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
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Today's Featured Article - Grain Threshing in the Early 40's - by Jerry D. Coleman. How many of you can sit there and say that you have plowed with a mule? Well I would say not many, but maybe a few. This story is about the day my Grandfather Brown (true name) decided along with my parents to purchase a new Ford tractor. It wasn't really new except to us. The year was about 1967 and my father found a good used Ford 601 tractor to use on the farm instead of "Bob", our old mule. Now my grandfather had had this mule since the mid 40's and he was getting some age on him. S
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