Yes, I was a lowly peon in the engineering department of the two cylinder factory during '57 to '59 before going back to school.
JD had hired a bunch of young draftsmen and engineers just before I got there, but it was never clear what my acquaintences were doing...no body talked. Of course they all signed papers agreeing to......
My job was not secret. JD cleverly went on with fooling folks by having Drefuss tart-up the old thirty series with yellow paint, even spending money on finally getting the steering wheel back to ergonomic position that they had left in the 1930's. That took money to redo the dash and new hydraulic steering, making it one of the neatest tractors of all time in my opinion.
They even went to testing a TA on a 620 we had in the transmission brake test cells...just so that would "leak out" I am sure...kinda neat, the clutch lever engaged the first level, then when pushed further, went to the second level. It survived the first durability runs OK, but I don't think it was ever field tested.
But it showed by rumour that JD was still pursuing improvements to the two cylinder design.
It was time to leave the design as the horsepower needs were creeping up and it was obvious to corporate that the pulsing power flow probably wouldn't work for sales much longer, besides, there was new blood at the top!
If one had to work for a large corporation for a living, I think JD was probably one of the best, most well run companies one could choose.
After I left to finish college, teaching and later small factory design work in the seed and peanut handling area, I went back to JD, signing the secrecy biz and had a good go at seat/ride improvement and new series cab design. Leo
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo and video filesizes should be less than 8MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
2022 John Deere 5045E, 4wd, front end loader and 3rd function with grapple. 120 hrs, 55k new, must sell
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
