LP Tractors

I am just curious about the 190XT LP Tractors....are there any left out there? I remember there was something in Norms book about them being the last and also not having the best record of reliability. Is that true...and why? Does anyone on here have a 190XT LP?

I believe Andrew Gubbels bought a 190 XT LP at an auction couple of years back.  I think he converted it to gas.  Must not have been worth restoring the LP or he would have, I would think.  Maybe he will chime in too.

I know thier is one near Bluffs Il.  I think it is also a narrow front tractor as well.  Saw it about 3 years ago.   Andy

date was 12 9 but here is one http://lincoln.craigslist.org/grd/2744187708.html

bradley6874 wrote: date was 12 9 but here is one http://lincoln.craigslist.org/grd/2744187708.html

I grew up driving LP tractors and filling them as a lad. We had a 530 Case LP, 720 John Deere LP, 3020 John Deere LP. They also are supposed to run longer in between overhaul, because they run so clean. At one time they were much cheaper to run than gasoline. That is why my Dad got them. But if you ran out of gas, you could not use a gas can! You had to tow it or bring a bottle in the back of the pickup. We had a small lp tank, (bigger than the bottles people used on their home gas stoves) that we put in the back of the pickup to refill when we were away from the home farm.   I never did run out of LP gas! One day I was cultivating with the John Deere 720 LP, and it was hot as a blister out. All of a sudden their was this big bang/pop! I thought the tractor engine had blew and boy would Dad be mad at me! I must of done something wrong! It ended up to be the safety valve blew on the LP tank on the tractor. It built up too much pressure and released some then it was Ok. It did seem like it took longer to fill. That 720 JD had a big LP tank and would run a long time between fills. Dad always warned us to be alert in filing in-case a hose broke or something like that.

I have a D-15II LP.  Not bad to fill if you have the equipment and don't mind smelling a "little" like propane when you are done.  Dad used LP tractors when I was growing up so I already had some experience with them and still use his (mine now) tank and valves for filling.  Luckily the guy I bought the tractor from gave me the fill hose with it, those are not cheap to have made  and Dad's was rotten from age.  Like said above, you have to have liquid valve on tank and you need an older small bottle just in case.  The new OPD valves on the 20-30 lb bottles will not let you get liquid out.   The engines do run cleaner, plugs and oil last a lot longer.  Fuel doesn't get old and carbs don't gunk up when they set for long periods of time.  Winter starting requires a good battery.  Wouldn't mind having 190 LPG but not n the budget right now.

DwayneTX on here has a nice one and the 190 with that large LP tank in the back looks pretty neat. TX and OK have many LP tractors still around, plus big ol' MM LP engines on irrigation pumps it seems.

We still run several Allis LP tractors and use them on a regular basis.  Grandpa has a dual fuel 45, D14, D17, D19 and 190XT all on factory LP.  We have side tanks on the 3 biggest tractors so we can run a full day without fueling.  The difficulty transporting LP is the biggest downside I see, but I made some adapters to use a BBQ tank to carry a little bit here and there when needed.  I would really like to have a D15 Lp like Wendell has to complete the set.

Some stand by generaters are fueled with LP because it never gets old.

I think there were a couple reasons LP lost favor on farms.  Perhaps the biggest hassle was refueling.   It wasn't a big deal on a small tractor that would run a couple days or more on a tank while doing chores, but for the big 100 plus hp tractors, the tank would just be too big to be able to run for even a full day doing heavy tillage.  An other major factor is that there are more btu's per pound of fuel in diesel.  Perhaps the biggest reason was the conveyance of having one fuel for all the machinery and just being able to pull up to a fuel tank and gravity feed into the tractor, without having to worry about escaped gas starting a fire.  There may have been a cost factor also although I know in the oil patch LP was dirt cheap as it was almost a waste product.  In the upper Midwest trying to start an LP tractor in the winter was not easy, especially if the temp was below zero as the gas would rather be a liquid and was hard to regasify.

Dad bought a new 190XT LP in 1966.  He ordered it with the hydrualic pto engagment option. If I remember right  1966 was the first year with the 1-2  3-4  5-6  & 7-8 gear shift pattern.  That was a sweet tractor.  Dad got sick from diesel fumes, and LP had better fuel economy than gas when you get that HP of a tractor.  Don't remember when he got rid of it as I left farming in 1973.  He bought it from the dealer in Columbus, NE. back then, I hope that tractor is still around.

Wow, Thanks everyone! There were a lot of interesting posts about this. :)

Edited by Austin(WI) - 09 Jan 2012 at 8:17am

Heat is one of the reasons propane lost favor. There is more heat in diesel fuel than in gas or LP.....34% more btus in diesel fuel than in LP if the web page I was just at was right., and thats per gallon, and being the internal combustion engine is actually a "heat" engine.....well you see where I am going with this

John Co and Pat the Plumber had comments on LP tractors that were right. I had a G-1000 MM for some time. It had 2- 30 gallon tanks on it, and if I was going to work all day, they needed to be filled, full, that means you didn't look at the gauge and quit when the gauge said 85%, you filled until the "spitter" valve, the gas vapor bleed-off valve started spitting liquid. This would put the level somewhere above 95%. when you got in the field, I started working with the rear tank until it got below at least 80%, because it was behind the engine and over the transmission and got a fair amount of heat. Then I would switch to the front tank in front of the radiator and used it until it ran out or power dropped meaning it was empty, then back to the rear tank till quitting time. That old girl was only rated at 110 hp, but everyone of those ponies were the big black kind in a pull!!!!!

JohnCo, I also had trouble getting mine to start and run right until I had warm water in the vaporizer to gasify the liquid when it was really cold out. Mostly had to plug it in like a diesel to start early in the mornning. It wasn't to much different to me than a diesel in that respect.

I replaced it with a 1976 7060 and it was a lot better all around.