These machines were built in Grand Rapids, MI by John's Mfg I think from the 60's thru early 80's. They converted a lot of BN's, which is why BN's are harder to find. They went out of business due to a frivolous lawsuit that they could not afford to fight. They are used by the orchards and veg farmers in Mi. They rarely come up for sale because the orchards hang onto them and really like them. I'm in IL, and my veg farmer neighbor has two of them, which is how I learned about them.
I don't think they were made in Grand Rapids. I think they were made near Grand Junction, MI.
It's darn near impossible to find a Farmall A, B, or BN without a tillage tool in SWMI today. The ones with cultivators/grape hoes saw/see field work, many without were bought by John's throughout the years for the forklift conversions. I think they also either made or had made weights, axles, axle housings, and the drop housings. The "BN" width is the most popular. Some use the original B/BN NFE, some have wide fronts (now rears). Farmall A/SA-B/BN "clones" are out there, too, ranging from incredibly crude to as nice as any Johns unit. Farmall C-SC, and styled AC WC-WD-WD45 have had "farmerized" forklift conversions in the area, too.
Johns forklifts are very popular with the fruit/veggie farmers in SWMI, especially for handling crates when harvesting fruit and veggies and loading those crates onto flatbeds. They "rarely" come up for sale because there aren't tens of thousands of them out there. I see maybe 7-8 a year come up for sale at farm auctions in the local papers. There's probably several more, I'm just not really looking for one when scanning fliers. Usually they are not for sale until someone gets out of fruit/vegetables or totally gets out of farming.
I heard Johns went out of business because of a BS lawsuit, about a decade ago. They did the conversions until the end or really close to it. I was going to go to the auction, but my knee was giving me fits at the time.
AG
This post was edited by AG in IN at 17:42:46 04/01/13 2 times.
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