Hi, welcome to Rons Classic Deere. I hope you will enjoy looking around this site to see our collection of Classic John Deere tractors.
I grew up on a farm near Wellesley Ontario, Canada. My Dad got his first John Deere, an H, in 1940. He replaced the H a few years later with a model B which was traded in for a 620 Standard when I was about 9 or 10 years old. When my brothers and I got old enough to do a lot of the field work he added a model 50 to our line of tractors that also included an Allis Chalmers D14.
My wife, Marjie also came from a farming background. They had a dairy herd near Stratford, Ontario and her Dad also farmed with John Deere tractors. He started with a styled AR in 1950 and traded it for a 70 standard gas model a few years later. He bought a 630 to go along with the 70 and used this team for quite a few years. Later on the 70 was traded in for a 3020 diesel. Although this was a very good tractor and he enjoyed it a lot, he only kept it for a short time and opted for the power of a 4020 diesel. He also added a 520 to the line to do the light jobs, rake hay, trail wagons and so on.
So you see, I never knew a time when I wasnt surrounded by John Deere tractors and always jumped at the chance to drive a 2 cylinder. There is nothing like the sound of a good running, hard working 2 cylinder John Deere tractor. I have said many times, I think it is the sweetest sound this side of Heaven.
My wife and I had a small farm for 27 years and of course I needed to have a John Deere. I bought my first Deere in 1980. It is a 1955 High Seat 60. It was pretty rough when I bought it so I fixed it up enough to get it running and looking decent. We used it on the farm until just a few years ago when my son Matt, and his wife Jaime, bought the farm. It still has its working clothes on and is in need of a total makeover. Matt and I want to get at this in the next year or so.
A few years ago I started thinking about getting a few more of these old John Deere tractors. I thought it would be nice for the Grandkids to learn something about them and give them a connection with the past. We could take them to a few shows together or drive them in a parade once in a while. We now have a 1934 open shaft unstyled A, a 1936 unstyled B, a 1950 styled A, the 1955 high seat 60 I bought way back when, a 1958 620 and a 1967 narrow front 4020 gasser.
In thinking about it though, I guess there are other reasons why I have started to collect these old gems. It is a great way to meet other fellows who share this same passion about old, antique or classic tractors and farm machinery that I do.
I am sure that many others in my demographic also feel that they have been left behind by the rapidly changing times and technology. We had transistor radios, they have I-Pods, we had Elvis, they have Lady Gaga, we had Hi-Fi, they have Wi-Fi, and of course greasy hair and sideburns looked just as peculiar and different to our parents as baggy pants and nose rings look to us. For the record though, we are just as right as our parents were. But the techno stuff is here to stay, and we had better keep up with it. Its not going away. This is the future we helped to create, now we have to learn to live in it.
In collecting and restoring these old tractors my goal is to offer my kids, my grandkids and friends alike, an environment that allows us all to keep one foot firmly rooted in the past, while the other steps confidently into the future. We have the old antique tractors in the barn and a website on the internet. We climb into our air conditioned SUVs and follow the GPS to the next tractor show or parade, then step through the gates into an earlier era of mechanized agriculture. We really do live in the best of all 3 worlds, live in the present, look to the future and remember the past.
So have a look around and enjoy the site. Well keep putting more images up as we attend more shows and events.
Ron Neeb & family
I grew up on a farm near Wellesley Ontario, Canada. My Dad got his first John Deere, an H, in 1940. He replaced the H a few years later with a model B which was traded in for a 620 Standard when I was about 9 or 10 years old. When my brothers and I got old enough to do a lot of the field work he added a model 50 to our line of tractors that also included an Allis Chalmers D14.
My wife, Marjie also came from a farming background. They had a dairy herd near Stratford, Ontario and her Dad also farmed with John Deere tractors. He started with a styled AR in 1950 and traded it for a 70 standard gas model a few years later. He bought a 630 to go along with the 70 and used this team for quite a few years. Later on the 70 was traded in for a 3020 diesel. Although this was a very good tractor and he enjoyed it a lot, he only kept it for a short time and opted for the power of a 4020 diesel. He also added a 520 to the line to do the light jobs, rake hay, trail wagons and so on.
So you see, I never knew a time when I wasnt surrounded by John Deere tractors and always jumped at the chance to drive a 2 cylinder. There is nothing like the sound of a good running, hard working 2 cylinder John Deere tractor. I have said many times, I think it is the sweetest sound this side of Heaven.
My wife and I had a small farm for 27 years and of course I needed to have a John Deere. I bought my first Deere in 1980. It is a 1955 High Seat 60. It was pretty rough when I bought it so I fixed it up enough to get it running and looking decent. We used it on the farm until just a few years ago when my son Matt, and his wife Jaime, bought the farm. It still has its working clothes on and is in need of a total makeover. Matt and I want to get at this in the next year or so.
A few years ago I started thinking about getting a few more of these old John Deere tractors. I thought it would be nice for the Grandkids to learn something about them and give them a connection with the past. We could take them to a few shows together or drive them in a parade once in a while. We now have a 1934 open shaft unstyled A, a 1936 unstyled B, a 1950 styled A, the 1955 high seat 60 I bought way back when, a 1958 620 and a 1967 narrow front 4020 gasser.
In thinking about it though, I guess there are other reasons why I have started to collect these old gems. It is a great way to meet other fellows who share this same passion about old, antique or classic tractors and farm machinery that I do.
I am sure that many others in my demographic also feel that they have been left behind by the rapidly changing times and technology. We had transistor radios, they have I-Pods, we had Elvis, they have Lady Gaga, we had Hi-Fi, they have Wi-Fi, and of course greasy hair and sideburns looked just as peculiar and different to our parents as baggy pants and nose rings look to us. For the record though, we are just as right as our parents were. But the techno stuff is here to stay, and we had better keep up with it. Its not going away. This is the future we helped to create, now we have to learn to live in it.
In collecting and restoring these old tractors my goal is to offer my kids, my grandkids and friends alike, an environment that allows us all to keep one foot firmly rooted in the past, while the other steps confidently into the future. We have the old antique tractors in the barn and a website on the internet. We climb into our air conditioned SUVs and follow the GPS to the next tractor show or parade, then step through the gates into an earlier era of mechanized agriculture. We really do live in the best of all 3 worlds, live in the present, look to the future and remember the past.
So have a look around and enjoy the site. Well keep putting more images up as we attend more shows and events.
Ron Neeb & family
