John Deere: 70hp in 1958, 121hp in 1962, 560hp in 2012, and 620hp in 2015

The 830 Diesel introduced in 1958 had 75 belt/PTO and 70 drawbar horsepower.

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A PR Video about the release of their biggest tractor, 121 hp 5010, in 1962. John Deere had recently replaced their putt-putt tractors with their New Generation tractors in 1960. As the video explains, they not only designed a bigger tractor, they designed bigger implements to take advantage of the additional horsepower such as a 7-bottom plow (every farmer was still plowing in the early 1960s) and a 40-foot drill.

Big Tractor Power posted
New 2017 John Deere 9620R with the new for 16 poly fender fuel tanks on triple tires at Hutson Equipment in Hopkinsville, KY.

I still haven't figured out the model numbers for John Deere. But their largest 2017 tractor is the 9620R at 620 hp. The video states that the 9R series was introduced in 2012 in a range of 360-560 hp. The series was upgraded in 2015 with 620hp at the high end and steel fender fuel tanks added to all the models. The video below implies a quad-trac option was offered in 2016. (Is that 17 years after CaseIH offered quad-trac so the CaseIH patent had finally expired?) The only change for 2017 is that the steel fender tanks are replaced by plastic tanks so that they are more rounded and don't interfere with the driver's view of the implement being pulled. A comment indicated the 620 hp engine is made by Cummins.

It is interesting to note that the 620hp figure is for the engine. The (claimed) PTO hp is only 335. The drawbar hp is probably even lower. "The 9620R comes equipped with a 14.9 Liter (912 cu in) engine producing 620 horsepower @ 2,100 rpm." [AxleGeeks] I'm shocked that the drive train of a 9620R looses almost half of the engines power. I'll bet one of those big radiators you can see behind the grill up front is for transmission oil. Maybe they should go back to geared transmissions with a clutch. I can't even find an engine (gross) rating for the 830. I wonder when the industry changed from quoting usable HP to quoting engine HP.




Update:
This video confirms that John Deere added quadtrac 18 years after CaseIH introduced it. They are also putting the spotlight back on useful horsepower. The 620hp tractor beats John Deere's 620hp tractor in terms of drawbar hp, pulling power, and fuel and DEF usage. In fact, their drawbar and pulling power numbers are the highest of any Nebraska test of a production tractor. Indeed, they have designed a new transmission to reduce "parasitic" power.


Video of 20 years of quadtrac experience.

Video of John Deere's comparison of cost of operation of their 9R series to CaseIH tractors.

A CaseIH video comparing JD 9620R vs. Steiger 620. (I didn't watch this one.)