I did not hear that John Deere is starting to move production out of USA. FOR some model tractors

[SilentJ]

The business degrees have infected Deere. People making these decisions are neither engineers nor farmers. They just want to make a spreadsheet look good so they can get their dream job at Apple or wherever. Not good.

 

[stuckmotor]

Japan. I had one of those also. Good machines.

Hasn't JD been putting Yanmar engines in their smaller tractors for years?

 

[jyoutz]

Hasn't JD been putting Yanmar engines in their smaller tractors for years?

Yes

 

[Torvy]

Hasn't JD been putting Yanmar engines in their smaller tractors for years?

For a while Yanmar straight up built the smaller units for JD. Supposedly JD makes their own, but they are just like everyone else in the market. They assemble here from parts made all over the world.

 

[rScotty]

Hasn't JD been putting Yanmar engines in their smaller tractors for years?

Or we could say that JD has been incorporatng some of their own parts and designs in the compact tractors that Yanmar builds for them.
Either way, it has been that way since some time in the 1990s and has worked well.

rScotty

 

[arrow]

Or we could say that JD has been incorporatng some of their own parts and designs in the compact tractors that Yanmar builds for them.
Either way, it has been that way since some time in the 1990s and has worked well.

rScotty

Early 80’s.
The 50 series tractors (650,750, 850, etc, etc.) were all built in Japan allegedly to jd specs.
Yanmar attempted to market their own brand with their stuff just about identical to the jd specs so l am unsure where the original design came from meaning jd or Yanmar.
They were good machines a bit light on loader specs but well put together.
I had the 750 and 950.

 

[Alan W.]

The business degrees have infected Deere. People making these decisions are neither engineers nor farmers. They just want to make a spreadsheet look good so they can get their dream job at Apple or wherever. Not good.

Worked for a company years ago that was the largest in its field. All of management from supervisors up had started lower in the company. Even our Division director had started as a material handler.
Then they started hiring management straight out of college who knew nothing about the mechanics of the company. No one was promoted from within. Production tanked. After closing plants in many states the company changed the name of our division and tried to sell it off.

 

[rScotty]

Early 80’s.
The 50 series tractors (650,750, 850, etc, etc.) were all built in Japan allegedly to jd specs.
Yanmar attempted to market their own brand with their stuff just about identical to the jd specs so l am unsure where the original design came from meaning jd or Yanmar.
They were good machines a bit light on loader specs but well put together.
I had the 750 and 950.

I worked with a US Yanmar dealer in the late 1970s and we stayed good friends down through the years. So I got to see the whole Yanmar/JD transition.

The JD650 through JD1050 models were manual shift tractors very close in features and specifications to the line of lime green (not JD green) tractors that Yanmar produced in the late 1970s.

By 1980, Yanmar had changed most of thier tractor line to have power shift transmissions with integrated power steering. They also changed the paint from lime green to the candy apple red they still use. Yanmar no longer marketed their older manual shift tractors under their own name, but with a few changes they continued to make the older manual transmission tractors now painted JD green for John Deere.

At that time - 1980 - still JD didn't have a compact tractor line at all, and Yanmar was the acknowledged leader in quality compact tractors. Plus Yanmar owned the patent on the bevel gear front axle which made compact 4wd tractors work so well. So JD made a good choice in chosing to sell those older Yanmars - which already had a reputation for being unusually durable tractors.

The partnership ended up in lawsuits about 1990, which JD won. Yanmar had to shut down their USA dealerships and not sell in the US under their own name for a number of years. But they continued to make tractors for JD.

Like JD, Yanmar is a huge international company making lots of different things. I suspect that for both companies their compact tractor line is a tiny percent of their overall manufacturing business.

Hope the history helps,
rScotty

 

[arrow]

I worked with a US Yanmar dealer in the late 1970s and we stayed good friends down through the years. So I got to see the whole Yanmar/JD transition.

The JD650 through JD1050 models were manual shift tractors very close in features and specifications to the line of lime green (not JD green) tractors that Yanmar produced in the late 1970s.

By 1980, Yanmar had changed most of thier tractor line to have power shift transmissions with integrated power steering. They also changed the paint from lime green to the candy apple red they still use. Yanmar no longer marketed their older manual shift tractors under their own name, but with a few changes they continued to make the older manual transmission tractors now painted JD green for John Deere.

At that time - 1980 - still JD didn't have a compact tractor line at all, and Yanmar was the acknowledged leader in quality compact tractors. Plus Yanmar owned the patent on the bevel gear front axle which made compact 4wd tractors work so well. So JD made a good choice in chosing to sell those older Yanmars - which already had a reputation for being unusually durable tractors.

The partnership ended up in lawsuits about 1990, which JD won. Yanmar had to shut down their USA dealerships and not sell in the US under their own name for a number of years. But they continued to make tractors for JD.

Like JD, Yanmar is a huge international company making lots of different things. I suspect that for both companies their compact tractor line is a tiny percent of their overall manufacturing business.

Hope the history helps,
rScotty

So jd changed only a few things as “ built to jd specs”. The basic tractor design was Japanese produced and not conceived by jd as my salesman alleged.
Didn’t matter to me.
They were rugged, simple and easy to work on.
Things got crazy when jd wanted almost $400 for a new cast steering knuckle that had split on mine.
I found one at Yesterdays Tractors for $75.

 

[bigtiller]

I worked with a US Yanmar dealer in the late 1970s and we stayed good friends down through the years. So I got to see the whole Yanmar/JD transition.

The JD650 through JD1050 models were manual shift tractors very close in features and specifications to the line of lime green (not JD green) tractors that Yanmar produced in the late 1970s.

By 1980, Yanmar had changed most of thier tractor line to have power shift transmissions with integrated power steering. They also changed the paint from lime green to the candy apple red they still use. Yanmar no longer marketed their older manual shift tractors under their own name, but with a few changes they continued to make the older manual transmission tractors now painted JD green for John Deere.

At that time - 1980 - still JD didn't have a compact tractor line at all, and Yanmar was the acknowledged leader in quality compact tractors. Plus Yanmar owned the patent on the bevel gear front axle which made compact 4wd tractors work so well. So JD made a good choice in chosing to sell those older Yanmars - which already had a reputation for being unusually durable tractors.

The partnership ended up in lawsuits about 1990, which JD won. Yanmar had to shut down their USA dealerships and not sell in the US under their own name for a number of years. But they continued to make tractors for JD.

Like JD, Yanmar is a huge international company making lots of different things. I suspect that for both companies their compact tractor line is a tiny percent of their overall manufacturing business.

Hope the history helps,
rScotty

Very interesting, I had forgotten most of it, and I worked there for many years.