Tag: GoPro

  • John Deere 730 Diesel

    The 730 Diesel is a pretty impressive machine. It was Deere’s largest row-crop two-cylinder, and also happened to be the last series to feature the two-cylinder before their introduction of the “New Generation” machines in 1960. The 730 was about the same size as the 3010, which according to Deere literature at the time, was its direct replacement.

    Driving a 730 Diesel is unlike any other machine, before or since (with the exception of the 720). This particular machine is a direct-drive electric start. The 720, which was a near-identical model before it, had more pony engine starters than electric starters. The Pony, or cranking engine, was a small gas engine that you would start up first, which would then be used to turn over the large diesel engine. The electric starters were large 24 volt starting systems.

    Since not everyone will have an opportunity to drive a 730 Diesel, I thought I’d share this video to replicate the experience as well as I can.

  • Planting with the John Deere A and LL-A Grain Drill

    This year I took the opportunity to have a little fun with planting oats in one of our smaller fields.  I used the 1947 John Deere Model A that I recently restored, as well as our old grain drill (aka planter, late 1950s).  It may not have been the quickest way to plant the oats, but I, and the dogs, had a lot of fun doing it!

    The three videos here show us getting the drill ready and making sure everything on it works.  The second video shows the John Deere 4230 disking the field.  Last year we used the Model A as well as the John Deere 2010 to plow the field.  Since it was plowed last fall, you disk it before you plant it to break up the larger chunks into a more fine powder, so the drill can do accurately seed the crop.  The final video shows the actual planting process.

  • JD 4230 with 945 MoCo Swathing Alfalfa Video + Timelapse

    This is a video of me swathing (windrowing) a small alfalfa field next to my parent’s place.  I love seeing old footage and videos on our farm–which not much exists of.  So, I try to record this type of stuff because maybe some day someone will find it as interesting as I do.

    The video is of a John Deere 4230 pulling a John Deere MoCo 945 pull-type rotary windrower.

    To create the video, I used two cameras, my cell phone (located on the top of the barn, doing the time-lapse), and a GoPro mounted onto the tractor and swather.  I used three mounts on the swather–one on the back of the cab, one on the front-right of the swather, and one on the back of the swather.  I didn’t point the camera down far enough when it was on the back to get anything that was really useful, so I didn’t use much of that video.  I tried to show time-lapse and footage that show roughly the same thing.  It’s not the greatest video in the world, but I thought it was pretty impressive for a first attempt.