Best tractor engine ever made? 3.. 2.. 1.. go !

Far North Gollach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Caithness
Cummins 6bt. Or MwM as in the older renaults. Were there many Detroits fitted in tractors?
No Detroits fitted to any tractor I can think of in the UK, older plant certainly had them. The Defender fire trucks at the airports had them in the 90's as did the Tyne class lifeboats from the RNLI (both 8V92 DDEC's if I recall rightly).

It's bigger brother EMD (Electro Motive Diesels) were used in trains and generators, there are still a lot of Detroits and EMD's running on older oil rigs to this day in the North sea with high high hours run.

Emissions killed them off in this country, they started building four strokes after that but were mega money to import (IIRC about twice the price of a Cat) so Cummins & Cat stole the show from then on in.
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
the Big Cam 855 was used in a whole range of equipment, including both Versatile & Steiger tractors. From memory, it went from about 180 hp up to at least 350 hp . . .
I had one in a 976 versatile that was set at 400. She was past 11k hours when it went. I had it for 10 years and only every changed the batteries on it. Different mentality to building tractor back then. Now that are only wanting them to hold together until the warranty is out.
 

J 1177

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Durham, UK
No Detroits fitted to any tractor I can think of in the UK, older plant certainly had them. The Defender fire trucks at the airports had them in the 90's as did the Tyne class lifeboats from the RNLI (both 8V92 DDEC's if I recall rightly).

It's bigger brother EMD (Electro Motive Diesels) were used in trains and generators, there are still a lot of Detroits and EMD's running on older oil rigs to this day in the North sea with high high hours run.

Emissions killed them off in this country, they started building four strokes after that but were mega money to import (IIRC about twice the price of a Cat) so Cummins & Cat stole the show from then on in.
The lad who milled our pig feed back in the day had a mill mounted on a wagon with a Detroit running the mill, it made some sound at full chatt.
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
So good, I bought 2

And one still does a fair bit ....... including having to pull out bogged down JDs ....... it torques down to them :)

And here she is today earning her corn …

1649351239435.jpeg
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
We had a 674 with that engine. Flat as a fart compared with The Perkins 236 in our Massey 168 and the head cracked after only 5 years. Swapped it for a Renault with The 4 pot MWM .(I could never understand the nomenclature on those engines, it was called a D226-4 I believe which makes it sound as if it was only 226 cu in when actually it was 256!) Now that was a good engine .💪
its more than just about hp though isnt it? and any case them 2 engines much of muchness in that way imo
but Our 685 starts all year round so well and that is better than i remember P. 236's starting that we ve had here is various guises , A 212 on a 165 purred along nicely i always thought .
but no, and put a turbo on that engine and an 856 is /was a lovely tractor i thought ,quiet and asked do far more than its cc shouldve really , overheating was a bit of a problem owing to that i guess.

Yes , them old Renaults were a nice feeling, smooth relatively quiet engine, / easy gear change layout iirc big old glassy cab to look out of as well .....
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Hahaha, all this talk about how great some engines - especially GMs - sound at full noise. Yeah, that might be right for a few seconds, but you’d get pretty sick of sitting next to a screaming Jimmy for 12 hours day after day. Tbh, the quieter it is the better, as far as I’m concerned.
Didn’t even think about the noise they make, when considering the question of “best tractor engine” . . .

as to Detroit / GM - yes, they were fitted to Chamberlain ( local manufacturer, bought out by John Deere in the early 80’s ? ) tractors back in the 50’s / 60’s, but they then went to Perkins engines prior to JD


A few “home built” tractors in the 70’s ran GM as well, back when people were chasing bigger hp tractors than were readily available

I stumbled across this when looking for the above Super 90, so I’ll put it up just because I can. Home built / modified
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
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    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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