The tractors that made John Deere a contender

In the early 1930s, Deere & Company faced one of the most daunting challenges in that firm’s then 90-plus-year history.

The Great Depression had assaulted tractor sales. Before the start of the Depression, 193 companies were building tractors.

By 1930 just 38 companies remained.

Deere’s equipment sales had tanked as well, reaching the point of the firm shutting down its tractor factory in 1930.

In the meantime, Deere stock plummeted from more than $300 a share during the last months of the Roaring ’20s to $29 at the end of 1930.

Deere wasn’t financially strapped to the point of facing bankruptcy, but it faced a funding shortfall because of the failing U.S. bank system.

To make matters worse, its chief competitor, International Harvester, continued to steal tractor sales thanks to the 1924 introduction of its game-changing multi-purpose row crop tractor, the Farmall Regular.

Deere had responded to the Farmall with its row crop Model General Purpose, or GP, introduced in 1928. The GP would go through a series of improvements during its production run that lasted until 1935.

IHC leads the way

Yet, the GP was quickly outclassed by the Farmall F-12 and F-20. In addition, firms such as J.I. Case and Oliver came out with row crop machines that offered more fit, finish, and features than the GP.

Until this point, John Deere’s horsepower efforts largely consisted of catching up to the competition... and not always doing that so well. Charles Wiman (founder John Deere’s great-grandson) had worked tirelessly to elevate the importance of tractors in the Deere product line before taking over as president of the firm in 1928.

By 1931 he had created a Power Farming committee whose purpose was to study tractors and the equipment they would use. His goal was to develop a line of tractors that would meet the needs for “all farms and every crop.”

The wunderkind design team

That was a tall order to fill, but the committee was up to the challenge. Members included Elmer McCormick, Lou Paradise, Harold White, and Theo Brown.

Brown was Wiman’s go-to guy when it came to engineering. Brown was a consummate engineer,
a Deere man through and through, and a born leader. His abilities are testified to by the fact that he would garner more than 100 patents during his engineering career.

Brown had been working on an advanced tractor line since the introduction of the Farmall Regular. More importantly, he knew John Deere’s next tractor couldn’t just meet the competition — it had to surpass it and convincingly so.

Working under Brown was another Deere wunderkind engineer, Elmer McCormick. Inspired by his design genius, the team set out to create a replacement to the John Deere GP tractor that would both compete with the Farmall and lay the foundation for an entire generation of all-purpose horsepower that could be readily expanded in the future.

Up to now just the D

That last point was crucial to Deere at this time. Before this, a manufacturer’s tractor line often consisted of a handful of models. In Deere’s case it was basically the Model D (introduced in 1923) and then the Model G.

American agriculture, however, was undergoing huge changes and not just in a massive move to replace horses with tractors. Demand was growing not only for a wider variety of tractor sizes (as determined by horsepower output) but also for more features.

That design for a new generation of horsepower first took root in the mind of Deere’s chief engineer, Max Sklovsky, in the spring of 1931.

Sklovsky continued to develop his concept of the tractor until the spring of 1932 when large-scale drawings were completed. A prototype, designated the Model GX, was completed by the Power Farming committee in September 1932.

Next came a production tractor, the General Purpose Wide Tread tractor, or GP-A, introduced in March 1934.

However, the Power Farming committee’s scope of the future of John Deere horsepower extended beyond a single tractor model.

The group also developed a small version of the advanced tractor, the 14 1⁄4-hp. Model B. That tractor would first take form in 1933 as an experimental version dubbed the Model HX. It earned its permanent name late in 1934 and was described as two-thirds the size of a Model A but with all the features.

Numerous advances

Farmers with a penchant for green power immediately took notice of the Models A and B, appreciating the line’s numerous advances, which in time would include:

• A one-piece transmission case with high under-axle clearance.
  
• The Power Lift hydraulic system that replaced a muscle-dependent mechanical design.
  
• Differential brakes geared directly to the large drive gears, which increased mechanical efficiency and ease of operation.
  
• Rubber tires (the A was Deere’s first tractor to offer pneumatic tires).
• Centerline positioning of the hitch and PTO, which reduced side draft for tillage operations on hills.
  
• An adjustable rear tread.
  

To correct a common misconception, the Model A was not the first tractor to offer an adjustable rear tread. That honor goes to J.I. Case’s Model CC.

However, the design of the A’s rear tread was unlike anything on the market. It employed axle splines (10 at first; 15 in 1942) that provided for easier adjustment between 56 and 80 inches. A farmer could readily adjust the rear tread to run down 40- or 42-inch rows for cultivation and then widen the tractor for fall plowing.

Sales for the A and B were immediately brisk. Deere would bring out a wide variety of configuration variations with narrow and wide fronts, orchard, and high-crop versions. In all, nine configurations of the models were sold, including one with a liquid-propane engine testifying to the tractor meeting Charles Wiman’s demand of a tractor line for all farms.

Lettered series

The A and B also laid the foundation for a series of lettered variations, which in time would include the:

• 34-hp. Model G (1937 to 1953)
• 10-hp. Model L (1937 to 1946)
• 15-hp. Model H (1939 to 1947)
• 14-hp. Model LA (1941 to 1946)
• 22-hp. Model M (1947 to 1952)
• 47-hp. Model R (1949 to 1954)

The A and B’s durability and innovative design features spurred on the models’ popularity.

The most popular Deeres of all time

The Model A and Model B would become the most popular and second-most popular tractor models in John Deere’s now-long history.

By the end of its 18-year production run in 1952, more than 320,000 Model A’s had been sold, making it Deere’s most popular tractor of all time.

During its 17-year production run, more than 300,000 B’s were built, making it the second-most popular Deere model.

The popular tractors were also crucial in transforming Deere from an implement-only company to a full-line equipment manufacturer — and that all began during the Great Depression!