David Brown Tractors
Welcome to my David Brown tractors page. I originally started this as
a way to keep track of all the various resources I found on the net which
I ran across while trying to restore
my David Brown 880. What it has turned
into is a place to not only provide information about David Brown tractors
in general, but to document the restoration process and progress.
For those not familiar with the
David Brown line of
tractors, the
company started building tractors in the late 30's and became one of the
leading tractor companies in the world.
The
companies history spanned until 1972 when it was aquired by Tenneco Inc.
of Huston, who also owned the JI Case company, in which it was later merged.
In 1983, the David Brown name was dropped and re-branded as part of the Case
line of tractors. Shortly thereafter, in 1985, Tenneco purchased International
Harvester tractors, and David Browns started selling under the CaseIH brand
name. Finally, in 1988, the original David Brown factory in Meltham was
closed down, ending the long history of David Brown.
My 880 Implematic
The picture on the right is what the original David Brown 880 Implematic
looked like. The early 880's were painted red with yellow trim and wheels,
while the later models were redesigned and painted white and grey to match
the existing Case tractor color scheme. Well,
my David Brown 880 looks nowhere
as nice as the picture on the right. It's shown below. The tractor
runs great for a 40+ year old vehicle, but it's starting to show some signs
of it's age. Apparently, the former owner had the tractor painted in what
I call "construction orange" and grey scheme, which is neither original,
or particularly good looking. A new seat has also been fitted, an there
has been several, umm, 'creative' changes to the frame and fenders. While
I purchassed the tractor to use daily, I would like to clean it up and
try to get it as close back to original as possible without going so
far that I no longer want to use it. But who knows, I might just go out
and buy a cheap Ford to do the work around the farm, and just use the
old 880 for parades and shows! The early 880's had a 4 cylinder diesel
engine that produced around 42 H.P., had 6 forward and 2 reverse gears,
used a 2-stage clutch combined with a live P.T.O. that could be geared
for either 540 or 1000 RPM operation. It was billed at the time as an
ideal "1 tractor" farm tractor that could be used for virtually all the
chores required around the farm. The picture below shows my 880 shortly
after purchasing it, along with a bush hog mower attached to the 3 point
hitch in the rear. At present, this is the only implement I have
for the tractor, but I do plan on getting a few more that I need.
Update:
Well, it seems darn near impossible to get good implements for the old
David Brown these days. I really needed a front end loader, and a back
hoe that didn't rely on the 3-point hitch were a couple of things I would
love to have had. So, I finally bit the bullet and bought a new John
Deere 790 utility tractor w/back hoe and FEL, shown at right. The bush
hog on the David Brown has also gone south and is need of some serious
repair work, so I got a JD LX-5 rotary mower to replace it. What this
means is that now the DB880 has little to do these days, so it's free
to be torn apart and cleaned up. Once I find a place to do it that is!
David Brown Links
Related Information
Update:
Well, it seems darn near impossible to get good implements for the old
David Brown these days. I really needed a front end loader, and a back
hoe that didn't rely on the 3-point hitch were a couple of things I would
love to have had. So, I finally bit the bullet and bought a new John
Deere 790 utility tractor w/back hoe and FEL, shown at right. The bush
hog on the David Brown has also gone south and is need of some serious
repair work, so I got a JD LX-5 rotary mower to replace it. What this
means is that now the DB880 has little to do these days, so it's free
to be torn apart and cleaned up. Once I find a place to do it that is!