Thanks for your replies. Hugh, your comments about IH "getting draft control right" on the 06 series shows just how close IH was to being top dog in the 1960s. It kind of reminds me of when I was in school and studied 12 hours for an exam and got a C while guys that studied 14 hours got Bs and the handful that studied 15 hours got As. I put in 80% of the study time an A student invested and got a significantly lower grade. It makes you wonder if IH had buckled down more and invested just a wee bit more developmental effort during 1957 - 1960, at lot of folks now walking around our towns would be wearing IH red hats instead of JD green headgear.
I've got a John Deere history book and it plainly states JD's management was running scared during the early 1950s because the horsepower race was heating-up and they could not get enough horsepower out of their two cylinder gasoline engines. In fact, two events kept them in the race until they could perfect their 4 and 6 cylinder engines. One was the flame front limited them from going any larger in piston diameter on their gasoline motors. They needed more horsepower and could not go further powerwise with two cylinder gas engines. Their first short term answer was to build larger diesel engines because flame front was not a limiting factor. The second short term answer came from their 4 and 6 cylinder engine work being done during 1955 - 1957. As I recall, their 4/6 cylinder head design happened to provide a better combustion chamber, valve diameter, placement, etc. and the two cylinder design group said, "hey, we can use that head design to squeeze out some additional horsepower, too" and that's what they did for their improved 730 and 830 models that were built in the late 1950s.
It is interesting how small changes often lead to later big differences in the big scheme of things. If JD had stumbled during 1956 -1960, they might not have had the distributor mass, farmer loyalty and money to take the risks to bring out the 10 series. IH stumbled on the 560 axle problem. It could well have been a wholly different story if IH had brought out the 460/560 series in 1957 equipped with the draft adjusting hitch of the 06 series together with fast hitch implements at 3 point hitch pricing. But then again, IH was top dog during 1950 - 1955 and probably did not feel the urgency to step up to the plate and swing at riskier pitches involving new platforms and new powertrains. A textbook example why it is so hard for big successful companies to stay on top year after year. The extra hour studying is the difference between a B and an A. One year's extra engineering and design efforts is the difference between a powertrain capable of handling higher thrust loads and one that doesn't.
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