While in Iceland with the family earlier this summer, we of course trekked to see the original Geyser from which all others take their name – “Geysir”. At the visitor center across the road, I was very surprised to see our subject exhibited on the forecourt.
While Geysir is relatively dormant, literally next to it sits “Strokkur”, which erupts approximately every 20 minutes. Since all of the kids wanted to be in the spray zone and receive a sulfury shower, I was able to sneak away in order to look over this Deutz D15 tractor.
Built between 1959 and 1965, the Deutz D15 was the smallest in the range of Deutz tractors and features an air cooled single cylinder four-stroke 52 cubic inch engine that produces 14hp at 2400rpm.
It is further equipped with a ZF gearbox containing six forward gears and two reverse gears. Maximum speed appears to be about 11 or 12 mph, not that maximum speed is really of much concern in this application. As regards size, I would say it is similar to a Ford 8N, but perhaps a bit taller, if that gives anyone some more perspective.
Deutz itself is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, having been founded in 1864 as N.A. Otto & Cie by Nikolaus Otto. Yes, the same Otto that invented the four-stroke internal combustion engine itself! As an aside, many famous industry names worked for Deutz over the years including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, Rudolf Diesel, Robert Bosch, Ettore Bugatti and others, making Deutz quite the industry name hit factory.
Deutz obviously produced tractors and agricultural equipment, but they also produced trucks and buses. However in 1995 Deutz sold its agricultural division, by then known as Deutz-Fahr to the Italian company SAME, forming SAME Deutz-Fahr, which really doesn’t roll of the tongue very readily.
While this example of the D-15 is obviously restored and presumably hailing from somewhere in the surrounding area in Iceland, I was not able to figure out if there was a particular historical reason why it was placed in this location.
Perhaps there is no reason besides to provide something else for kids to mess around with or climb on while their parents shopped in the gift shop, although it seemed that all of the parents were generally keeping a close eye on their brood, lest they end up parboiled in a geyser.
The tractor itself was in very good condition, and exhibited none of the scratches and wear marks of others I’ve seen pulling similar duty back home in the States. Of course it could have just been freshly restored or placed in this position recently. I very much liked the badging on these, quite ornate and obviously of an era long gone. For you non-German readers, Luftgekühlt = Air cooled.
My research indicates that 20,750 of these were produced in the factory in Cologne, Germany. I’m sure when I was a kid living in a farm village in Germany I saw numerous examples of these, but I have yet to see one in the US. I’ve become a fan of tractors and enjoy looking at them at fairs and the like, but don’t have much personal knowledge of any of them. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did, I am always surprised at the unexpected things that present themselves in the most surprising places.
Very nice! I was unaware of any air-cooled tractors – nice find.
See, I know so little about tractors that I didn’t think the air- cooled aspect was that unusual.
The Porsche diesel tractors were air cooled, not surprisingly. As were others,in Europe.
Cool tractor. I am like you, I know just a teeny bit about them, but am hopelessly in love with almost any obsolete tractor.
I have seen that shade of green before . . . Nothing runs like a Luftgekhult?
Same here. I barely know a tractor from a combine, but these old machines still have a tremendous appeal for me as a car guy. Same with old aircraft. Old tractors in particular seem to have a particular design sensibility that is long gone in today’s world of mega-farms.
Nice writeup of one that rarely, if ever, was found on this side of the Atlantic! And it’s even air-cooled…the VW Beetle of tractors?
I remember these from Austria. But the local Steyr tractors were by far the most common, as German stuff was pretty pricy for Austrians back at a time when Germany had a substantially higher standard of living. No more: now Austria’s median income is higher than Germany’s, FWIW.
The Steyr tractor brand is still very alive and kicking, they’re part of the Case- New Holland Group (Fiat). Steyrs are “Premium Segment” tractors (yes, farmers speak today’s premium-language too) and got a very good reputation.
Unfortunately, so are taxes and cost of living, lol
That’s what the older Steyr looks like if anyone wonders. The two seat was not a factory option I believe:)
Deutz were still building aircooled tractors very recently much bigger than that one but they werent the only air cooled tractor on the market Lamborghini also had some.
I don’t have much to say about tractors, but I bet Jim can share some interesting observations about vehicles in Iceland. We recently took a vacation there, and I was amazed by the sheer number of “monster trucks”: full-size SUVs with enormous balloon tires. Top choices seem to be Land Cruiser (the little one, which is more like the US Lexus GX), Patrol, and Montero/Pajero. Very few American SUVs were used this way. It seems like about a quarter of families in the countryside own this type of vehicle.
I was also amazed by the sheer variety of makes available: it was a pretty fair mix of US-market cars and European-market cars. Japanese and European compacts were the most popular in urban areas, but you might also spot a Caprice or big Renault if you keep your eyes peeled.
We rented a Suzuki Grand Vitara and tortured it on dirt tracks and small river crossings. Tough little truck… I wouldn’t want one for daily life in the US, but it did a great job of not getting stuck or drowning.
Yep, you are right abut the trucks, they would put some of the “bro-trucks” here to shame and are actually used as intended, not just posers – the other thing I noticed (we arrived on a Sunday and were there for a few days) was the amount of vintage US iron in EXCELLENT condition. Maybe we happened upon a club outing or something but we saw several perfect condition cars that would be right at home on these pages. Alas, I never had the correct angle with my camera and all views were fleeting rather than “curbside”.
I saw some weird stuff as well, I had no idea that the current Chevy Malibu was available with a diesel engine in any market for example. Chevy Cruze wagons were everywhere, there is no excuse to not bring it here.
I had reserved a Chevy Cruze to drive, but when we arrived we were met by the rental car rep who took us to the lot where there were two cars, neither of which were a Cruze. I was hoping to get the Skoda Superb wagon but it turned out that the other car, a Chevy Captiva, was ours. While I was very disappointed at first (I can spend hours trying to reserve the “right” rental car, especially in a different market), after looking at it I realized that it was a 3-row, unlike what we get here and that it was diesel powered. It turned out to be loaded with options and was a very good car, to the point that I am wondering if ours really are that bad or if these are very different – it looked the same, just a bit longer. The 3rd row really helped with our 3 kids.
You are totally correct that Iceland seems to get pretty much everything that is offered somewhere in the world, the variety of cars available in an isolated island of only 350,000 people was amazing.
As an aside, we got there by flying Icelandair from Denver to Paris and back. You transfer planes in Reykjavic and Icelandair lets you stay over for up to a week I believe at no charge. The flight itself was great, the service was MUCH better than most american airlines that I have flown, and the price was less. Icelandair operates their hub out of Reykjavic and flies to many locations in North America and Europe with every flight switching at the hub. Great experience – Overall Iceland reminded me most of New Zealand, similar uncrowded roads, gorgeous countryside, and friendly people. The difference was we went to NZ back when our US dollar was worth NZ 2.10 back in the very early 2000’s and lived like kings, nowadays the USD is worthless and even after Iceland’s fiscal crisis, Iceland is still brutally expensive.
I’ve also been in Iceland earlier this year, and the cars there are surely interesting. Indeed a mix between American and European market cars and a few oddballs among them.
And it is one of the few places where it actually makes sense to drive a monster truck, since most of the middle of the island can only be accessed using these behemoths.
A friend and I drove a 98-03 Legacy Wagon from a small rental company. It was a pretty good deal, since we got a quite comfortable car with AWD for the price of lowliest cars from the bigger companies.
Nice Rover. Rental car prices in Iceland over the short summer season are unbelievable expensive. Even in the winter (the other 9 months) it’s still pricey but nothing like summer. I think we paid well over $125 per day and that was not from one of the major companies and was the rate for a Cruze. Our actual car (4WD, 3 rows)) I believe was listed around $200/day. At least our VRBO right on the main drag was relatively reasonable and very comfortable for the five of us.
We got our Legacy for around $62/day with the insurances and all, not exactly cheap for a 10 yr old car but that is Iceland after all. The only issue we had was a burnt out headlight, which they quickly replaced in a stopover at the company the next day. The AWD was very welcome, driving on the snow or on the black sand beach trying to find the crashed DC-3.
What is the dial on the windshield?
That dial looks like the slickest parking disk I’ve ever seen. Usually they are a card that you set on the dash. When you park in a 2hour zone you dial the time that you will be back (so if it is 3pm, you set it for 5pm). It eliminates the parking warden having to use a chalk mark – if you cheat and she/he comes early before your obvious start time you are busted and if you stay longer than the limit you are busted as well.
I’ve never seen one that sticks to the window like that, it’s neat.
That seat makes my eyes water!
I wish the cars I have owned could have been as reliable as the tractors I have owned. And so easy to work on.
I dunno, seeing any tractor spit-shined and sitting pretty is a little bit sad for me, especially when said tractor is still usable and small enough to go where newer ones can’t, physically. That’s what I like about our 1020 and 2020 “ute” tractors–all we really use them for is pulling hay racks and wagons (at which they excel greatly) and mowing the grove (another fine job there), so they at least pull their weight, but all they need is a good wash-n-chamois and they’re decent enough to take to the local show. Great late-60’s styling is timeless in tractors as well as cars.
The Duetz was sold very briefly here in the States back in the early seventies. I forget the year(s) but one of the things they advertised is it didn’t require a head gasket.
I don’t think they sold very well and I don’t recall ever seeing one.
Yes they advertised that their machining tolerances were so tight they did not require a head gasket. In the early 80’s Duetz purchased Allis-Chalmers ag operations and renamed it Duetz-Allis. Within a year they discontinued the U.S. mfg tractors and re-badged their German models, including keeping the green color. Farmers can be very color loyal so it never took off, even when they went back to Allis orange. Eventually in the 90’s they sold out to AGCO, or maybe it was a management buyout. I think Duetz lost alot of money in the affair and that led to selling off the tractor operations entirely.
Thanks for the info. I know about color loyalty. I’m very fond of my three green tractors with yellow wheels.
Can’t comment on the tractors, but Duetz diesels installed in trucks were the only engines louder than a 2 stroke Jimmy.
Air cooled diesel engines are loudmouths, literally, so these Deutz tractors were very noisy too.
+1 on the air cooled diesel engine noise. A couple of lifetimes ago I was in one of the tank companies of an Army National Guard armor batallion. We had M60A3 tanks, which date back to the mid-fifties, and they were powered by an air cooled, turbocharged diesel twelve. Believe me, one of those churning thru some mud in low range can be heard far, far away. There was no way anyone was going to sneak up on the enemy in one of those puppies.
Here’s another one I remember very well, the Tatra T148 6×6 from the seventies, it had a 12.6 liter air cooled V8 diesel. These trucks were very common back then; cheap to buy, rugged, and more than excellent off-road capabilities. Its capabilities to produce engine noise were also more than excellent. (Photo: Wikipedia/Ludek)
Back in the construction days my father had a vibratory compactor whose vibrator was powered by a Deutz air-cooled diesel engine that had a little gas engine to start it. The rig was towed by another piece of equipment – he used an old IH wheel tractor – and the Deutz engine ran at a constant rpm. He needed the compactor to bid on road jobs; the engineers would typically specify that any fills had to be compacted after every 1 to 2 feet of fill.