fan of any tractor I can buy cheap use it and it doesn't break down on me