DB 850 date codes

rrlund

Well-known Member
I've asked this on the David Brown Collector's Club forum out of the UK and haven't gotten an answer,so I'll take a stab at it here. Is there an engine serial number or some date code that would tell when an 850 or Oliver 500 was built? I have Oliver 500 serial number 3. From articles I've read,DB built two and sent them to Albany Georgia for testing and demonstration in December of 1959. When they made the deal to sell them as Olivers,one stipulation was that they had to have an Oliver serial tag. This one doesn't have one. It just has a small brass tag that says Made in England where the serial tag should be,so I'm just trying to figure out if it was one of those shipped in 59.
 
Randy, sorry that I can't help you with your question, but the info you offered is very interesting. If you have one of them, it sure would make it very unique and valuable.
Is this your orchard tractor??? Post some pics here. I'm sure the guys here would like to see them
Loren
 
Hi Randy, I will tell you what I know on the DB850. Here in the UK for many years we had the Smithfield show in London every December and all the tractor and machinery makers showed thir latest machines. At the show in 1959 David Brown did not show the 850 tractor only the950. Ilearnt many years later the reason for this was because they introduced it at the Canadian farm machinery show in January 1960. I have a photo in a book with the new 850 on the DB stand with the Canadian prime minester sat on it with David Brown stood at the side. DB did not list 850 serial numbers till Jan 1960.Hope this helps and I will try to find more infomation. Michael Hart.
 
Hard to imagine the guys at DBTC couldn't come up with anything. Maybe the right guy hasn't stumbled onto your question yet, I'd stay at it over there. Pretty certain someone there has the original factory records, or at least part of them.



On a couple of mine where I had some questions because of conflicting info, they were able to pin down to what shift on what day a tractor rolled off the line, with speculation what the guy who drove it off the line had in his lunch box.
 
Yes Loren,it's the orchard version that I bought in November. There are just SO many questions about this tractor that I fear we'll never know the answers to since the owner passed away. All that his son in law knew was that it has been sitting in the barn for a long time. It runs. The tach shows fewer than 1500 hours.

I don't know where the conversion to an orchard version took place. I found it in orchard country in southwest Michigan so assumed it was converted there. I got thinking later,if this was one of those shipped for demonstration,maybe it was converted in the south for use in the groves in Florida or Georgia.
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According to the article in Oliver Heritage about them,DB wanted a presence in the US so bad that they postponed the launch of the 850 Implematic in the UK until they filled Oliver's order. On February 26 1960 the first Oliver 500 was driven off the line and on March 10,fifty tractors set sail for the US.

Oliver stipulated that the tractors would have to have a checkerboard style grill that was coming out in 1960,whould also have to have an Oliver serial tag,Firestone tires and Hart batteries. Repair parts would have to be packaged in Oliver boxes.

Here's the tag that's riveted on where the Oliver tag should be. The second picture is of the tag for my 1961 500 gas. It's larger and is held on with three rivets. The crossbox on this tractor in question isn't even drilled for the holes where this tag would be attached.
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The post has been up for a week and a half. There've been something like 115 views. I've had one response,but it was kind of a generic answer that gave the dates of production. Things that I already knew. I'll keep checking it and see if somebody comes up with an answer.
 
There were many blowhards on there that liked to recycle information that glean from somewhere else(why I rarely go over there any more). Once in a while someone drops in and lets loose incredible info(engineers, R&D, test track drivers, line workers, dealers)...
 
Hopefully the right person will see it over there.

I've got the orchard fenders off of it right now,doing some work on them. It's a pretty straight little tractor under all that sheet metal.
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Randy, back a few weeks ago you mentioned a After market co that built orchard and grove equipment, and though maybe they had made the fender conversion for the 850.
You got a real ???? there for a tractor.
I'm sure you will do it justice during the restoration process and the up coming show featuring Oliver this coming year.
Loren
 
Ya,there was a company called Love that built component orchard tractors right near where I found this. I assumed they converted it,then I got to thinking peaches and oranges and that maybe it was done down there if it was one of them that went to Georgia for testing.
 
Add some of these photos to your post on the other (dbtc.co.uk) forum. That will bump it to the top, and perhaps stimulate some interest among the experts.
 

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