SAME DA 38 – specifications
Series: DA
Build year not documented · Data origin: Reference work (Wikipedia/Wikibooks) · sources
Not the right version? The data comes from vehicle registers holding many near-identical versions side by side. Photograph the data plate — we read make and type from it. Open the scanner e-mail address required
SAME DA 12 to DA 67 (1950s and 1960s) – the air-cooled founding tractors from Treviglio: DA for Diesel Aria, the number as hp class, DT for four-wheel drive, B as upgrade, one- to four-cylinders of 1.1 to 4.6 litres
The DA range is SAME's foundation: Francesco Cassani, who in 1942 had founded the Società Accomandita Motori Endotermici in Treviglio with his brother Eugenio, built tractors from 1952 with air-cooled diesel engines of his own design – DA stands for Diesel Aria, air-cooled diesel – and the DA 25 of 1952 is regarded as one of the world's first series tractors with four-wheel drive, the layout SAME made its hallmark. The type logic: the number gives the hp class – DA 12 about 12 hp with single-cylinder, DA 25 25 hp with two-cylinder, DA 38 and DA 47 with three-, DA 55 and DA 67 with four-cylinders – DT four-wheel drive (doppia trazione), B an upgrade. All engines are air-cooled with blower, with displacements of 1.1 to 4.6 litres at low rated speeds of 1,700 to 2,000 rpm – a modular system with identical cylinders from which SAME assembled one-, two-, three- and four-cylinders.
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The register lists 17 versions with 9.2 to 49.3 kW from one- to four-cylinders of 1,140 to 4,560 cm³, unladen weights from 1,000 to 2,870 kg, lengths from 2,100 to 3,320 mm, widths from 1,090 to 1,820 mm and heights from 1,270 to 1,730 mm.
With the DA tractors SAME became Italy's largest maker after Fiat and the pioneer of the four-wheel-drive tractor in Europe; air cooling remained the brand's hallmark into the 2000s.
Used DAs are collectors' pieces: originality, compression and injection, cooling blower and cylinder fins, clutch, gearbox and four-wheel-drive clutch on DT models, sheet metal and tyres count; parts run through SDF vintage specialists in Italy.
Sources: SpecCodex register, model data: SAME DA, SAME (SDF, Hersteller)
What to check before buying
- Check the hour meter against the service records — a replaced instrument is the most common gap.
- Compare the data plate and chassis number with the papers.
- Load the hydraulics and watch for sag.
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Sources: Wikibooks Traktorenlexikon (CC BY-SA 4.0) (retrieved August 2026) · Values adopted and presented in our own form; changes from the source are possible. · Data sources and cross-checks
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