Repowered Deere 5020 Tractors Fitted With 4640 Cabs

Repowered Deere 5020 tractors fitted with 4640 Cabs TRACTORS Cabs 13-6-7 "Our repowered Deere 5020 tractors are quiet, cheap and extremely dependable," says Russ Day, Grimes, Iowa, who helped his father Dennis and friend Ed Meade replace the original 110-hp diesel engines on three used 5020's with used 318-hp Detroit V-8 diesel truck engines and also installed Sound Gard cabs removed from Deere 4640 tractors. "These are our big horsepower tractors," says Russ. "The 5020 tractor came factory-equipped with an underpowered 110 hp diesel engine which had a lot of problems, and it also needed better power steering. The Detroit 871 engine we replaced it with is normally used in semitrucks. It's factory-rated at 318 hp, and we turbocharged one engine to deliver 350 hp. However, the implements we pull don't demand that much power so we reduced horsepower to 250 hp. At that rate the engines should last virtually forever. "We paid less than $5,000 for each of the tractors. One had been wrecked in a train accident, one had a burned out cab, and one didn't have an engine or cab. We spent less than $6,000 to repower each tractor and install new cabs. Now they do the same work day in and day out as new $80,000 tractors. They aren't equipped with power shift transmissions, but the engines have so much reserve torque that we can run them at half throttle so we don't have to constantly shift gears. These truck engines are twice as powerful and four times more reliable than tractor engines. One engine had already worn out two semi trucks before we bought it. We repowered our first tractor in 1973 and it has more than 6,000 hours on it. We've never touched it." The Days use the tractors to pull a 24ft. wide tandem disk at 6 1/2 mph as deep as it will go in the ground, as well as a 30ft. finishing disk and a 30-ft. field cultivator. They use one tractor without fluid in its tires for light duty row crop and field cultivator work. The tractors equipped with naturally aspirated engines have dual exhausts mounted on the sides of the tractors. Frame rails welded to the sides of all three tractors support an extra front mounted 50-gal, fuel tank and air cleaner. The 5020s were built before Deere made the Sound Gard cab. In order to make room for the Sound Gard cabs, which were designed for 4640s, the Days had to replace the power steering on all three 5020's with the power steering from a Deere 4640 tractor and remount the gear shifters. "The newer cabs are much quieter, less dusty, and ride much smoother because of the hydraulically cushioned seat," says Russ, who notes that it took about four months to repower each tractor. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Russ Day, Rt. 2, Grimes, Iowa 50111(ph 515 270-4509).

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