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THE SHORT EXISTENCE OF THE GD TRACTOR

Frans Vanbaelen | 10/01/2016 06:37:00 | Back

The manufacturer of the GeD tractor was Machinefabriek Geurtsen from Deventer. The two initial letters of GEurtsen and DEventer are therefore the name of the tractor brand. The company J.G.A. Geurtsen was founded in 1926 as a manufacturer of fireplaces and construction workshops. Geurtsen did not have the slightest connection with agriculture at the time. From 1945, the business also took on the execution of the machine maintenance and engineering of the Ankersmit Textile Factories. This laid the foundation for the design of specialist machines. In the same period, the factory settled at the Molenbelt in Deventer. However, due to the high demand for oil and water separators, the Molenbelt location eventually became too small and the factory moved in 1978 to a historic building of the Royal United Carpet Factory on the Smyrnastraat where they are still located. Geurtsen never intended to build agricultural tractors, but when in the late forties in the early fifties (the difficult years immediately after the Second World War) the food supply in the Netherlands leaves much to be desired and agricultural mechanization is still largely in its infancy, the then Minister of Agriculture Sicco Mansholt (the later European Agriculture Commissioner) decides to do something about it. Although Machinefabriek Geurtsen, as mentioned above, had no activities in agriculture, they were asked by the Ministry of Agriculture whether they were willing to produce a Dutch agricultural tractor. The Minister of Agriculture would provide them with financial support (subsidies) for this.



Ambitious plan with little future



It was an extremely ambitious plan because initially the intention was to build several tractor models that would be equipped with single, two, three and four cylinder engines. The tractors all had to be built according to the same concept and equipped with air-cooled Deutz engines. Good experiences had already been gained with these engines elsewhere because not only Deutz, but also other well-known manufacturers such as Kramer and Eicher moved their engines from the Cologne factory. The GD tractors were 'ready-to-wear tractors', so tractors of which most parts (engines, axles, transmissions,...) were purchased from third parties and assembled in the factory as a kit. The sheet metal such as fenders and bonnet plus some small parts were manufactured by Geurtsen itself.

In 1955 the first prototypes were built and the tractor was also presented at the agricultural fair. Series production started in 1956 with two different versions, namely the type GeDe 20 that was equipped with an air-cooled two-cylinder diesel engine Deutz F2L612 with a capacity of 1,526 cm3 and an output of 18/22 hp and a GeDe 11 with an air-cooled single-cylinder diesel engine Deutz F1L612 with an output of 11 hp. Both tractors had a Hurth transmission with 5 gears forward and one reverse gear and a clutch from Fichtel & Sachs. The tractors were supplied as standard without a lift, but a Bosch surface-mounted lift was available at an additional cost. The standard colour of the tractors was red, but for a dealer in Friesland a limited number were also supplied in green. However, the subsidies promised by the Ministry of Agriculture were omitted, which quickly caused the project to run into (financial) problems. Moreover, foreign competition had not been idle and came on the market with better equipped tractors. Due to the lack of the promised financial support and the weak competitive position, tractor production at Machinefabriek Geurtsen was finally forced to stop after only a year. A total of 130 copies of the GeDe 20 were built, of the GeDe 11 only 20. The rest of the project, namely the models with three and four cylinders, never came into the house. Of the two tractor models built, there were different variants, although the differences are almost negligible. For example, there are versions with and without the picture on the flank that says 'air-cooled' and the Dutch flag. Because most parts were purchased from outside, the purchase price played a major role, sometimes the same parts such as the steering wheel and the headlights were purchased from various suppliers so that differences also occurred there. Cancelling tractor production was not immediately a big problem for Machinefabriek Geurtsen, they simply concentrated on their other activities from then on. The machine factory still exists. They now make installations for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, for the printing and textile industry as well as for the meat processing industry (www.mfgeurtsen.nl).





The GeDe 11



The first owner of the GeDe 11 proposed here was a miller who transported the grain and flour between farm and mill with the tractor. After years of service, the tractor was sold to a dairy farmer from the town of Honthem in Dutch Limburg. That dairy farmer used the tractor to drive the milking machine on the meadow. A few years later, the dairy farmer bought a new milking system and the tractor was written off. For seven years he was rusting away in a shed. There, the tractor was discovered by chance seventeen years ago by the current owner Patrick Van Proeveren and saved from destruction. The sheet metal, especially the bonnet and fenders, had been severely damaged by the frequent and heavy-handed contact with the dairy cattle. Motorically he was still in good shape because after only one start the engine started. Patrick and his father took the Gede apart except for the gearbox, rear axle and engine because they were ok. The worn clutch was replaced by a new one, as was the pressure group. A pair of new tires completed the equipment. The bonnet and fenders were dented, putty, sanded and sandblasted and put in the primer. Determining the correct color scheme of the final layer was quite a job. All in all, it took two years before the tractor was restored to its original state. Now he comes out of the barn alone in good weather and to participate in classic car meetings.

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