1992 JD 4960 Tractor with 14 Hours - Sat Outside for 20 Years 

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Love this story. Love to hear y’all go to church Love to hear you say GRANDPA Reminds me of my grandpa Hey was a great man. Miss him. 😢

My grandfather had one. It was my absolutely favorite tractor to use when I was a kid.

I used a 4955 for years... the 60 series was the first year they relocated the exhaust to the cab corner for better vision. Pulled like an animal! : ) great tractors.

I grew up driving the 4840 series with my dad in the late 70s and early 80s and I loved every minute of it and miss those days so much

I'm a old IH fan and collect them on my farm. I never got into John Deere too much but it is a beautiful tractor. Good find. I like driving my neighbors 4960. Very nice tractor.

That is such a gorgeous Deere! All the 4000 series tractors I've run have had only 2 remotes so seein 4 levers is quite a sight!

Ryan, you are so lucky! That thing is brand new!

Strange story but it does happen. At the John Deere Expo years ago there was a "70" gas with no hours on it. Paint still on exhaust manifold, cylinder hanging on it that never had hoses. The dealer brought it out and the guy backed it into the shed. Batteries died, JD said they wouldn't replace them it was up to the battery manufacture. The guy got ticked and it was never started again. If I remember right it still hadn't been started when it was at the Expo. Nice find on the 4960.

What a neat story. I have friend who picked up a 4455 2wd Power Shift from an auction. It had between 800-900 hours on it. Came out of Ohio too.....was owned by a guy that owned a Deere dealer and play farmed like 300 acres. It was stored inside its whole life and was breath taking. Perfect paint, interior, and no fading. I've been Deere tech my whole life and worked for him on the side. So when he told me he bought it and it was coming for a winter inspection I was looking for a pretty paint job buy me disaster. The inspection cost more than the petty couple of things it needed. We used it for the planter clinic hooked to his new 1770 planter and you couldn't tell which one was newer. It has the same sweet life now. Only plants corn and if needed a couple standby gravity wagons to dump on in harvest if the semi gets delayed.

I am happy this machine is being used....nothing sadder than a machine rotting in a field

Wow! What a find! In the early 90's when I first started pullin wrenchs at a local repair shop in Nance county Nebraska, had this old farmer, a local guy who would come into the shop once a year, to get his tractors checked out had a ''79" IH 986 with 50 actual hrs on it, no joke still smelled new inside the tractor still had the dealership tags hangin inside it,plastic on the seat, I still remember that ole boy sayin don't scuff my paint!!! He was a very picky,persistant man, But one of the nicer ole fellers that you'da ever met! Also had an early '82' 4450 MFWD JD, 120hrs on it, same way plastic on the seat cardboard on the floor the whole ball of wax, At that time this ole boy was about 77 or 78 years old,owned 320 acres& the ground was rented out! Same as here, bought the 2 tractors retired,&put them in the shed never ran them, except bring them into town once a year to have oil changed&greased, I still remember when that ole boy passed away in the late 90's tractors still looked the same&brought a whore house price on his farm sale that year in January, people just couldn't believe it! There out there Guys! If you look hard enough you can find'em! Amazing! Thanks Pete for sharing this story on this JD 4960, it was much appreciated!

That engine sounds really good. Surprised that it wasn't rusted up inside from condensation. Beautiful tractor!

Stories that you hear and find hard to believe. Yet, some are true!! Wow! What a find!

Good to see that it was saved from rusting away, now it can do what it was made to do, work.

I live near Rushville and have never heard this story. Amazing!

nice job Pete. It's great to hear these stories. I grew up on a JD Mod. 60. Thanks for sharing Ryan. I'm sure the old man needed to buy equipment for a tax write off and didn't sell because he didn't want to have to pay the taxes. I understand that concept. It just gets harder to do that in these times.

We have the same year 4960 and love it👍

I Drove A 4850 for years on the farm.. Good tractor

Awesome find. Great story.

That's a good looking tractor. Ryan did a great job getting that tractor back to working shape. Really is a shame that sat out there like that all those years.

thats amazing ... greats to the owner he got himself an awesome tractor ....

i worked these 4960 lots of power and ride really well

Wow....I am getting old. 1992 does NOT seem like that long ago, here talking like it was ancient times...seems like yesterday.

I live in North central Iowa. Have seen this happen a few other times before. Farmer retires and rents his land out. Instead of a farm sale were he would give a huge chuck of money to the IRS, he just keeps it. Some times selling off a few pieces of equipment several years later at a much lower income tax rate.

I own a 1969 2520 Hi Crop with 4100 hrs true. 2nd. owner. Have owned it since 83. Nice tractor, think I might keep it......

Nice find. AND THANK YOU FARMERS !!!!!!

Had one, damn good tractor and great horsepower

The owner and I unloaded this tractor off the trailer and put it in the shop. Where it sat for about 2 years moving it in and out as we need the shop the tractor never was hooked to anything it only had about 9 hours when we unloaded it. I was the one who parked the tractor outside the owner would not use it because it had Goodyear tires on it. (he read that they made a vibration ) we were harvesting corn and the combine broke and we had to put it in the shop to work on it I move the 4960 to the area beside the shop. The owner said to leave it outside as he was tired of us moving it to use the shop. the last time I remember it was started was in fall of 1997 I moved it down the drive way and parked back where you found it. The locked up 4020 was locked up when I stated to work there and the owners said it had a burnt piston form turning up the pump. The owner was a good mechanic and took real good care of his tractors. He lost a couple of the farm fields that he rented and his sister want to sell the home farm we farmed up until 1997 when he parked all of the equipment.

wow that tractor reminds me of my 1952 international super ai witch sat in a barn for 15 years and fired right up when I worked on it amazingly it still had the old v print tires

Awesome find, I just can't believe someone would spend $76k on a new tractor and say the heck with farming and letting it set outside for 20 years after not even breaking it in

When tractors didn't have epa shit all over them. And farmers could actually work on them .

What a great find.

That is a beautiful tractor

Old JD from 1992 are very good Tractors

Almost the exact same design as the 4560 I drove (Though of course, what I drove was no where NEAR the condition this 4960 is in, then again, this 4560 I drove is used in the business of pumping manure pits, so it's pretty dirty, but it also had 4 hydraulics on it)

How can someone leave such a beaut like that outside?!

That was quite a treasure to find and have.

We had a local farmer that bought a bunch of new equipment, then quit farming and decided to shed them for 25 years without starting them ever. So when they got basically nothing with no hours he was upset but not having hours isn't a great thing. You will be rebuilding much of it.

i wanna know why I can never find anything like this

Wished I could hear what the guy was saying.

great story. wish they would have said what it took to get it running. my experience with machines that sit arent good. for one condensation had to build up in all the internals unless who ever parked it started it once in a while. And not to bust on green too much i havnt seen one that doesnt leak oil somwhere. good thing theres crazy jd collectors out there.

Wow! Great find!

Out in North Dakota we leave all the equipment outside in the field it last worked. Barns are many miles away, and aren’t big enough to hold it all anyways.

It is sad that fine of a tractor would sit outside for one day not years. That was the daddy rabbit for the second generation John Deeres. Glad to see that it has a good home now.

I've got a 1955 johndeere 420u with 980 hours on it. It kind of surprised me considering it is actually still used for little tasks

On my farm I owned 4 JD 3020's, Those things drive like sports cars. My brother still has the 71 model we bought new. We had a 4440 and two 4250 four wheel drives. Unfortunate circumstances caused us to loose those and the entire farm. Twelve years ago I worked on a farm for a while. This man did things in twos. When he needed new tractors he bought two and just kept the old ones. He had two 4020s, two 4850 four wheel drive and two 4960 four wheel drive and his new toy was a 8400. The 4850s handled just like my 4250s and were a dream to drive. The 4960s were plastic pieces of crap, at least the cabs and seats were. On one 4960 I had to buy my own seventy dollar crows foot wrench so I could keep re-tightening the outlet fitting on the main hydraulic pump. The 8400 was annoying to drive, the throttle and gear shift did not immediately do anything, the tractor would take a few seconds to decide if it wanted to do what you told it.

Couple of weeks ago I was looking at a Ford/ New Holland 7840. 1997 year with only 780 hrs & barn stored in England

These 4960's have power! Only thing is there's not enough lights, the fender lights get covered with mud or dust in minutes.

Great story! You should do an update on it. Thanks!

A lot of farmers that inherit “old money farms” have to spend so much money to keep from paying taxes. I’m not sure how it works just know some ol boys that buy brand new tractors every year because if they they didn’t they would have to pay more in taxes than what the equipment cost. Kinda interesting I’m just wondering if this is what happen.

Amazing story!

sure seems calm for a guy who lives in rushville!

You have one of the most interesting jobs I can imagine

Would have liked to see it start up and idle and listen to it maybe drive a little bit

Excellent interview!

Beautiful tractor.

I would like to see a video of him getting it started after all that time

Not much into tractors, but that right there is COOL!

That was the last series of nice looking deeres in my opinion. After this they put more flat metal down the sides, then they started all the space ship curvy hood nonsense. amazing find with those hours. Judgeing by what other JD are going for at auction once they get a bit older, maybe he should put it in the shed for another ten years. Prolly worth 100 grand then to some collector haha.(see petes vid about a 50K 4020)

Must be nice to have the money to buy a great piece of equipment and literally park this VIRTUALLY BRAND NEW tractor and there it sat for 20yrs. WOW. The best part IT'S A DEERE! It could've sat there for 20 more years! Bet it probably still would've started even with the 20yr old Diesel in it!

I think the original owner must have had something very tragic happen which caused him to just stop everything. I've never known anyone to just leave all the equipment outside and not sell anything after its done being used

para mi estaba en estado de abandono ha sido recuperado y le están dando uso para lo que fue creado para trabajar en el campo agricola.-

Just interested in what all you had to do to get it running? Did it fire right up? I know this is no-one's business but what did you have to give for it? (don't expect an answer but curious?) I would LOVE to know what all it took?? Thank You!

amazing story

Nice, thanks for sharing!

Ryan speaks well.

The new owner seems a nice fella.

There's a 4850 here, same story no hours, used it one time and sat since new.

I have a 1566 with 1060 hours that sat outside 30 years

I knew an old farmer that had every car and truck that he had owned his complete life. Had them parked out in the woods. They were all rusted down to nothing and big limbs had fallen on them my two favorites was a 32 Chevrolet pickup I think was a 32. And a 40 chevy coupe. Mostly have been destroyed by the elements way beyond being restored now. You didnt bother him about buying them either. Negotiations for the purchase was not on the table.

Sure it didn’t roll the hours back? If I’m currect those may have the manual hour counter still and once they hit 10,000 they roll back to 0???

What is hapening with the tractor now could you do a update please?

Our mid 1970's Ford 4500 backhoe has 770 hrs on it.

wow what a find!!

that would be a dream come true

man what a find

What a story!!

Haha! Our 4955 looks nothing like this, but she's still running after a rebuild!

Great Story!

Awesome JD the only way to go

Very good.

Im just speachless

My first John Deere AR

the first tractor I drove is still going. 1938 model B general purpose.

What a total waste of time! 11 minutes of waffle but no mention whatsoever of the all important price he got it for!!!!!

WOW... All I can say is what everyone wants to know... How much did the new owners pay for the tractor??? It doesn't really matter what the original owner paid ($72K back in 1992), only matters what they paid for it in 2012. Love to see that bad boy go on the auction block. You could almost guarantee it would set a new record as well!

Look's like it got a good home now.

Very cool!!! and Interesting!!

Looks great

shit i put more than 14 hours on my kubota just yesterday.

14hours? he had more money than sense

wicked awesome

here in Europe it common to spec your tractor whit 4 hydralics and always mudgards!. And i know deere brought back to te US a greate nummber of 4960 for some reasone. maby this was one of those EU spec 4960. you can se it if t´he vechicle model on the serial plate is 4955. becuse we never got 4960 here. only updated 4960. but deere switched the numbers when they got to the US.

YES GOOD TRACTOR💪

My guess would be he bought it with an insurance policy that if something happened to his source of income the insurance would make the payments on it until it was paid off or able to make money with it. The old farmer couldn't sell it or use it but it was being paid off surely but slowly.

I cut my teeth on a 52 John Deere B. Discing... Next year I got on the G plowing. 3 14s .. I still love to turn over the dirt... The g had a 3 gear with high low lever.. Giving you 6 gears I could get the sled on the road moving and in 5th gear. And then match every thing up pull out the clutch and kick the hi lo with my foot and not grind a gear rolling. 6th gear pulling sled with railroad iron runners and 2 discs on it. Smoke rolling off the runners on the tar road. I was big stuff.?ha ha. 14 hrs old. That sled was neatest thing for putting up hay. Easy to throw bales on.

What did you have to do to get it started?

Greg, did he mention what he had to do to get it running again? Just batteries and fuel/filter?

I guese i missed it , but how much did he pick this 4960 up for ? Great find & great tractor...