CaseNutty,Adirondack Caseguy,Ande and others

I would like to hear more stories from back in the day from all of you guys who were there. I am sure you guys that worked in the dealerships as mechanics/salesmen have some good stories about the the new models with Eagle Hitch,the 300,400 and 500,200 thru 900b series,30 series,the backhoes and others that followed.
I know that Ralph Smith sure told some good stories at the winter convention in Chester IL this spring.
Nick

Nick, I will think on a story or two from the "Good Ole day's" to post here, I know the Backhoes(580 thru 580C) Uni-Loaders, "30" and "70" series tractors we also so 5-10 compacts a year so I may have something of intrest to all, have to say that I going to save most for Old Abes News as I have already committed to Jimmy that I would as well as various "Tech" repair stories but I have more than a few LOl cnt

Nick,
I'm not as important as others ...

But the ONE thing I remember was when the 2 tone came out , the store had to hide them till ALL the dealers had them to show ..

just my thoughts .... mark

Mark YOU are very important!!! how about a little more to go on?? cnt

Mark;
Your reply is EXACTLY what I am looking for!!!
Thanks for your reply.
Nick

Nick,I know you meant no harm,leaving someone out,but in here there are many like us,from the old dealerships,and I know they have wonderful stories you would love to hear,maybe you could start a post on dealership personel.
One thing that comes to mind here,was the fish fry's(it was great french fried) we would have in the winter,guess they were Case open houses,guess I was pretty young,as it was the B series my Dad started selling,but I remember the city hall was full of farmers and towns people,what a great event,we continued those events till we closed.
There is another story that really lights my fire for excitement,when Dad and I picked up a "2670" from a highway ditch with a broken trunion,will save that one.
Good Post Nick

Nick, in the early day's of our dealership we had a major oil boom in our area that lasted most of the time we were a dealer, those first 5 years or so we sold a huge amount of 580CK hoes that is what I will focus on for this story, late spring 1968 we sold one of the roustabout company's in town 6 new 580CK's, they had picked up the first two Friday the week before and when Monday rolled around I had two more seviced and ready to go, two trucks with float type trailers pulled in at 7:00am and loaded the 580's one on each trailer, off they went and I went back to servicing and doing the pre-delivery on the last two for that company to be picked up the next morning, I had the first one done and was about half way thru with the second when the manager from the office came driving in a very big hurry came right to me and said " anyway that I can get one of the 580's for tomorrow today?" I said sure that one there is all ready to go take it,,, you have a suprize job come up? NO he said bluntly and nothing more right then as we heard the sound of a truck coming up the road to our shop on it I could see a muddy 580 with more than a few issues a first glance, he ran more than walked to "greet" the truck and began barking out orders to all in that truck, told them to just drop the float LEAVE the hoe on it get there A&&'s back to the yard get another float and then pointing to the 580 I had finished load it get to the job and they Dang ( not the word he used) well better take care of it, he then walked back to me and asked if the coffee in the shop was still on I said sure lets go get you a fresh cup, inside he begines the tale of the muddy 580 on the float, it was the first one they had loaded that morning they had taken it back to the yard to install the company's stickers unit#'s ect after they had done that they had dug a 5'long hole with it to lay a electric cable to the line for a "Hot start" box for the truck and hoes new parking lane loaded it back up and proceded to head to there job for the day north of town about 50 miles away, problem was they did not rechain the hoe to the float and on one of the sharper corners on the oil field road the 580 and float went there seperate ways, the 580 stayed on its wheels so to speak but they were running around 50MPH it went thru the roadway fence across a very steep wash along the road that is where the front axle stayed tractor continued on down a very steep muddy ravine they had rolled the loader bucket to full dump so it was throwing mud up and covering the 580 from bucket to hoe, then it went across a wider wash the tractor made it ok but as it was slowing down in travel speed the rear dropped down into the wash and the dipper on the hoe caught hard enough to buckle and break the dipper cylinder rod then she came to the pine trees which removed the muffler and crushed the oil bath air cleaner, when I went to look at it on the float and survey the damage the hour meter read 3 hrs and 5ths, it had 2hrs and 9 ths on it when I had finished with the pre-delivery they had less than a hour on it!!! a new 580CK dsl was about 7500.00 then the repair bill was over 3000.00 when she went back to them a couple weeks later, that backhoe was known as #3 went on to run over 9000 hrs for them before they traded it back to us for a new 580B years later, Don the manager told me then it was the toughest hoe they ever had and must have been because of the way they "Broke" it in LOL, another note is that when that unit fell off the float they bought one more hoe to replace it till we could repair it which in turn got them to thinking they needed to keep some extra hoes around just in case so a week after they got #3 back they purchased two more 580CK's and two 350 dozers with backhoe attachments also, sure wish I would have taken pics of some of the things those oilfield hands could do to a piece of equipment, my Dad always said " they could tear up a anvil with a rubber hammer" one more thing before I close, here up until we sold out Case dominated the backhoe sales my guess would be they made up 95% of the backhoes in the oil field 99% were 580's we never sold a 480, we did sell 680's but very few into the oil field they went to contractors and such mainly up until the 680E came out then we did put a number of them into the oil field hope I haven't bored you all to tears this pic was taken in 1967 after a spring blizzard my Dad and brother are in the pic Dad is standing behind the hoe cnt

I can remember when the COM first came out. I was about 10-12 year's old and our local Case dealer drove a new tractor around the country demonstrating the new COM to about everyone in the neighborhood, whether they were a Case customer or not. I can still remember that shiny new tractor coming down our lane, and i also still have the plastic stick pin and pencil he gave me. Dad was an IH man (did own a Case combine) and never converted, but they did eventually win me over when I started farming.

Thanks everyone for the stories.
Like Ande said I dont mean to leave anyone out as I know there are a lot of you guys out there with some good stories.
Case Nutty;
Thanks for the story,I cant wait to see your Old Abes News article!!!!!!!!

Tom,you were the "580" King,but your country needed them,we only sold one,think it was a 200B,and its still running today,the thing that hurts,is my Dad wanted to buy it when it was on a estate sale for me at the the time as I had just bought a new house,and needed yard work,and I told him I didnt need the the tractor,I have kicked myself since.
Great post Tom,it brings back lots of memories