Customer Reviews

The Complete John Deere

5 star:		(3)
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3 star:		(1)
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This isn't exactly my typical reading, and as the author points out, tractors are admittedly not as exciting or glamorous as say, motorcycles or sports cars. As a typical guy, I'm more likely to pick up a book on fighter planes or aircraft carriers than on tractors. (I've read that even the Dalai Lama likes to do that). But as the author also points out, tractors embody a certain beauty of pure functionality and practicality and utilitarianism, and there is some value in that. The author himself is an automotive journalist who had written books in other areas before being approached about writing a book on John Deere tractors.

The book documents the complete model line from the early 1900s to 2003, although the Deere company had been around for some years before that. During that period, Deere went from being mainly a maker of ploughs to being one of the most diverse agricultural machine and equipment makers in the world. Several times in its over 100 year history, the Deere company's dedication to providing quality tractors at a reasonable cost and their own hardworking corporate culture allowed them to persevere during the inevitable downturns and tough times in the agricultural industry and to survive when their competitors went under.

Originally, Deere tried to design a new tractor, but although a fine tractor with many new features and advantages, that pushed the price up to around $1200 back in the teens, when the competition was selling a good tractor for only about $800, and they compromised by buying the Waterloo Boy Gasoline Engine company, which was already a respected and established tractor brand. This gave them the foothold in the tractor industry that they needed. Deere has often grown by acquiring quality companies to expand their product line and enter new markets.

The book is organized into two-page spreads that illustrate and describe each model, giving history, features and specs, and how it came to be designed, and even why it was styled the way it was.

Some of these models have passed into history but are still remembered fondly today by enthusiastic farmers, such as the venerable model D that served as a workhorse in several versions for almost 30 years. Over the years, the tractors become bigger, more powerful and more capable, giving them the ability to plough multiple rows at once, and the weight and traction to plough heavy, sticky soil (which is apparently a problem in some states for ploughs). One interesting figure of tractor performance was the ability of one model to plough a field for 59 cents per acre, including the driver's wages.

Although diesel tractors are common today, Deere didn't introduce a diesel tractor until the early 50s, several years after competitors such as International Harvestor were already offering them. The diesel's low rev, high lugging ability and fuel economy made it a natural choice for tractor application. Interestingly enough, in the early years of tractors there were even models that could run both on gasoline and diesel.

Once tractor engines reached a certain size, the long bore stroke and higher compression meant that hand cranking was impossible, and the tractors had small gasoline engines to warm up the block so they could be started.

By the way, since we're discussing diesel engines here, I have a funny story for you where a diesel engine played a part--infact, a UFO sighting. One time a UFO was sighted by a guy driving along a highway next to a farm and his car stopped a few hundred feet from the UFO, which was hovering near a power pole. He tried to start the engine but it wouldn't catch.

However, he noticed that over in the field next to him, there was a farmer ploughing his field and his tractor was all right and hadn't stalled. A few minutes later the UFO moved off and disappeared, and he was able to restart his car and get back to town. When he arrived, he related his story to the authorities.

Out of all the UFO stories I've read, this is about the only one I find credible. That's because if the UFO was causing some sort of electrical disturbance, the guy's car would be more likely to stall than the tractor, because a gasoline engine has an electrical ignition system to fire its fuel, whereas the diesel does not. It doesn't need one, since it has a higher compression ratio and fires its fuel by the heat of compression. So the UFO could conceivably affect the car with the gasoline engine and not the diesel.

So unless the guy was pulling some sort of elaborate practical joke, this is one of the few stories I can't debunk. Also, it's said the guy seemed geniunely puzzled by that fact, so perhaps he really didn't know the difference between a typical gasoline and diesel engine and wasn't simply acting and playing some sort of practical joke.

Anyway, I apologize for the little digression, but I thought it was interesting that a diesel engine became the key point in a UFO sighting, and I'd like to think that the tractor in question was itself a John Deere. :-) So like I said, unless the guy was playing a subtle practical joke, maybe this one has some credibility. :-)

But getting back to the book, overall, this is a well written and beautifully photographed and illustrated book on the complete Deere line, and I learned a lot of interesting facts about tractors and even agriculture and agribusiness to some extent from reading it. The diesel tractor, probably more than any other piece of farm machinery, has contributed to the U.S. becoming the biggest agricultural country in the world, and John Deere tractors played an important role in that success.

I purchased this John Deere book wondering if it would be worth my money. To be honest, I was delightfully surprised. It has some very good basic information, without being too basic. It is not overdone, nor is it boring. For those "tractor-crazy" guys like myself, do keep in mind, this is not a specification, owner's, or technical manual. The many pictures and the large span of history, from early vintage to somewhat current model tractors, keeps this book very interesting. It is a difficult book to set down until read completely through. I honestly didn't set the book down until I had read it all!

Now, like all books, it's already getting "dated", as the most current model in the book is no longer "current". Time sure flies! Regardless, it is an interesting book that I'd recommend to anyone. Whether interested in John Deere's or any other tractor, it's a great read! I've had this book for almost 4 years now, and I still enjoy flipping through it every now and then. I wouldn't dream of parting with it.

Now, one last note that you may find interesting...

Be sure to check all of your pages in your book! The first book that I received was "defective". It had some duplicates of pages, and others that were missing! I did get a replacement book sent to me, free of charge, that was not "defectively assembled". Perhaps my uniquely "defective" book will one day be worth something more? Well, perhaps, but I'm not going to be holding my breath! LOL!

Don't let the chance of getting a "defective" book stop you from buying this book. I have no idea how many are out there like mine. Perhaps I have the only one? (Doubtful, but you never know!)

Regardless, you won't regret purchasing this book, I promise!

Enjoy!

By content, this book would have been better suited to the "field guide" category. I'd probably be more forgiving if it weren't a large format book in the Crestline realm. Crestline books have historically been stomach-stretching "meat and 'taters" meals, full of detail. This book is definitely well short short of that. On the upside, it's fairly complete in its coverage of JD equipment and I do like that the author covered the later models... which was the main reason I bought it. On Amazon, the price was right. It should really be a 3.5 rating.

This item was bought as a Christmas gift and the person who received it was very excited about it. He had a hard time putting it down and enjoyed sharing the great pictures with everyone.