For the first “B” of the 1938 model year, the Deere book lists tractor number 46175. If you look at other models, though, you will find quite a few differences. If that weren’t enough, on the list for “B” tractors, they list number 60,000 (the first styled) as being the beginning of 1938, even though it was built in June of that year.Īs you can see in the middle column of the chart, the lists from Green Magazine and from the book John Deere Tractors 1918-1994 agree except that we list the first eight tractors as being 1933 models. For some reason, they skip 1939, the first year of styled “A” production. Most of these tractors aren’t even the first or last tractor built in a given day, let alone month or year. The serial number list from the service bulletin is prefaced with the following: “Numerous requests for a listing of tractor serial numbers and year of production have made advisable the publication of the following information.” I can’t begin to guess how they came up with this list, other than with a great deal of concern that each model year begins with a number that is a multiple of 20,000. That’s almost dead center for the 1947 model year. This change was actually made in the January/February of 1947 time frame. It has long been assumed that 1946 models were long hoods with cast frames and 1947s had the pressed steel frame and battery box seat. Deere didn’t always change model years when a significant change was made, though. Rather than have early 1938 tractors be unstyled and late 1938s be styled, the beginning of the new production year was moved up to July. However, in some cases, that point was shifted, such as when the styled “A” and “B” tractors were introduced in the summer of 1938. This point was originally in the October/November time period.

For many years, Deere and Company factories observed an annual vacation/inventory/changeover period in the summer or early fall.

As you can see, about the only thing they all agree on is that “A” tractors began at 410000.įirst of all, let’s discuss how Green Magazine came up with our serial number/year breaks. Where these companies found these lists, I’m not sure. In addition, you will find two lists which we found in parts catalogs. On the chart that accompanies this article, you will find the Green Magazine list, a list from a 1950 Deere and Company service bulletin and a list from the book, John Deere Tractors 1918-1994, which was published by Deere. It only took a few minutes to find five different charts.

I provided to him the year that Green Magazine research would give for his tractor, but it got me to thinking about the number of different lists out there and how they compared. I recently had a question from a reader concerning what year his John Deere two-cylinder tractor was, citing conflicting information he had gotten from different sources.

John deere serial number lookup year