John Deere Ag and Industrial Dealers

When did Mother Deere split the ag and industial dealerships? Are there any that sell both?

Were the two types ever combined? As long as I can remember, the industrial line was separate from the ag line. But I'm not quite as old as some of the other guys.

There are also consumer-line dealers who can only sell lawn mowers and maybe a few of the small compact utility tractors.

Also turf equipment dealers (golf course equipment)

It would seem that any dealer would want to sell both, for more sales.

closest JD dealer to me is implement and lawn mower...they can order parts for my 350b dozer if i give them the part number...i think the total split up happened 15 or so years ago...dont know why...seems like the more outlets you can sell parts...the better...closest construction dealer to me is 160 miles round trip...i let the idiot in the brown truck fetch parts for me if i'm in a hurry.

(quoted from post at 11:07:19 04/06/11) When did Mother Deere split the ag and industial dealerships? Are there any that sell both?

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I worked for a JD dealer from mid 60's to late 80's and IIRC there were no Ag/Ind dealers in Texas in that time frame.

You'd think Deere would want SOME dealerships.....period,but that doesn't seem to be their business plan. Close and consolidate,sell new equipment,not parts,that's their new montra.

I remember dealers that were both into the 1970's and I want to say even into the 1980's here in NY. I think it was a matter of setting up a contract and meeting Deere's requirement for personnel, facilities, tooling, and parts. The one I recall was down in Brooktondale, NY down by Ithaca. I don't think the overlap was very long but maybe somebody from that area may know better. I believe there was one out south of Buffalo, NY too.
Certainly, it was an uncommon situation otherwise. Five Star is the current multi-location dealer in the central and western part of the state.

Been separate as long as I can remember.

Neighbor had a fire on his 440 diesel crawler- About 1980, as I recall- he needed a bunch of engine parts. We had a local JD ag dealer, but he had to go 60 miles away to an industrial dealer to get the parts, even though he had a book and had the part numbers.

Don't get me started on lawn equipment . Toro Comercial ,Toro Home owner , Toro Golf equipment , all different divisions and dealers .

there were'nt any combo dealers as far as selling new equiptment but the ones around se central Tx could order and had books to order any part JD made...local dealers to me said JD made the rounds and picked up their industrial books and microfiches 15-20 years ago...i'm just going by what the partsmen told me.

You forgot Toro irrigation. LoL Home owner and commercial. Both are usually sold by the commercial turf equipment dealers. There used to be independant dealers for each division here but Toro wanted the turf equipment dealer to handle all the irrigation too. Most manufactures of AG and industrial equipment had seperate dealers. Some products like skid steers could be sold by both. Having everything at one dealership would be a nightmare. Honda wanted to have single dealers for all their products from cars, motorcycles and power equipment. It didn't work in Europe, so of course they tried it here. A brand new dealership manager was boasting he'd put the oldest motorcycle dealer out of business. Less than 2 years later, the new dealer completely dropped the motorcycle line. Strange thing is that back in the 80's Honda offered the owners of the motorcycle dealership the car dealership. The owners declined because they were a motorcycle guys, not a car guys. Big difference. Motorcycle riders don't want to have to deal with a car guy that has no clue about bikes and vice/versa. Honda did force the M/C dealer to spend about a million bucks on renovations to their building. They even had to get rid of the giant rubber plant(tree)that started off about 5 feet tall and grew huge over 20 some years. I liked the old building exterior a lot better than the new one. What a waste of money. The customers were always there anyway because they had excellent service and parts.

"Are there any that sell both?"

Well, the new (2006) RDO store in Moorehead, MN, for one.
Ag and Construction

here in southwestern pa they have been seperate for close to 20yrs if not longer dont know why

I tried to buy a new JD skid loader from a dealer.He told me he could sell me one,but he would have to give another dealer credit for the deal because he was an ag dealer and the skid loader was indusrtial.I bought a new holland.

These days you can order Industrial parts on jdparts.deere.com for pickup at your local Ag dealer. Not that that would help anyone back in 1980.

Carmichael Equipment in Gallipolis, Ohio, Huntington, Wv and Ashland, Ky. handle both but I think they're the 2 divisions under 1 roof. Pretty big operation for this area. Pretty pricey too LOL. They have a web page if you want to check them out, don't know if this helps or not, Just my thoughts, Keith

DO NOT USE THE TERM MOTHER DEERE. You are disgusting.

There were 2 that I knew of that were ag and indusrial, they are both gone mow.

Seperate contract which means if a dealer wants to sell construction eq. he has to pay for the contract to do so. New holland is the same way.

Skidsteers are under a "Work site products contract" not all Ag dealers have that contract. The work site prodcts is: skidsteers, small excvators, 110 TLB, 224 wheel loaders.

The split was in 1988. John Deere split into five divisions: AG.,Consumer products, Industrial,Finance, and Insurance. When the parts inventory went computerized industrial only parts could no longer be ordered by Ag. dealers. The dealer I worked at sold quite a few 350 and 450 crawlers. We could not longer order many of the parts direct.