What made you the color you are?

My first tractor was a stuck John Deere B, given to me by a car junk yard owner, when I was about 8 or 9. Before I could talk my dad into helping me drag it home, (1000 feet) the junk yard owner took it back and sold it. I Could have been a J.D. man. The toys I got for Christmas were Case. I could have been a Case man. Even with two Farmalls and a Ford 3400 during my childhood, I still remained brand neutral. In my senior year ('81) I took a job at a local I.H. dealer, and that's what set the stage for me. It was a small Mom-n-Pop store, so me and another older guy worked the parts counter as well as the shop. It was such a thrill for me to be able to tell the customers how to fix their stuff and save them money! I remember a small, U-shaped casting on some small power equipment, I don't recall what it was, but they were always going bad. It had needle bearings in both legs, they didn't hold much grease and no way to lubricate them. Well, the shaft (about 5/8") would wear through the race after the needles were gone, and on into the casting. Casting with the bearings was about $75. (a pile of money in '81; short block for a Cadet 60 was $29) But it happened that the casting was able to be turned over, and all you had to do was press in new bearings for about six bucks. Sure, the notch was still in the casting, but it was on the opposite side of the belt tension. The shaft was usually shot, but it wasn't much. They still left the store for under 20 bucks. The customers would proclaim, "---------- Implement charged me three times this amount last time this happened!" We'd just smile and wave. Another time, the BOSS gave a customer the wrong fan belt for a Super C. When the guy came back for the right one, I said, "You're just in time to inaugurate our new policy: When the boss gives the wrong part to a customer, the correct part is free" and I handed him his belt. I paid for it myself, but it was worth 8.00 to see a surprised customer, and the utter shock on my boss's face! I had such fun there, I should have stayed.

Needed a tractor and my little red one jumped out of the paper at me. Close by and priced considerably lower than the versions of green (deutz, JD, Fendt, and a couple other German names), afterwards, started noticing that the local dealer (case/IH) seemed to maintain the ed ones and work on the others.... And I just like red as a color.

When I was little, our neighbor had a John Deere Model A and my dad had a Farmall M and an old Case. I always thought the John Deere sounded like a tractor should. Always tried to get my dad to buy a John Deere but he never would. He had to buy a new M when he traded tractors. My first tractor was a John Deere B, then two Farmalls and another John Deere. I always found the Deeres to work better than the Farmalls. I have to drive Cases for the guy I work for and I hate them.

well-- i am white? what a reflective question.
i was born into green (hard core) 720s,4010,4020,
5020s. and got jd toys for xmas. if you talk bad against jd,thems fightin words!-lol. BUT we used
an 806 and i lived on a 1586 for 3 yrs. i really liked that 1586. since ive heard horrible stories about some new jds.....so to each his own....any machine is good if not totally abused or from arkansaw....ok take your jabs..want to discuss the civil war next??

(quoted from post at 01:27:50 09/20/11) well-- i am white? what a reflective question.
i was born into green (hard core) 720s,4010,4020,
5020s. and got jd toys for xmas. if you talk bad against jd,thems fightin words!-lol. BUT we used
an 806 and i lived on a 1586 for 3 yrs. i really liked that 1586. since ive heard horrible stories about some new jds.....so to each his own....any machine is good if not totally abused or from arkansaw....ok take your jabs..want to discuss the civil war next??

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"LOOKS" wise, I like the JD's here that are in the 800(?) range and the 20 series (1020 and 1120), but just can't justify the price folks want for them and the price of maintaining if they need parts...... Just don't find a lot of goodies (FEL, cab, etc) for them in this area either... Same with a ford and the local dealer has a 3000 that I'd love to have if they weren't so proud of it. Nice thing about the fords here is parts are plentiful and almost cheap on ebay....

My Dad always had the red tractors. First one I really remember was a SMTA. Next one was a 400 followed by 3 560's. Course it helped that the man Dad worked for also owned the local IH dealer. That also meant I got a lot of red toys at Christmas time!! lol
Later on, I'd work part time for different friends and most of them had green machines. One had a couple of 4020's and one had a 4430 and a 4440.
But the one I really liked operating was a IH 3788 "Alligator". Sure was a different tractor to to get used to.

I am white personnally, being the product of sn English mother and a father of German-Austrian descent, along with a few others mixed in. Now as to tractors, Dad was an Allis -Chalmers guy from the get-go. I still have the B he bought new in 1948. In 1960 we bought a used John Deere H and I've been green & yellow ever since. My brother & I thought we were in hog heaven, going from cultivating 1 to 2.
As a kid you were expected to drive whatever was avaialble when helping neighbors and family, so I drove a little of everything, Farmall, Case, Oliver, Ford. They all had their good & bad points and creayed some great memories for me. The inmportant thing is that those tractors of the 30's & 40's changed the face of agriculture forever.

Grandfather and uncle was red, all red, except for the politician podium, that was green. Neatest farm and cleanest equiped farmers that I always loved to watch as a kid was red. They always kept their equipment looking and running like new. In fact they havent farmed in 20-25 years , only a couple left in family, and the old tractors and building's are still immaculate. Tracy Farm.

They places I work/worked at I'd of gone broke quick paying to fix the bosses mistakes !!!!

I have JD's because that's what I grew up around. I think Grandpa got his first JD most likely because there was a good dealer right in his small town. He had a Huber before that.

When small my Father, who was not a farmer, had an AC WC for occasional use around the place.

My uncle had an 8N, and thats all it took to make me a Ford guy.

Dean

I'm into diversity, I don't care what color they are as long as they're cheap.

I'm Caucasion mostly; Irish,English and surname German and 1/32 Creek Indian.My GGGGrand Mother named Polly Jones was a full blood member of the Creek Indian Nation from Jackson County Ga. I grew up with Green all over the place,no not that green,color around home was Oliver green.An 18-28 was there before me then a 70 right before WW2 and then a couple of 77's,an 88 and in 1955 a Super 99. Dad bought no more tractors after the 99 until he died in 1981. They all had numerous repairs and overhauls and paint but the one surviver I keep track of is the 99.Dad's cousin bought it at the estate sale and maintains it to this day.I occasionally get a chance to drive it when ever I take a trip back home.Dad's cousin is 91 healthy years old and still runs tractors on the farm occasionally.

Around here horses were the norm until about 1938. Grandpa’s first tractor was a 9n but never bought anything else because it did what he needed on his dairy farm of 280 acres (40% tillable). He never pulled a two bottom plow with his horses. Said he could get them to do more work with a single bottom. When the Ford arrived he immediately saw the benefit of the two bottom tractor. He built a small pond with the 9n, cut hay, planted crops with it. They were threshing up till after WWII. By the 50’s grandpa hired neighbors with harvesters to get his crops out.
My uncle started farming after WWII. He bought a Farmall H then an M, had several different colored utility tractors. He was working about 300 acres of crops with those tractors. When the New Generation JD’s came out he added a 4020 diesel. He never liked the 2 cylinder JD’s. Our family was mostly color blind. It mean’t more to have good service close by than to be loyal to one color (except for the 2 cylinder issue). Ten mile east of us was a Farmall dealer. Ten mile west was a JD dealer. During all that time the JD dealership stayed in the same family. The International dealership changed hands a couple of times and that just happened to be when the new generation JD’s came out and my uncle wasn’t happy with the latest International dealer. He used the M and 4020 until he sold out in the late 70’s.

I don't farm anymore but I bought a Farmall to play with because it was from a neighbors farm.

Parents and grand parents all had the red ones, F-12 thru the mighty M. When I tried a green one I disliked the hand clutch so my own is red!!!

Oliver green

Scandinavian, white skin, white hair. Oh did you mean tractor color? Deere green just because I grew up with that color. Along with the farm I grew up on the whole neighborhood was green which only reinforced my patriotism to the color. I admittedly have a soft spot for that color of machinery. I own other colors that have certain characteristics that outshine the green ones but that soft spot is still there. Almost bought a blue tractor last winter partly because I like the color but the dealer and his price made me see red! Jim

John are You in Jackson Co.? (Commerce Area) as I'm in gainesville ga? Larry

First tractor I drove was a TEF. Next was a MF135. Then a Fordson Major.
That's why I bought a gray one first, then a red one. My brother has all the Blue ones.

Negative;Maricopa County Az. My GGGGrand Mothers Family owned a large plantation in Georgia,growing cotton and grain crops for the New Orleans Market. But; Andrew Jackson and the powers to be in Washington of that time wanted the Indians land even tho it was under treaty so Old Andy and his rag tag army of merceneries and regular army drove the Creeks west and out of their ancestral land. My GGGGrand Parents decided to go north to escape Jacksons Genocidal Campaign and ended up in Kentucky. My GGrand Father Old John Harmon was born in 1847. His mother was half Creek and half German.Old John Harmon enlisted as a teenager in the USA Army,10th Ky Mounted Inf.Company F. He left many stories of the Civil War days and being raised in the home of an Indian, his mother, Delind Manda Jones/Gunter. My family treasures the memory of Polly Jones,my GGGGrand Mother,a member of the Creek Indian nation. The Internet holds lots of information on the Creeks flight to save life,read up on it.

The Farmalls & Olivers had smooth Power as
kid growing up filling silo on a wet farm that
we owned only the 2 clyinder John Deeres went
through the mud. I spent more time pulling out
my neighbors at silo filling time than hauling
silage back to the farm. Other neighbors with
red belly Fords could pull the empty wagons &
bring lunch to the field. Never cared for the
gear selection of the Farmall H & M"s, frt
ends were too heavy & the olivers were too
lite. But John Deere A"s , 60"s 70"s Fit the
bill. I still use 60"s 620 , 630 730"s B & Just
bought a little M I"m working on...

OK....colors in the barn are as follows; 3 shades of Red, gray, green, 2 shades of yellow, blue, orange, white, silver, and rust. (Yes, rust is a color)

What made me those colors? The realization that no one brand is the best at everything.

My personal favorite individual tractor is red and gray.

I've always been red and gray. My grandfather and uncle farmed with them, my dad fixed and sold parts for them. My first tractor at the age of 16 was a broken down MH 444 I picked up for $750. After I graduated from college I took a job in sales with a major player in farm equipment. Let's just say I still bleed red...

Thanks!... A Veeeery Interesting Story, I deed,, Larry

Not sure what color I am yet. Started out red, with a Farmall M. Wanted a 3 point, and live power so I got an early (4 cylinder) Ford 4000 (blue/white). Couldn"t easily rig a loader on my Ford, so kept shopping around. Right now I"ve got a JD 3020 (gas) w/ a 148 loader, but it doesn"t feel like I"m done yet.

I"d like a tractor that starts up like the red one did, even when it"s really cold out, handles/manuevers like the blue one, but has a good solid loader. What color should I try next

John how is the weather down about Casa Grande tonight.. Usually come that way about the last week in October. My colors raised in a ih family farmed for 15 years with primarly ac orange then made a living for 38 years selling orange KUBOTAs,

gray and flambeau red/desertsunset. Case it is what i grew up with and what i collect.

I grew up on an integrated farm. Grand Dad had both red and green. When I was 12-13 years old I was on a NEW IH ( I think it was a IH 706) tractor at the County fair. I did not know that they had hydrostatic steering. So it fascinated me that you could turn the steering wheel and nothing much happened. One of the IH dealer's sons chewed my butt for spinning the steering wheel while it was not running. He did not tell me that it might hurt something he just chewed me out. Right in front of all of my school friends. You can bet I remembered that LOL.
About the same time the local JD dealer was baling hay. I was helping put the little square bales in the barn. He let me drive a brand new JD 4020 PS to haul a few loads of hay in. That really stayed in my memory. Grand Dad did not let me drive his JD 4010 as he said it was too big for us teenagers to handle. LOL

That same JD dealer hired me right after I got out of college. He told me one time the biggest reason he hired me was he remembered how I was a good worker putting in hay for him. That was 10-15 years before he hired me. I worked for him until he died. He was a real class act. He treated people very well and still made money.

So I did not even look at IH tractors for many years because of the way I was treated.

Side note, the Guy that chewed me out took over his Dad's dealership just a few years after that. HE did not make it five years until he had to sell out. Another family bought it and they are still in business. So watch how you treat everyone as they may very well be your customers tomorrow.