Deutz, an illustrious name in the vehicle manufacturing industry. The company’s founders gave us the internal combustion engine as we know it. Their air-cooled diesel engines were distributed all over the world, in large numbers. And Northwestern Europe is still littered with classic Deutz tractors.
Like this dauntless, 1972 Deutz D80 06A. The letter A stands for Allrad(antrieb), all-wheel drive.
You want to ride shotgun? Take a seat on the left fender and hang on!
There’s the air-cooled Deutz diesel, type F6L 912. A six-cylinder with a displacement of 5,655 cc, maximum power output 80 DIN-hp @ 2,100 rpm.
Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG, or simply KHD, was the ol’ mother ship. And Köln is the native spelling of Cologne.
A major CC-advantage of a classic tractor, all the technology is fully exposed. What you see is what you get.
Hey mister, better wear some hearing protection! (judging by the brochure, he speaks English) And never mind the absence of a roll bar or any form of protection from the elements. But that’s how farmers rolled (over), back in the day.
More than 50 years later, this 2023 Scania S530 V8 4×2 tractor started its on-road career. Now look, I never mentioned two farm tractors…
A quintessential, heavy-duty Euro 4×2 cabover tractor, rated at 19 tonnes (41,888 lbs) GVW. Commonplace all over the continent, mostly coupled to a tridem axle/six super singles semi-trailer.
Similar on-highway tractor units are also offered by DAF, Volvo, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, and Iveco. And let’s not forget Ford and BMC, both from Turkey. But if you want a V8, the shortlist is really short, as Scania is the only supplier.
And Mr. Eastwood is riding along just fine!
According to the young driver, that’s an 800 liter tank on the left side and a 400 liter tank on the right side, adding up to a total diesel tank capacity of 1,200 liters (317 US gallons). As an aside, cylindrical diesel tanks are de facto non-existent here.
The Scania comes with an air-suspended tilt cab.
A CC-disadvantage of a modern tractor, all the technology is barely visible. Luckily the chassis wasn’t covered up entirely.
Related article, with some more Deutz background information:
CC Global: The Magirus-Deutz Eckhauber – The Air Cooled Mercedes L-Series Competitor
Deutz starting importing tractors into the US around 1971 and the advertising said (say Doytz) in parenthesis as I’ve shown. As I recall no head gaskets, just precision finishing. Their senior management made a major mistake when they purchased Allis-Chalmers in the early 80s and then called it Deutz-Allis and changed the color to light green. Farmers are color loyal to a fault. Then they put the air cooled engines into the Gleaner combine, that was a fire waiting to happen. There was a management buyout later forming AGCO which exists today. Deutz lost much money on that endeavor. AGCO went back to orange.
The model shown here exudes ruggedness. Thanks for the posting.
Thanks for the info, always welcome. Speaking of AGCO and Deutz, the Germans also supply engines to AGCO (these days, the 4.1 and 6.1 liter engines).
I had to have a good stare at the front end of this, to work out how it steers (brutally, I shouldn’t wonder, and with a field-filling turning circle).
Then I got curious about the front differential: given that you could normally fit a small Ferris wheel into the rear diff banjo on a tractor, that front one looks awfully dainty. I wonder why.
It’s a planetary drive axle (aka a drive axle with hub reduction), which means a smaller diff can be used.
I never saw roll over protection when I was a kid, and the tricycle row-crop tractors I drove were much more vulnerable to rolling than these with their wide front axles. They were called “widow makers” for a good reason.
The last year there (1965) Mr. Yoder’s oldest son was old enough to drive the tractors. One day we needed to take the Farmall Super M-TA to a neighbor’s farm. Son Steve drove it and Mr. Yoder and I followed behind. There was a tight turn to make, at the bottom of a downhill section. Steve, who was maybe 8 or so, knew that pulling back the Torque Amplifier (“TA”) would reduce the gearing in the field without having to shift gears, so he reckoned that pulling it back on this downhill would also work to slow him down. What he didn’t know is that the TA was a planetary underdrive, and engaging it would cause freewheeling. Not an issue at all in the field, but in this case, it made his tractor go even faster.
We hoped he would realize what was happening and not make the turn, but he did and I can still see his inside rear wheel lifting up. I thought for sure it would tip over. But it didn’t, and the wheel came back down, to Mr. Yoder’s great relief. It was a major lesson in how the Torque Amplifier worked.
Regarding rolling over, especially submerging farm tractors are an issue here. Just GIS ‘tractor sloot’ for a grand collection of examples.
My first paid job, age 11, was to run the second tractor. My boss would plow an Illinois field with a diesel John Deere and I’d follow, a few rows back with an Oliver (green, of course) pulling the discs. I was taught to swing over 6 rows on turns since my tricycle would tip if turned faster. Yup, he was right. Got it turned back, just in time.
That Deutz sure looks like Oliver green.
The “rocket ship” logo is reference to the Ulm Minster spire as used on Magirus trucks. My only personal experience with a Deutz diesel was on an Ingersoll Rand roller. It was less trouble starting than the Lister diesels and I was amused by the instruction to cut the fuel with kerosene in winter. Like many industrial engines the inline Deutz was different lengths of the same sausage so we only got 2 cylinders instead of 4 or 6.
My tractor experience is only with wide fronts that are far more stable, although I did get a lesson in why they have split brakes when I was clearing snow and discovered my front wheels were off the ground.
What great commentary! As one who has never driven a farm tractor, I am fascinated, especially with how the free wheeling feature is used in the field. I was wondering why t Ulm Cathedral was on the farm tractor. When I was young, ah so many years ago, I dated a girl from Neu Ulm. Thanks for the information gents.
German manufacturers are often quite loyal to their home town and ‘borrow’ its icon as a trade mark.
So Ulm cathedral…
Büssing borrowed the Braunschweiger (Brunswick) Town Lion for their logo, a tradition carried on by MAN, before reverting solely to their Munich bridge symbol.
If you ever wondered why your Borgward had a golden key on the steering wheel nave, that’s Bremen. At least it’s not four animals standing on each others’ backs…
I had a few rides on a Deutz tractor on a French farm in the 1970s. Looked very well-made and not too noisy, despite the air-cooling.
Cannot match the howl of the larger V-engine range, which the Germans nicknamed the ‘vacuum cleaner’.