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Here were the goals, from William Purcell's notes (Purcell, 1961) as laid out in Merle L. I believe that it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the fact is, the project goals were a radical departure from what the factory was turning out at the time. However, it's the one that everybody seems to remember, most likely because Charles Wiman (CEO of Deere at the time) made that comment. Thank you.)ĭesign goals: It needs to be green with yellow wheels. ( Side note: Deere history buffs, let's please be respectful of the business that currently occupies the space.
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Yep, some of the most game-changing John Deere tractors in history were designed in a building that's now a daycare! People who found ways to cozy up with Deere's engineers and/or management, listening for hints at what was being built. People who paid attention when a truck left the factory with something different on the back. Furthermore, I'm pretty certain that every tractor company out there had spies in Waterloo. READ MORE: The John Deere 4960: I can see clearly nowĭeere's biggest concern with the project was making sure that nobody knew the tractors were coming.(You'll start to see a pattern emerging here - and it all revolves around secrecy.) The management team knew that they could use the element of surprise to their advantage, and during the course of the project, they did everything they could to protect that. Normally there's some sort of historical documentation for when decisions like this were made, but for the New Gen tractors, the official decision to start work was not. If they were to "pass International Harvester" (the famous edict that came from Bill Hewitt in 1955), something had to change.Īt some point in late 1952 or early 1953, Deere's management team made the decision to move off of the two-cylinder architecture. It was a rare moment in Deere's history where nearly every department of the company was in complete agreement. This one sold at the Mecum Gone Farmin' auction in March 2019. The engineers said that without making the tractor itself wider, they couldn't do much more with the two-cylinder platform like the one in this John Deere 70 High Crop Diesel (one of 44 built). Markets Analysis Back to Markets Analysis.