John Deere 494AN? 4 row planter

[MarinMi]

Hello all. New member here. I am looking at purchasing a John Deere 4 row planter. It is advertised as a 494A. However, it has a 494AN painted on the side. I will attach pictures. I could not find anything on the internet about this 494AN. Was there ever such a thing? I found very little Info regarding a 694 AN. It is setup as 30 rows. Thanks in advance

 

[MarinMi]

Trying to figure out how to upload images

 

[MarinMi]

More images

 

[J Hamilton]

I had a 494AN many years ago, it was a good
machine. So, yes they did build them.

 

[rrlund]

I had a 694AN. I always figured the N meant a narrow row frame but you couldn't prove it by me. That one looks like the frame is
wide enough or wide rows too, so...?

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

The AN was the later version of the 494A. It was made so the wheels could be in two different positions so that it could be narrowed up for 30
inch rows. All parts will be the same as a 494A and Deere sold thousands of those. You also have the larger seed hoppers. The 494AN was
replaced by the 1240 which still is 99% the same planter. Tom

 

[MarinMi]

Thank you all for the fast responses. Anyone have a good lead on seed plates?

 

[matthies]

Was that planter ever used?? Sure looks good. Any old seed sales man will have the plates you need. I know mine does.

 

[caterpillar guy]

With a planter that new I would look at a slightly newer model that was plateless. Was only about one or 2 models from that. In fact I thought some of the 90or 94 series planters were plateless. Just saves fooling around with plates and finding the right size or having to deal with whether the seed is rounds or flats.

 

[swindave]

thats one nice looking planter! and as the other people as said,
its basically the frame is for narrow rows,

looks like a new one

 

[Leroy]

You will not find such a thing as a 494AN in any parts books and I have never heard of a 494AN. I did have a 494A and it did have some different parts for narrow rows like 30 but no AN number. Was not repainted to cover anything up. You could set it for from 28 rows to 42 rows, And that was the same as the 494. But some of them you had to use the small straight sided seed boxes as the larger boxes would not clear the tires. The 694 was a wide row only planter, then a 694A was wide row and 694AN was narrow row and same thing for 8 row planter. For it to have a 494AN decal somebody had to have added the N from decal set for a 694AN or 894AN. I have had from the 999, 290, 450, 490, 494, & 494A and 246. And multipules of some of the models.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

I have sales brochures that talk about the 494AN so they were built. Tom

 

[Leroy]

If you have them post good readable pictures of them.

 

[Brendon-KS]

Here's a picture of a 494AN-694AN operator's manual that is for sale right now on a particular on-line auction site.

 

[J.Wondergem]

LOL.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

Here they are. Tom

 

[wore out]

(quoted from post at 17:50:32 04/28/22) You will not find such a thing as a 494AN in any parts books and I have never heard of a 494AN. I did have a 494A and it did have some different parts for narrow rows like 30 but no AN number. Was not repainted to cover anything up. You could set it for from 28 rows to 42 rows, And that was the same as the 494. But some of them you had to use the small straight sided seed boxes as the larger boxes would not clear the tires. The 694 was a wide row only planter, then a 694A was wide row and 694AN was narrow row and same thing for 8 row planter. For it to have a 494AN decal somebody had to have added the N from decal set for a 694AN or 894AN. I have had from the 999, 290, 450, 490, 494, & 494A and 246. And multipules of some of the models.

PC981

 

[Bob Bancroft]

I switched axles once, between two planters. I believe one was a 494A and one was a 1240. One axle was made for wide rows and one
for narrow.

 

[Timmycornpicker]

ok, so if I understand this correctly, the 494A could be set for 4 wide rows or 4 narrow rows. The 494AN had a wider frame so it could be set up for 4 wide rows or 6 narrow rows. There's the difference. It makes sense, since a guy who had a 4 row wide corn head on a 95 combine might want a new planter, then a couple years later trade on a 105 with a 6 row narrow corn head so he could just add two row units instead of trading for a new planter.

 

[spacechem]

Timmy- Of course your scenario is possible but much more likely he was planting four and had a two row cornhead on maybe a 55 and went to planting 6 and picking three. The four row cornhead [i:087551f055]was[/i:087551f055] offered for the 95 as a marketing response to IH but not very practical.

This post was edited by spacechem on 04/30/2022 at 08:01 am.

 

[spacechem]

Thanks for the literature page, Tom. I thought I knew a bit about Deere planters but that was just slightly before my time. But now you've rather left us hanging! So what's the difference between a 694AN and a 494AN with the two extra units added? I did think the fertilizer boxes looked kinda big in the OP's post, but put it down to the photo angle. Possible the frame was the same? But then why could the 494AN plant 6-28s or 6-30s but the 694AN only 6-30s?

This post was edited by spacechem on 04/30/2022 at 08:07 am.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

I was surprised to see the 494a being offered the same time as the 1240's. I thought the 1240's were a newer 494A. The 1240's I thought were
available as plate or a plate less. But this brochure says only plate less. Dad had a new 1240 plate less and I have a nice 494A in my
collection although I plant with a 4 row 7200. Tom

 

[chcase]

I own a P1240 planter. It's a plate planter and you can change the wheel spacing to plant wide or narrow rows.I was told that the deere planters with N on the end of there model number indicated that the planter was able to be set up for narrow rows

 

[ss55]

Sounds a bit like the JD 1250 plateless planter of the early 1970s. It had a could be configured as either four 40 inch wide rows or six 30 inch narrow rows.

 

[SDMike]

Tom, here's another one for sale. I think it is interesting that the planter in the OP's picture has runner openers and not disc openers.

Mike

 

[MarinMi]

(quoted from post at 06:08:22 05/03/22) Tom, here's another one for sale. I think it is interesting that the planter in the OP's picture has runner openers and not disc openers.

Mike
<img src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto124652.jpg>

I believe all the 494 planters have rubber openers but the double disc openers are optional attachments.