3020 diesel or gas,, which is better

I am in the market for a 3020 and I hear everyone say the diesel is much better the gas model. Why is that? I know the economy is better for diesel, but other than that, is the diesel a better made tractor and more reliable?

Lots of complaints about high fuel consumption and crappy running with the gas versions.

The 3020 diesels, when they need repairs, such as balance shaft bearing or block/crankshaft issues, etc., parts are $$$$ and good used engines or rebuildable blocks are getting hard to find.

Some suggest looking for a 2510, which is NEWER, and thought of as better (but slightly less HP), and supposedly with better parts availability. (STRANGE aberration in the DEERE model numbering system.)

I can't comment on the 2510, as I have never been around one, but a friend had a 3020 gasser powershift that wasn't exactly awesome in power and fuel economy and another lost an engine in a diesel 3020 quite a few years ago and repair costs were MASSIVE, even back then.

FWIW, I have a diesel 4020, and a gasser 4020 that I use to blow snow, and it's been a GREAT even in cold winter weather despite all the horror stories written about even the gasser 4020's.

Well a gas JD tractor of that vintage is going to pain to keep running correctly. Even with everything perfect they do not run well on the fuel we get today. I am convinced that the fellows that say theirs' run well must have different fuel than what I can buy here. I had a JD 3020 on my feeder wagon for close to 20 years. The first ten where trouble free. Then about 1998 when they changed the formulas of gas to help with emissions it became a never ending battle to keep it running. Taking throttle and starting after you had it warm where the two biggest hurdles. I completely overhauled the motor. Installed new Zenith carburetor. Changed the ignition over to an electronic one. Added the second battery, like the diesels have. Still had issues.

The warm start became a little better with a completely "new" Zenith carburetor. Still you got one chance to start it when it was hot. IF you choked it too much or not enough it would not start until it set for an hour or two. Cold starts where never an issue. Example: Using the grain drill,light load but when you stopped to fill the drill you had better not shut it off. Half the time it would not restart until it was completely cold.

Stumble when taking throttle. If you set the carburetor to where it would not stumble when you speed the engine up it would foul the spark plugs in just less than a week. If you leaned the carb down then you would have to half choke it when you where upping the engine speed. If the governor opened up too fast it would stumble and die half the time when lean. So I kept it rich and changed/cleaned the spark plugs every few weeks. I finally got to where I kept a full set in the tool box under the seat.

Then the fuel usage. When on the feeder wagon a full tank of fuel would last maybe 4-5 days. This would be 10-12 hours of use under moderate load. I have a JD 4020 gas now. Five gallons of gas will grade my lane twice. It is a 1500 foot lane. They are fuel pigs on the current gas.

They will run right on better fuel. I bought five gallons of Turbo Blue racing gas. The JD 3020 ran like new. I just could not justify $10 a gallon fuel.

I see from below you have a $4000-4500 budget. Well you not going to get a diesel JD tractor for that price unless it is rough. You can find good IH and AC gas tractors in that price range. The IH 656 come to mind. They ran much better than the JD gas tractors.

The 2510 is roughly 15 horsepower less than a late model 3020.

Engine parts are easier on the 2510, but there are some (clutch, hydraulic pump coupler, etc) that are unique to the 2510 and also expensive. Also, the 2510 is the same time frame as the pre-console 3020.

Turn up the fuel pump and you will get within 5 horsepower of a 3020 and have a very snappy throttle responsive tractor. Tom

Neighbor has a 656 that his dad bought new and has had good care. It is used on the feed mixer in the summer freeing up the cab tractor for other things. He says even it does not run as good on today's gas as it did years ago. It was even overhauled a few years ago with little improvement. There was a display at Half Century of Progress where they were putting electronic fuel injection on 3020 and 4020's. It started and sounded good but the price was over $3000. Tom

If you really want a 3020 ( I'm not too fond of them ) the choice between gas or diesel I would say depends on your intended use for one. I myself purposely went looking for a 4020 gas years ago. I was very lucky to find a good one not far from home. Not many at all left to find either. My intended uses were to put a loader on it and a blade on the rear. This was for snow removal as well as various lifting and moving things around. Many times I would only need it for like 15 minutes ? just start it up run out of the shed lift something on or off the trailer set it down and back to the shed. These short runs are not too good on anything and got to be way worse on a diesel ! A few times over the years I had some major projects and the gas tractor could easily handle it. I never worried too much about gas consumption as any large engine will use a lot of fuel. It is all relative to how much actual work you are getting done in a given time.
Now if you plan on needing to do heavy work for a lot of hours a year a diesel may serve you a lot better as they do make more HP and torque and should use less fuel doing it. Back when I got the 4020 diesels were bringing $3,000 to $3,500 more than I paid. I'm sure I did not use it enough to save any money over fuel savings. And I'm sure I saved ALOT of money on batteries and not having to rebuild 24 V components.

Chase, can you elaborate a little more on how you're going to use this tractor. Winter/Summer, Loader, PTO work, etc.?

On a friends 3010 I rebuilt and updated the Zenith Carburetor at Robert's Carburetor. The gentleman at Robert's had very specific recommendations on spark plugs and manifold heat block settings. The first 1-2 years I have had trouble with the points condenser but at his recommendation I finally went to NAPA and so far, one year, so good. He told me the JD points were not so good as I experienced. I asked the owner if we should do a tune up this fall, he said leave it alone, it is running great.

So, with the gas tractor there are lots of variables around what works, plugs, points, manifold setting, gas, carburetor, etc. I suspect that is why some work better than others. I did find the story about the gas quality extremely interesting.

I don't believe the quality of a 3020 is in question other than peoples experience with carburetor, plugs, and points. Maybe the guy with the 3020 you're looking at has the formula figured out. Or, maybe he is bluffing. I suggest you go drive that tractor as much as you can and see what you think. Start it cold, start it hot. Ask when the plugs and points were last changed or how many hours are on them.

The only general, gas or diesel, negative I know of on the 30x0 is the balancer. It is different than the 25x0 engine and makes throttle response a little slower.

Again, what are the uses you intend? I bet the guys here could give more recommendations if they knew that. I guess I would have to say if this tractor is truly well tuned and not necessarily "freshly" tuned to show well for sale and you don't expect to put many hours on it, then go for it and find out what plugs are in it. But I will say a diesel would be my go to tractor. Oh by the way, either one would benefit from being plugged in during the winter.

The Robert's Carburetor guy told me you have to be very specific on plugs. If you ask the counter guy for plugs for a 3020 not knowing any better he will give you the first in the list, TOO COLD as I recall.

Good Luck.

Oh, by the way, I love my 2510 and 2520's. I have both gas and diesel. They sit in my shed mostly as I would be called a collector.

Paul

I plan on using it to run a snow blower in the winter and to pull a disc in the summer and maybe bush hog.

I really like my 2510 diesel. I agree with what has been said about the 3020 gas. I use mine some, and it has good power, but it just does not seem to run as smooth as I would like. For example, it will sputter and smoke sometimes at idle. At full speed on the road it seems to flutter some. Under load it sounds good, but I hate to think of how fast the gas is pouring through it when its pulling hard. I would sell it and get a diesel 3020, but I am afraid of the engine repairs. If they have been overhauled but the balancer shafts and bushings not replaced, you may run into oil pressure problems that can end up in a blown block. And the block and crank are super rare and expensive.

Long story short--If you must have a John Deere, just get a 4020 diesel, or maybe you can find a 2510. I also think you can get a pretty good Ford diesel for your price range. I picked up a Ford 3600 diesel for just over $4,000 at an auction this summer, and it is a nice running tractor. Maybe not big enough for your snow blower, I don't know about those. In southern Indiana we just do like the Kentuckians and stay home every time it snows more than an inch.

From my experience as a used tractor dealer I would say a couple advantages of a gas 3020 is 1) If its parked in an unheated shed where's there's no power and its extremely colddddddddddd and it absolutely MUST start unassisted, the gas ""may"" have a better chance of starting and 2) If you budget is limited the gas is much cheaper to buy. BUT THATS ABOUT IT I prefer the Diesel.

Before anyone has a calf I'm NOT saying a good 3020 diesel cant start unassisted in cold temps SO THERE LOL it obviously on both tractors depends on their condition and especially the electrical system and batteries.

John T Retired electrical engineer and past farmer and tractor dealer.

I bought a 3020 2 yrs ago for 3 thousand. It had around 2800 original hrs on it and is gas. We use it to brush hog, fertilizer wagon, hay rake, 10" bin auger, seeding alfalfa.. I've fixed the water pump and put new battery in it.. as for the new gas and starting and running like crap I put 1qt of AT fluid in 10 gallons of gas and it runs fine. You have to use them..

It seems people either love the 3020 gas tractor, or they hate them................with most people hating them. I will share my story. My father bought a used 3020 gas tractor in the early 1970's. It was a 1966 or 1967 model. It came with the Marvel Schebler carburetor. The tractor was used for planting, row crop cultivating, and hauling grain for a number of years. When we went to the 12 row planter, the 3020 was off planting duty, but still used for all the other tasks. It was a rather perky tractor of this size and had been run along side of tractors of other colors, and directly compared to a 450 Farmall and a Super M Farmall on our farm. The carburetor could not be rebuilt any more, as the metal had warped, so we purchased a Robert's carburetor because we had been told this was the route to go. The tractor starts great, runs great, but is incredibly thirsty on fuel since the new carburetor was installed. I have shared our experience on this forum before. The 3020 gas tractor does not seem to quite have the horsepower it had before, and it thirsty no matter what it is doing. It never drank that much fuel beforehand under light loads, and I think it drinks more fuel on heavy loads. Good thing it doesn't get a lot of hours on it every year, and it is a good think I own stock in Chevron, too (LOL).

(quoted from post at 07:19:28 11/24/17) If you really want a 3020 ( I'm not too fond of them ) the choice between gas or diesel I would say depends on your intended use for one. I myself purposely went looking for a 4020 gas years ago. I was very lucky to find a good one not far from home. Not many at all left to find either. My intended uses were to put a loader on it and a blade on the rear. This was for snow removal as well as various lifting and moving things around. Many times I would only need it for like 15 minutes ? just start it up run out of the shed lift something on or off the trailer set it down and back to the shed. These short runs are not too good on anything and got to be way worse on a diesel ! A few times over the years I had some major projects and the gas tractor could easily handle it. I never worried too much about gas consumption as any large engine will use a lot of fuel. It is all relative to how much actual work you are getting done in a given time.
Now if you plan on needing to do heavy work for a lot of hours a year a diesel may serve you a lot better as they do make more HP and torque and should use less fuel doing it. Back when I got the 4020 diesels were bringing $3,000 to $3,500 more than I paid. I'm sure I did not use it enough to save any money over fuel savings. And I'm sure I saved ALOT of money on batteries and not having to rebuild 24 V components.

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For doing short chores with a loader, the best one is an LP tractor. It should also be more economical to run adn the cheapest to buy.
We have an LP forklift and that is for sure a trouble free machine with always clean oil in the motor and plugs that stay good.