Ahhh, you say. Here’s Lohnes with another dumb tractor video! No, give this one a chance, it’s cool I promise! What we have here is the 1961 John Deere film called Men, Ideas, and Tractors which follows the developmental process of some new tractors. Dedicated John Deere fans will recognize the 2010, 2010U, 3010, and 4010 models as shown. Now, loyalty and brand pride run as deep in the world of tractors as they do in cars, trucks, peanut butter, and beer selection but even if you are not a Deere guy of girl you owe it to yourself to watch this. Why? Because it is everything cool about tractors and tractor history.
Because tractors, especially old ones are generally seen as simple machines that personify a kind of toughness and basic mechanical nature, they never get the due that they deserve on the engineering side. This video shows all the different testing and processes that go into making something new from scratch. From engine dyno testing to powertrain development, and more, this video has it all. One of the most amazing parts of the whole deal is when they show perfectly built, full-scale wooden models of the tractors being worked on an studied by engineers.
There are times in the video when the development tractors (in gray) are shown doing field testing at the John Deere proving ground and then ultimately shown being worked on at the company’s test farms in places like Texas. The larger point here though is that this was field testing in its most honest sense. Guys drove these tractors 24-hours a day for weeks on end doing all kinds of different tests. Whether it was seeing how the steering worked and held up or seeing how the machine actually dragged a plow, a ripper, or other attachments, it was not computer modeling when the prototypes were done. Nope, it was work in the open, in the winter, and through the night that proved out the designs.
This is an awesome window into how the machines that feed our world were designed and lined out over 50 years ago. You may not dig tractors, but there is so much neat mechanical stuff in there (like the pattern shop part that shows guys making bad ass parts out of wood!) that we know you will dig it. You may not bleed Green and Gold and maybe you like your power Red, but if you love tractors, this is absolutely awesome.
