Designing the New Generation John Deere Tractors

The atmosphere in the Dallas Coliseum was electric that hot August day in 1960. An audience of about 6,000 John Deere personnel, company officials, and the press had gathered for the unveiling of a new product line. The shiny new green and yellow tractors would be unlike anything they had ever seen. These tractors, with such innovative and advanced product designs, were truly a New Generation.

The New Generation tractors included four models in order of #increasing power: 1010, 2010, 3010, and 4010. #The 1010 was principally a new four-cylinder engine in the 430 #tractor. The 2010 tractor was mostly new parts and #represented a new larger size for the Dubuque factory. The #3010 and 4010 were completely new designs made in the Waterloo factory.

This new book, by Merle Miller (a retired Deere engineer), tells the story of the 3010 and 4010 tractors. This insiders account takes you behind the scenes to give you the history of what, how and why this program came into being. The first three chapters describes the conditions and events leading to the new products, the next four chapters explains the design choice made in each of the major tractor groups, the next three chapters describe the steps necessary to change the lines on the drawing board into steel and iron, and rubber rolling off the assembly line to the customers. The next chapter describes the marketing introduction and security provisions and the last chapters shows great pictures of the final product.