Early John Deere Loaders (#26, Model 25, Model 30, Model 45) 

My dad bought a 520 JD in 1971 it had a 45 loader on it. The 520 has a wide front end so the arms of the loader curved over the axle. I was amazed at how much it would lift. I spent many hours working that tractor and loader. Still have both but they don’t work very hard anymore.

Thanks for the video. We have a 4010 gas that was bought new in 1962 with a 45 loader, and i have the paperwork and owners manuals for both. Very handy around the farm for pushing snow, although I have a bigger loader as my primary farm loader.

I have 2 #45 loaders at present . One is mounted on one of my 1958 520’s. I moved the trip lever to the left side so that my left hand wouldn’t think that I had forgotten about it. That makes operating the manual trip much easier.

Dad had a 45 loader on a 60 gas with the trip bucket. It got used hard, loading manure and later using the snow bucket to fill the silage wagon out of the pit silo. Later on he got tired of the toll the bucket trip system was taking on the walls of the silage wagon (as well as the leverage it often took to get the bucket to trip), so he built his own system to make the bucket also hydraulically operated. It worked, although this taxed the capacity of the hydraulic pump, and added even more weight to the front of the tractor. Thank goodness our 60 had power steering. Eventually it was replaced with a very fine and robust Westendorf loader that fit on the 3010 and 4020. One weakness, if you can call it that, on these loaders was the pipe that connected both sides of the frame right above the bucket. It would flex and crack under load-most old 45's I have seen have repair welding and reinforcing iron on this piece. I believe the 45 was designed with the thought it would be used to move heavier materials with the tine bucket, or with the smaller bucket attachment. Many farmers pushed this by loading about anything they could with the snow bucket. This would tilt on a slope, or with an uneven load, putting a strain on the center section of the frame that it was not designed to handle. In other words, the 45 was often used to move materials that were truly above its weight. For this reason we remember it with fondness and with great respect.

When i was of age to operate my uncles JDA tractors ,he would ask my Mother yo bring down to the farm ,as they were going to clean out the heifer pens .My one uncle had a 45 loader mounted on a 60 .My older cousins would operate the loader n hauled the loaded manure spreader out to the fields with a JD 630 . That was such beautiful tractor the 630 n it was big improvement over the As n the 60 s. My uncle Harold bought that 630 new in 1958 for $3800 .I can't even comprehend how JD could manufacture n sell that tractor for that small amount of money n still make a profit ! That when a Dollar was a Dollar n thats when a smoke was a smoke ! Lol as in reference to John Mellencamps song . Im 66 yrs old now .I was 8 yrs old when my uncles taught me how to run those tractors n farm equipment .Anyone who grew up onin those days,i hope thanks the Lord for putting them in the time n place to be able to grow up on the Dairy farms in the late 50s n Through 60s into the 70 n 80s .From age 6 till 19 i would live at my uncle Merrills farm in Pennsylvania n help farm n milk cows . It made made me who i am today . My younger cousins still can't believe how fast i can shift a JD 2 cylinder A from 6 to 5 under load or from Reverse back to 4 or 5 gear whenhung up in deep mud .We used those A ti haul JD 216 chuckwagons loaded round full back n forthto trench silo. We farmed on steep side hills. All of our tractors had calcium on the rear tires for ballast n weight .We had 2 4020 s a 3020with a loader on it thise 3 JD As 2 of the As were from 1950 ,only one hada Cehsela power steering on it. Our haywagons were homebulit n we could get 165 bales onthem with .inium stacking in the front . So as we big equipment that a 4020 could handle thise JD s were struggling to hold back those weight of our wagons or pulling those empties ,sometimes 3 together behind the yellow sided A that wepainted . I learned speed shift those Twocylinder tractors on the road underliad ,downshift from 6 to 5 without loseing momentum up the hills . When youkicked the tractor out of gearcoming diwn the hill ,being that the water ballast was only halfway filled in the tires ,they would start hoping offf the surface of the riad at 35mph . Try to slow a tractir down with individualwheel brakes on anA I got to the farm n i was white as ghost ,scared! The hired guy who was 16 at the time n shiwedme that truck ,laughed his ass off when i told him what happened .It happened to him also .I only had a the manure spreader behind that time.Another time the silade wagonstarted to push the A diwn the road ,slindind the rear wheels on dry macadum .We shelling corn into a 125 JD Chuck wagon with the 3020 hooked on the front ,inthe valley onthe way back to farm the tractor had barely enough power to in 2 gear ti come up the hill on dry macadum ! Us kids found out without dieing to not overload the wagons ! I think back how Lucky we were never killed and jt because our Grandparents instilled a string believe in God .At 66 yrs of age i know deep in my heart that Gidwas protecting me many times while living on thefarmn riding Harleys acrosd this great country and working in the steel industry my whole adult life . May the Lordwith you in everything you do !

My dad had a 45W mounted on a Farmall Super H back in the day

I have a 45W loader on a JD 60. It has a hydralic bucket and I used it for 20years. The main problem was the 60 had a narrow front, and no power steering. I lifted 1500 lbs round bales for years and never had a problem. Now I have a 46A loader on a 3020, wide front, and it would be hard to go back.

I have a 45 loader on my 70, which I have had and used for over 40 years!

I bought a "45" Loder used , and mounted it on a 3020 power shift tractor , we replaced the trip bucket with a hydraulic buckit kit . it was a great loder. A fellow that worked for me had previous experience on a farm that had a John Deere 1010 crawler with a loder, and he said the 3020 setup was far superior for manure clean up.

I have a 45 loader on a 60, in its day it was a very good loader, still use it today. Nothing Runs Like A Deere

Model 30 loader mounted on John Deere B was my upper body work out as a kid. With no power steering it was a bear to turn, but way better than a fork or shovel!

I grew up with a similar set up for doing manure loader work but with Allis Chalmers CA model. We moved over to John Deere in the 70s.

Awesome!

Pretty cool. Thanks. I just bought a 1970 1020 with a pretty heavy duty loader on it very similar to the loader on my grandfather’s old Ford Jubilee. Would love to see a video on the 1020s.

Worked on farm when I was 13 years old and that is what we cleaned out with

I own a 45 with the 80 some odd inch bucket

I remember how painfully slow it was seeing my grandfather loading a spreader with a trip bucket loader . But back then it was a God send for him Im sure.

Had a John Deere 620 with a loader 20-30 minutes with it and you were a pro herded me to Pitchfork nowadays everything's hydraulic

I grew up with a farmhand loader monitor on a John Deere. It had the single push on the cylinder to raise it, and it came down by gravity. The bucket was a trip bucket with the forks for the manure and then at least a 5 foot wide. I’m thinking it was more like 6 foot wide attachment bucket for pushing snow. The problem with mounting the snow bucket was at the forks got bent when you were loading manure so you have to be out there with a sledgehammer, pounding those things back into correct placement so that you could get them into the snow bucket.

I've pitched my share of manure into and out of an old spreader. I bought a 45 loader for my JD60 and had minimal issues with running the loader, clutch and trip bucket. It was nice to have a second tractor hitched to the R spreader. I have found a 45 loader with the hydraulic bucket attachment, just haven't bought it yet.

We had a 46A with a trip bucket on a 3010 diesel. Eventually converted to hydraulic.

All I have to say is... Thank god for live power & open center hydraulics becoming common and Du-AL and Koyker for taking advantage of it in those early days.

I truly enjoy these videos so much

I currently own three 45 loaders and have all available options except the crane. I too would like to find one and am always looking.

I would like to see a video of putting on and taking off a John Deer 45 loader.

My first "real" job was working at the local John Deere dealership. The main lifting machine was a 1950 G with a factory boom crane.

Cool 😎 history of JD Tractors and Equipment.. looking forward to more history videos..

Still have Dad's 520 with 45 trip loader tines and 2 buckets still use it also

I have a Massey Ferguson 12 garden tractor. I built a winch up and gravity down loader for it years ago. I put a trip bucket on it. It works fine. Great video, have a great day.

That’s badass dude

Great video on the JD loaders!! When I had just graduated college in 1979, and was getting very deep into two cylinder restoration and collecting, a good friend of mine, who was a tremendous collector and dairy farmer, had a 26 loader for sale. Not sure what I was thinking, but I bought it, and it was laying on one of our hay wagons for about a year. I put an ad in Gas Engine Magazine for this for sale, and someone from Iowa called me up and wanted it for his John Deere tractor restoration, to enter this into the Old Thresherman's Show in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. I lived on our farm in New Jersey, so he drove out to pick it up. We parked the wagon with the loader on it under a very big Maple tree with a great horizontal limb that was perfect to hang my large chain hoist on. We lifted the loader up high enough to move the wagon out and for the man from Iowa to back his trailer under the loader and then lowered the hoist to set the loader onto his trailer, with no problems!! I think he paid me $150 for the loader, but I never did know if he finished his restoration and put this in the show. I have owned and used several 45 loaders, most on my B's and a 60 tractor. But once I had a 1938 A I restored, and had switched the rear power lift housing for a powertrol rear housing. These are interchangeable, everything matches up perfect, so I had rear hydraulics just like a styled A would have. I mounted my 45 loader onto this unstyled A, it worked great, alittle on the heavy side for it, but I only used it to lift things to save my back, and was on level ground, so it was a very neat unit to see. To top this all off, I only had skeleton steel rears for this, which were in like new condition, so the loader and tractor looked very unique on this A!! Thanks again for your videos!!

I have a 45 on a ‘51 B, sure wish it had live hydraulics.

Yes had john Deere 60 with 45 loader dangerous on hills awkward to operate makes me appreciate my 3010 with 46a loader

I believe John Deere never called that large bucket a snow bucket. IIRC they called that bucket their materials bucket. Given its size it was very easy to over load, ask me how I know.

I had one with hydraulic tilt bucket on my 620 with dual hydraulic

I got 2 of them model 45’s. One on a 51 A and 51 B. Both have snow buckets. I can push snow faster than anything In it’s class. Because of the trip bucket

Better than a pitch fork and shovel

Grown-UP Running the 45 loader Brother and me still run 0ne on are small farm

Grandpa has a John Deere 50 I drive and it's a parade on a Fourth of July

I used a 45 until 2000

You missed the model 50 loader, a heavier duty loader than the model 45, it was a beast, my grandfather had one on his 1953 JD 50, with no power steering, i'm ok with the fact I was too young to run it, lol.

What about the 50 loaders for two-cylinders?

😺

It was way better than a fork is what my grandfather said

Trip buckets are a pain

As always what an ass kickin job man 👍🇺🇸 Any hope you can dig up a whole wealth of information on my Deere 75 Loader? (Yeah on my 1050 Yanmar built to Deere all steel-massive cooling increase-double clutch- mini turbo-Mfwd- I love the ole sliding gear girl)

Awesome!