1953 and John Deere Company

I recently finished reading the book "Designing the New Generation John Deere Tractors", which is referring to the models 3010 and 4010. These tractors were brought to the farming community in the Fall of 1960. I just found it interesting that there were three things that made this happen. #1. Business was very good after the end of WW2. Deere had just become the #1 seller of farm equipment that year, surpassing International Harvester. Deere was NOT the #1 seller of tractors. They sold the most $$$$$ of farm equipment in total that year. So, with business being good, and the future looking bright, they had $$$$ to invest back into their company products. Farmers were demanding and buying more and more HP for their farming operations. Deere was painted into a corner with their (basically obselete) 2-cylinder design. The President of Deere was savvy enough to know they badly needed to do something about that.            #2. The big tractor factory in Waterloo, Iowa had been making the 2-banger since 1923, with intro of the model "D".  They are now at the 30 year mark for the TOOLING in the factory, which as the book refers to, was becoming more and more problematic due to AGE. Constant repairs and maintenance were costing money and productive downtime. So, would it be wise to reinvest in new tooling that would only keep building the "same old girl" ???  or was it time to invest in a real future for the company. The tooling would all have to be new and different for a "new" modern tractor.           #3. With these two scenarios laid out, the third thing that had to happen was a leader within the Deere organization that could convince the entire Board of Directors and Bankers and Engineers that the time was right NOW to begin their future, and it had to be with 4 and 6 cylinder engines in the most modern tractor chassis possible. If it hadn't been for this President seeing the need and becoming totally committed to the plan, it never would have come to pass by 1960, 7 years later. In fact, their initial goal was to be out by 1958.  Had they delayed until say 1963 or 64, IH would have had their new 706/806 and then 1206 models out and Deere may have been on the brink of disaster if that happened.  I've spent plenty of time on these tractors that saved John Deere Company. There were many things about them that were great. And there were many other things that in the end, not so much.  In the same time frame, 200+ miles NE of Waterloo, I think this was when A-C had that terrible wildcat strike that did them financial harm that they may have never fully recovered from. Remember too, that Deere was not nearly as diversified as A-C was. They were pretty much farm equipment only and weren't focusing on other types of businesses. So, they had to keep close guard on what they were the best at and always keep the future in mind.

That is very interesting,, spent some time on a 3010, liked it! Theres so much behind the scenes stuff going on inside companies- preplanning etc, very interesting 

This book I just read made that point. The "project" was top secret !!!  The engineers (many of them) didn't even come to work at Deere. They were holed up in an old super market/grocery store with blacked out windows. It was a very big deal and they pulled it off.

I recall reading years ago, that Deere did have a tremendous amount of internal resistance to transform away from the 2-bangers. Also has others mentioned, there was a lot of resistance from their customer base. My Dad’s older cousin’s were die hard Deere, they said they would never purchase a Deere with an in-line engine, and they never did.

Looking back has become a favorite pass time (since I can't do much else at my age) . I was most fortunate to have talked with Ray Dogget who was in AC management during those times. As secret as Deere was everyone 'knew - rumor- speculation' they were up to something. As the only one with low speed 2 cylinder engines - duh - everyone suspected they would catch up in this field.   They did  and leap-frogged ahead - for a time .  The mid 60's was a horse power race like never before. Everyone built units they knew would fail or were marginal stop gap units to bigger better ones. Maybe being locked up kept Deere guys from seeing what the competition was working on as well. My first boss and service rep were sent to Arkansas or La. with  a telescope and camera to take pictures of the test units. He said they did not look like 4010's and I wish I had pressed him more about the adventure.   The bottom line though - in my opinion - was the decision Deere made concerning it's dealer organization  when the new units came out and they went to the lead in tractor sales. Deere demanded that the dealers reinvest in themselves. They had to upgrade the facilities, training, service and take on the new Deere 'branding' as times were great. ALL the others were just proud to be there selling tractors and equipment. When the times started to change and everyone had new models to sell and times grew tough, AC and IH started a Deere mimic program - AC had Action 80 to prepare the dealers for the '80's back in 1975 and IH had the XL Dealer program - but it was too little too late - most dealers, not all,  were now farmers or had other businesses  and when the '80's did hit went to where the money was - not in their dealerships. Products were/are very important in the history of farm equipment - it is a lot of our passions to live there - but equally important was the dealers who made or broke companies and lines of equipment. Take MF - they had more dealers than Carter had little liver pills. But they were small and not equipped for high hp sales. When the big ones came out and farmers saw their tractors suspended under an oak tree cause they would not fit in the shop - they traded them off for dealers rather than brands. I have heard many times the 2000 series broke Massey - nope the dealers broke MF. Anyway sorry for the long epistle. Love Doc's insight. Keep it up. 

Orangeman , curious of what your talking about? I have all the annual reports of the 70,s- never seen anything like this in words- they were trying to restructure the company and had record profits in 79,,, then lost it all  

OK what about the PIK program ??   

I was never a fan of the fuel tank being up front in front of the radiator. Worked on a farm while in high school when we wasn’t busy on ours that had a 4020. While spreading chicken manure multiple loads for an hour it would over heat and had to sit for a half hour before it could be run again. Pulling air in from the sides seamed like a stupid idea and required a lot more cleaning to keep it from running hot.

Word was that JD’s foundry experienced problems, as many of the brand new 10 series tractors blew their water pumps within their first few days after being delivered to their farms. Guess the Foundry was not accustomed to removing ALL the cast sand from their newly cast 4 & 6 cylinder engine blocks.

My father in law was a diehard John Deere fan, and he said  that a company rep told him they painted the prototypes red so they could take them to the field for testing and keep a low profile.

Just from operating both types. If you've never operated one of these New Generation Deere tractors, especially with the levers on the dashboard, it's hard to explain. The levers just don't have a nice "feel" to them, as compared to a 190 or even a series 4 D17. They are difficult to "feather" and just not any better in my opinion. In the book I read about their development, the argument was they would need more than one pump to accomplish all the hydraulic things they needed to do if they went with an "open" center system. Well, funny thing was, their new space-age "closed" center piston pump had to have a charge pump inside the transmission to feed it !!!! Well, duh  !! So, they didn't get by with one pump after all !!!  The One-Ninety came with an open center triple section pump mounted on the engine (that looked like one pump) that performed every bit as good as anything Deere had that was closed center. And, the third section of the A-C pump was dedicated to the Traction Booster system. On a 4010/4020 if you tried lifting a load on the 3-point hitch and turn the steering wheel at the same time with the engine idling, you'll get a lot of hiccups and hesitation in the hitch because steering is using all the oil flow the pump can provide. Not so with a mighty One-Ninety !!!  Another thing that many of us brand "X" people don't know (and the Deere boys never talk about) is if you have a manure loader on a Deere with a synchro range transmission (the most popular) and are up next to the manure spreader with the clutch depressed, if you try and change the loader or bucket position very much, things can just stop hydraulically. Why ???????? because the charge pump inside the transmission doesn't turn when the clutch is depressed  !!!! and the hydraulic pump gets starved for oil to make it work !! If there are any hydraulic leaks internally in the hyd system like power brake piston seals, that makes this even worse !!  Don't know which engineer designed that charge pump drive, but it had its flaws for sure !!  To correct the problem, you have to shift to neutral and let out the clutch to re-prime the hyd pump. What a deal !!!

My dad bought a 3020 diesel in 1964. Mom couldn't shift the farmall h while holding me. He wanted an allis but they were not interested in financing a tractor to 19 year old renting his first farm. Skip covert of covert and sons played football with my dad and talked his dad into financing the tractor. Dad paid 6200 with a four bottom plow. I remember mom kidding dad about when they delivered the tractor he asked where the spark plugs were. Dad used that tractor as his primary tractor for 55 years. Proabably has 40000 hours on it. My two brothers and i learned how to drive on it and it did everything. Powershift did steal a lot of horsepower and the hydraulic remote was hard to adjust and the load depth rods did blow the seals every year. And we parked it in the barn if it got really because it was cold blooded. But i don't think there is a more agile tractor wver made. (It did have a narrow front end). Little brother has it now. It will probably never see a field again but it was the only thing dad didn't sell when when the cows left. I don't think that transmission ever got touched.

DrAllis wrote: Just from operating both types. If you've never operated one of these New Generation Deere tractors, especially with the levers on the dashboard, it's hard to explain. The levers just don't have a nice "feel" to them, as compared to a 190 or even a series 4 D17. They are difficult to "feather" and just not any better in my opinion. In the book I read about their development, the argument was they would need more than one pump to accomplish all the hydraulic things they needed to do if they went with an "open" center system. Well, funny thing was, their new space-age "closed" center piston pump had to have a charge pump inside the transmission to feed it !!!! Well, duh  !! So, they didn't get by with one pump after all !!!  The One-Ninety came with an open center triple section pump mounted on the engine (that looked like one pump) that performed every bit as good as anything Deere had that was closed center. And, the third section of the A-C pump was dedicated to the Traction Booster system. On a 4010/4020 if you tried lifting a load on the 3-point hitch and turn the steering wheel at the same time with the engine idling, you'll get a lot of hiccups and hesitation in the hitch because steering is using all the oil flow the pump can provide. Not so with a mighty One-Ninety !!!  Another thing that many of us brand "X" people don't know (and the Deere boys never talk about) is if you have a manure loader on a Deere with a synchro range transmission (the most popular) and are up next to the manure spreader with the clutch depressed, if you try and change the loader or bucket position very much, things can just stop hydraulically. Why ???????? because the charge pump inside the transmission doesn't turn when the clutch is depressed  !!!! and the hydraulic pump gets starved for oil to make it work !! If there are any hydraulic leaks internally in the hyd system like power brake piston seals, that makes this even worse !!  Don't know which engineer designed that charge pump drive, but it had its flaws for sure !!  To correct the problem, you have to shift to neutral and let out the clutch to re-prime the hyd pump. What a deal !!!

The oil cooler held enough oil to supply the main hydraulic pump until function return oil got back through the system to charge the main hydraulic pump. On the larger loaders with a grapple, there was an auxiliary oil reservoir that could be added in front of the cooler. The transmission pump did more than just charge the main pump. It also lubed the transmission, circulated oil through the filter and cooler, and on later 20-series, supplied oil for the hydraulic pto. An unaltered system didn’t ever really cause problems until someone hooked up an auxiliary hydraulic valve wrong by routing return oil to sump instead of back to the filter.