JD H Road Gear?

[encrowe]

Anybody heard of a way to speed up a JD H and it's snail-like road gear?

 

[Dieseltech]

Even if you could, it might not pull any hills it came to.

 

[Sleufoot]

Call Don Dufner. Mr John Deere in the upper Midwest. He drives an H on our club tractor drives but as Dieseltech says may not do very well on hilly terrain. Most of our drives aren’t extremely hilly. He advertises high speed gears for tractor drives in the Green Magazine. His number is 701-942-3102. Tom in Mn.

 

[a49deere]

Anybody heard of a way to speed up a JD H and it's snail-like road gear?

Life is to short, Slow down and enjoy the scenery!

 

[Loosehandle]

Anybody heard of a way to speed up a JD H and it's snail-like road gear?

Sad to say its actually turning into tractor racing

 

[encrowe]

Sad to say its actually turning into tractor racing

About 20 years ago I lived in town and was time to get the H out to my newly constructed home about 3 miles away. One night my pal said "Hey, let's just pull it out there now"...well, he decided to crank it up to around 30mph with me on the tractor, he pulling with an F150...I almost crapped myself as I tried to keep it on the road. He was not a farm boy, plus beer fortified. Lucky I didn't die.

 

[JOCCO]

Can't help much on you original question. Years ago i dealt with some H there were low geared it seemed.

 

[HFP]

I can't find any pictures or videos online, but I have seen trailers made out of truck rear ends that hook up to the PTO. Put the tractor into neutral, engage the PTO and let the trailer push the tractor. Gear as you please.

 

[encrowe]

Can't help much on you original question. Years ago i dealt with some H there were low geared it seemed.

I can't find any pictures or videos online, but I have seen trailers made out of truck rear ends that hook up to the PTO. Put the tractor into neutral, engage the PTO and let the trailer push the tractor. Gear as you please.

Yes, I was envisioning the same sort of thing. But, have some decent weight on the trailer contraption so it doesn't slip and kick itself sideways...but then again, I'm talking about an H here...hardly enough power to move itself.

 

[HFP]

Found it!

Pto-Powered Cart Pushes Tractor At High Speeds

Rodney Wilsons pto-powered cart lets him take 4 adults for a ride behind his 1936 John Deere A. It also helps him keep up with faster tractors on a tractor ride. I call it my Road Runner Roadst...

www.farmshow.com

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Found it!

Pto-Powered Cart Pushes Tractor At High Speeds

Rodney Wilsons pto-powered cart lets him take 4 adults for a ride behind his 1936 John Deere A. It also helps him keep up with faster tractors on a tractor ride. I call it my Road Runner Roadst...

www.farmshow.com

That’s a unique solution!

The H you might cause some trouble no matter what you try it’s not known for being quite as robust the whole setup is driven off camshaft even a pto dive like that or an overdrive unit if one exists would be more strain on it.

Your best bet is some sort of trailer if you need to go fast

Late B and late A are a touch faster the A is 13.5 without any overdrive kit and that’s fast enough for me

 

[dan_41jdh]

The H you might cause some trouble no matter what you try it’s not known for being quite as robust the whole setup is driven off camshaft even a pto dive like that or an overdrive unit if one exists would be more strain on it.

Apparently, because all engine power of the “H” is directed through the camshaft, there seems to be a common perception that the “H” camshaft is a weak point. I’d be very interested in seeing an “H” camshaft that failed by breaking due to heavy loading. And regarding PTO capacity, the “H” Power Shaft is good for the full engine load, according to Deere. (This excerpt is from an April 1941 Deere & Co. letter to Branch Houses…)

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Apparently, because all engine power of the “H” is directed through the camshaft, there seems to be a common perception that the “H” camshaft is a weak point. I’d be very interested in seeing an “H” camshaft that failed by breaking due to heavy loading. And regarding PTO capacity, the “H” Power Shaft is good for the full engine load, according to Deere. (This excerpt is from an April 1941 Deere & Co. letter to Branch Houses…)

View attachment 148934

If you look up a user on this website Rholc he has a really good picture of what happens when the H is overloaded in one of his posts the cam end is twisted off much like the larger 2 cylinders crankshaft will do when the clutch splines fail. It’s just WAY smaller so while the pto is rated at full tractor horsepower we are talking 14 hp and failure happens SLIGHTLY more regularly. It’s just a much smaller shaft that clutch is on and it will still lug and outperform that hp rating just like the larger ones.

If they had made it like the large ones with the clutch on the crank imo the thing would have been almost indestructible since it would be a true smaller version of a B underpowered and light weight

 

[Powered By IH]

If you look up a user on this website Rholc he has a really good picture of what happens when the H is overloaded in one of his posts the cam end is twisted off

I don't see any of those posts from him about that?

 

[Fixingfarmer]

I don't see any of those posts from him about that?

 

[dan_41jdh]

If you look up a user on this website Rholc he has a really good picture of what happens when the H is overloaded in one of his posts the cam end is twisted off much like the larger 2 cylinders crankshaft will do when the clutch splines fail. It’s just WAY smaller so while the pto is rated at full tractor horsepower we are talking 14 hp and failure happens SLIGHTLY more regularly. It’s just a much smaller shaft that clutch is on and it will still lug and outperform that hp rating just like the larger ones.

If they had made it like the large ones with the clutch on the crank imo the thing would have been almost indestructible since it would be a true smaller version of a B underpowered and light weight

That picture is NOT of the camshaft, but instead is the LH end of the governor shaft. That twisted end was exposed after the owner removed his Power Lift unit which apparently seized or failed while the engine was running. That has happened more than once, and possibly because the owner failed to keep oil in the unit. Here's a picture of another identical failure.

 

[Loosehandle]

If you look up a user on this website Rholc he has a really good picture of what happens when the H is overloaded in one of his posts the cam end is twisted off much like the larger 2 cylinders crankshaft will do when the clutch splines fail. It’s just WAY smaller so while the pto is rated at full tractor horsepower we are talking 14 hp and failure happens SLIGHTLY more regularly. It’s just a much smaller shaft that clutch is on and it will still lug and outperform that hp rating just like the larger ones.

If they had made it like the large ones with the clutch on the crank imo the thing would have been almost indestructible since it would be a true smaller version of a B underpowered and light weight

The driving disc splines on a wartime B are far from indestructible. Being pushed by a trailer seems like a horrible idea anyway and is normally avoided.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

That picture is NOT of the camshaft, but instead is the LH end of the governor shaft. That twisted end was exposed after the owner removed his Power Lift unit which apparently seized or failed while the engine was running. That has happened more than once, and possibly because the owner failed to keep oil in the unit. Here's a picture of another identical failure.

View attachment 148977

Ah yes you are correct that is my mistake for some reason I was thinking the slotted end for the mag was on that side of the governor but I see the housing now as well that’s too high.

The though on the h sized “b” would be that it’s back to unstyled lower power

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

That picture is NOT of the camshaft, but instead is the LH end of the governor shaft. That twisted end was exposed after the owner removed his Power Lift unit which apparently seized or failed while the engine was running. That has happened more than once, and possibly because the owner failed to keep oil in the unit. Here's a picture of another identical failure.

View attachment 148977

Saw one just like that at a show flea market. Either seized from no oil or pull started with ice in the pump. More likely from the looks\ of the gears.

 

[dan_41jdh]

Saw one just like that at a show flea market. Either seized from no oil or pull started with ice in the pump. More likely from the looks\ of the gears.

Mike, good point about ice in the pump and someone who was determined to use brute force to break loose what he assumed was a stuck engine. But returning to the supposedly “small” and weak camshaft – Some time ago I made a somewhat crude analysis of torsional stress in the cam. The smallest diameter of the ’39 camshaft is about 1.150”, and assuming the camshaft would transmit 15 HP at 700 RPM, the resultant shear stress from torsion in that smallest area of the cam would be around 4,500 psi which is probably about ¼ of what would be considered allowable, and much less than what would cause actual failure. Going deeper into the drive train, the sliding gear shaft (driven by the first reduction gear) will see a significantly higher shear stress, around 7,000 psi, more than 1.5 times that of the camshaft. Which tells me that people should be more concerned about the sliding gear shaft than the camshaft….