popularity?

We all know that from the beginning of tractors until 1980, across North America, IH and Deere shared about 60% of the market and the other 40% was shared amoung a dozen or so other manufacturers.

Big names like JD, ford/NH and kubota have had no big problem with their jap engines...

soundguy

Yanmar diesels are or at least used to be among the gold standard for marine diesels.

While I don't think deer & co owns yanmar.. i know they did/do , at times, had/ve a partnership deal going.. etc..

Soundguy

Thanks,

And yes.. JD while it has some faults.. sure is good at marketing.

soundguy

soundguy

The best reading on the decline of Harvester is a book, A Corprate Tragedy, by Barbara Marsh. Basically, Harvester was not financially strong when cash flow dried up, due to a severe economic disruption to all manufacturers of the era. Harvester could not ride things out until profitability returned and did what all companies must do to hang on - sell off divisions for cash and focus on a smaller corporate picture.

The early 1980's were very dismall. I live about 50 miles from Peoria IL and watched Harvester, Caterpillar, and all smaller companies in central IL decline. Layoffs were the norm and homes for sale were everywhere. For me, being an employee for an electric utility was salvation from layoff, but I was in a fortunate small group of the central IL workforce.

Harvester selling the IH logo was probably a condition Teneco wanted when it aquired the Agriculture product line. While I don't like seeing the IH logo next to Case, it is better than not seeing it at all.

When one reads A Corporate Tragedy, they will learn that Harvester was refocusing on better corporate responsibility when the bottom dropped out of everything for almost everyone.

The recession was so bad that central IL has never been the same. Harvester is gone from Canton and Caterpillar has never had their employment levels like then. United States manufacturing changed forever after that, with outsourcing, and moving overseas.

Try not to judge the IH boys in charge at the end too harshly. They got caught in tough economic times with a situation they inherited. They had to decide whether or not to go the bankruptcy route, what to sell, when to sell, wait or do it now, etc. It was a very stressful time for them. The book is a must read if anyone wants to know the inner workings of IH at the time.

LOL

Aaron

From all I've ever been told and have read, the FORDSON N had the single highest production #'s as an individual model. "Letter series" FarmAlls were the #1 seller as a brand during their run. The N series Fords sold in huge numbers as a model "series" . The 135 Massey sold in high numbers during its run, beingthe #1 seller worldwide during the mid 60's. 4020 Deere's sold in mass during it's time period, being #1 in US sales during that time. As the years went along, the "most popular tractor of it's day" sold in ever decreasing numbers as the number of farmers decreased.

Allis Chalmers, according to everything I can find, never achieved sales numbers higher than 3rd over-all at any point, and that was a relatively short run during the mid 50's. Their market share in the tractor field was nowhere near the levels of IH or Deere even at AC's high water mark.

I've read where AC (Gleaner) was ahead of IH and Deere in COMBINE sales at one juncture, but at that time, Massey Ferguson had ALL of them covered (early/mid 60's)

I'd like to see this "poll" we're talking about and see who's done the voting!

The Farmall H sold something like 400,000 tractors and the Farmall A, AV, B, BN, Super A series sold nearly 300,000 by itself. IH Made it's 5 Millionth Tractor worldwide in the early '80's BEFORE the Ag division was sold to Tenneco.

Allis made a fine tractor, but I don't think they came anywhere close to those kinds of numbers.

I was on the road for years fixing farm and logging equipment all over the state, and sometimes in New Jersy, Vermont and Maine. Tractor populations varied everywhere. Where I live - there was an equal amount of Deere and IH with a lesser but still common amount of ACs, Olivers, and Fords. I could drive 50 miles away and get into an area that would be all red from IH tractors. Go to another and it would be all green from Deere. I worked for awhile in "black dirt" farm country around onion and lettuce fields and most tractors were Deere and Cletrac crawlers with 3-point hitches, and two-wheel Planet Juniors used in the seedbeds. Years ago - back to the late 50s and early 60s, many farmers became small dealers and sold new tractors right out of their barns. My neighbor used to sell Deeres and still has two "leftovers", a 620 and a 530.

Oh well probably about as accurate as many of the political polls:)

In our county, we had three John Deere dealers, two International Harvester, one Allis-Chalmers, one Oliver/Massey Harris, one Case, one Ford, one Co-Op, one Minneapolis Moline and one Ferguson dealer, and I've probably forgotten one or two. Lots to choose from without too far to go for parts or service.

Stan
Melbourne, FL

steveormary