Yes, I was a lowly peon in the engineering department of the two cylinder factory during '57 to '59 before going back to school.
JD had hired a bunch of young draftsmen and engineers just before I got there, but it was never clear what my acquaintences were doing...no body talked. Of course they all signed papers agreeing to......
My job was not secret. JD cleverly went on with fooling folks by having Drefuss tart-up the old thirty series with yellow paint, even spending money on finally getting the steering wheel back to ergonomic position that they had left in the 1930's. That took money to redo the dash and new hydraulic steering, making it one of the neatest tractors of all time in my opinion.
They even went to testing a TA on a 620 we had in the transmission brake test cells...just so that would "leak out" I am sure...kinda neat, the clutch lever engaged the first level, then when pushed further, went to the second level. It survived the first durability runs OK, but I don't think it was ever field tested.
But it showed by rumour that JD was still pursuing improvements to the two cylinder design.
It was time to leave the design as the horsepower needs were creeping up and it was obvious to corporate that the pulsing power flow probably wouldn't work for sales much longer, besides, there was new blood at the top!
If one had to work for a large corporation for a living, I think JD was probably one of the best, most well run companies one could choose.
After I left to finish college, teaching and later small factory design work in the seed and peanut handling area, I went back to JD, signing the secrecy biz and had a good go at seat/ride improvement and new series cab design. Leo
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Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
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