willie in mn
Well-known Member
A week or so ago I commented that JD had a "shift on the go" feature somewhere around 1933. A couple posters expressed their doubts. I was wrong, it was 1915.
I promised to find the reference. Here it is. A book titled John Deere Farm Tractors, A History of the John Deere Tractor, written by Randy Leffingwell, 1993.
Briefly, Joseph Dain sold his haymaking machine factory in Ottumwa Ia to Deere Company, and took a position on the engineering staff at Deere. He was commissioned to develope a tractor. AFIK of the 150 or so tractors being built at the time, all were single speed. Dain developed a 2 speed, shift on the fly system using a double faced clutch & gear train. To confirm, see chapter 3, page 17ff in the above book.
After building and testing several experimental tractors, he was authorized to build 100 units. Problem is he died before the project was completed. Soon the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co, with a tractor already on the market, came up for sale, so Deere bought them, and did not further develope the Dain tractor. All 100 of the Dain all wheel drive tractors were sold to a dealer named Brumwell through the Huron SD branch.
With the purchase of the Waterloo company, they got the Waterloo Boy model R and the rest is history.
Willie
I promised to find the reference. Here it is. A book titled John Deere Farm Tractors, A History of the John Deere Tractor, written by Randy Leffingwell, 1993.
Briefly, Joseph Dain sold his haymaking machine factory in Ottumwa Ia to Deere Company, and took a position on the engineering staff at Deere. He was commissioned to develope a tractor. AFIK of the 150 or so tractors being built at the time, all were single speed. Dain developed a 2 speed, shift on the fly system using a double faced clutch & gear train. To confirm, see chapter 3, page 17ff in the above book.
After building and testing several experimental tractors, he was authorized to build 100 units. Problem is he died before the project was completed. Soon the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co, with a tractor already on the market, came up for sale, so Deere bought them, and did not further develope the Dain tractor. All 100 of the Dain all wheel drive tractors were sold to a dealer named Brumwell through the Huron SD branch.
With the purchase of the Waterloo company, they got the Waterloo Boy model R and the rest is history.
Willie