The Evolution of John Deere: From Tractors to Autonomous Machines

Engineer Terrell Wood had an idea that would change the face of farming forever. He put the engine above the front axle and used a drop box transmission, eliminating the need for wider frame rails and allowing the front wheels to be turned much tighter. This design worked, and it was so significant that the Smithsonian Museum of American History included Terrell's drawing in an exhibit on significant innovations.

As the 20th century came to a close, John Deere seemed unstoppable. They were killing the farming game, but as the 2000s got into gear, some people believed that John Deere was actually killing farming. The company had become synonymous with agriculture, and their tractors were used by farmers all over the world.

However, the question remains: should farmers themselves be allowed to fix the tractors that they paid for? Because today's Deeres are so advanced, some even driving themselves, John Deere says that to repair the machine is less of a mechanical issue and more of a question about software rights. Technically, you can still replace parts on your John Deere, but then you've got to take your tractor to an authorized dealer for a mechanic to clear all of the error codes in the computer to get the machine operating again.

Loading up a tractor ain't cheap. Some farmers have reported that it costs a thousand dollars just to get their tractor to and from the shop, not counting the cost to have the actual codes cleared. Farmers say that John Deere essentially has a monopoly on the repair market. Make no mistake, John Deere is making money on this arrangement, but the company has a few rebuttals to this argument.

Just like in your car, tractors have to meet emission standards, and let's say a farmer has access to all the engine controls and tunes his Deere to make a little more power baby, creating more pollution in the process. That's not good. Another common Deertalking point is the threat of unintended consequences cascading through the computer system by a well-meaning mechanic not exactly knowing what they're doing and making the problem worse.

That's sweet of you guys. 20 states in the country have introduced legislation to help farmers regain their right to repair, but unfortunately, the battle is a very, very uphill one. Because the issue concerns software, tech companies like Apple have a tendency of showing up to hearings on the subject. If John Deere lets their customers access their software, then a precedent might be set to make Apple let their users do the same. Apple doesn't want that, and because of this shared interest, farmers have teamed up with tech sector right to repair advocates like Louis Rossman, a YouTuber who shows people how to repair their gadgets.

He makes really good videos. "Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with a techie," he said. What about side by side with a friend? "Aye, I could do that." John Deere in many ways acts similarly to how Apple acts. We have a lot of the same complaints, the people that work on farms and farm equipment, and people like me trying to, you know, work on these devices.

The right to repair fight aside, what does John Deere look like today? Their largest tractor currently is the 9620 RX, a four-wheel drive tracked field machine with a 15-liter Cummins turbo diesel making 620 horsepower dude. The 9620 was designed for maximum traction in wet and hilly conditions and since it uses tracks, the 55,000-pound curbweight is distributed over a larger area minimizing the impact on the soil below.

Also, I forgot to mention it drives itself. GPS guidance isn't exactly a new thing, but John Deere's Autotrack guidance system steers the tractor while the farmer on board is free to look after whatever equipment they're towing behind. John Deere is an iconic name with an undeniable impact on the world of farming and by extension the world together.

As the tractors keep advancing, the company stands at a crossroads, balancing the tradition it helped create and setting a new standard that is tarnishing the company's reputation among the people who rely on them most.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Should farmers themselves be allowedto fix the tractors that they paid for?Farmers say yes, but John Deere says no.(engine sputtering)(water splashing)This leaping deer isbeloved by hard workersacross the globe, enjoying alegacy of nearly 200 years,but like almost everythingelse in America,this one is ripe with controversies.In this episode, you're goingto learn the rich historyof these Illinois tractor boys,and why a ton of farmers are suing them.This is everything you need to knowto get up to speed on John Deere.(lively video game music)Big old thank you onceagain, to SurfShark VPNfor sponsoring today'sepisode of Up to Speed.- Bet you didn't think you'd see me again.Now with a few clicks, I willhave all of your information,Mr. James Kentucky Cobra Pumphrey.Oh, I see you've been Googlinga lot of images of horses.What are you, a horse freak?Mmm, this is fun.I didn't know you likepickle juice so much.Oh, I know all sortsof fun stuff about you.What, HackLock?(buzzer ringing)Wait, wait, no, no.That's the power of SurfShark VPN, baby.With SurfShark's HackLock technology,you don't have to worry abouthacker Jerry stealing all your stuff.It scans databases all over the internetlooking for your personalinformation and will alert youif your accounts are compromised,making your online experience safer.One of the coolest features is the abilityto swap my location, givingme access to stream TV showsnormally blocked here inthe good old United States.I'm talking Anime.if you want better online protection,click the link in the description belowand try SurfShark VPN today.Enter promo code donutmediafor fricking 85% offand an extra three months free.Support the sponsors that support Donut,and now back to the show.Up to speed!A battle between farmers and John Deerehas been quietly foughtinside barns, fields,and courtrooms all overthe country for years now,and the crux of this issue is this.Should farmers be allowed torepair their own tractors,like they have been for a hundred years?Now, it sounds crazy,but John Deere has arguedthat farmers don't even own their tractor,but instead an impliedlicense to operate them.So how did it get this way?Well, we should probablystart at the beginning.Chapter One, The Plowlogue.Our story about tractorsbegins before tractorswere even tractors, backwhen tractors were horsesand mules and stuff.In 1837, a blacksmith bythe name of, you guessed it,John Deere was living inGrand Detour, Illinois.So one day John's hanging outwith these farmers, right,and these farmers, they have a problem.Dan Aykroyd, Chicago accent.Chicago, Chicago.- Hey, we got a problem.Our plows don't be trudgingthrough this root-riddensticky Midwestern soil and such.- Yeah, this mud is deeperthan our frigging pizza.- Hey, not so fast there pal.Not all of our pizza is deep.Some of it is really thin and crispy.- Yeah, we need a plow thatwe can drag through the gardenlike our fricking hot dogs.- Yeah, no ketchup.- No ketchup.- No ketchup.- So John got to thinking.He remembered this broken steel saw bladethat he had sitting in hisshop that he had salvagedfrom a nearby sawmill.So he threw the bladeonto a plow and voila,it worked really, really freaking well,and he was able to pump outso many plows that he leftthe small town of GrandDetour for the big city lightsof nearby Moline, Illinois.In 1876, Deere registeredthe iconic leaping deer logowith the U.S. Patent Office,which went on to become one of the longestcontinually used logos of all time,and a staple of mesh backedhats with really curved bills.(jazzy music)Even if the company nevergot into the tractor game,John Deere would have earneda spot in American historywith this plow alone.(rap ringtone music)Chapter Two, The First Deere.In 1892, 103 years beforePost Malone was born,a dude named John Froelich inventedthe first gasoline powered tractor.It used a one cylinderengine to move the machinebackwards and forwards.Froelich met up withbusinessmen in Waterloo, Iowa,and they all partnered together to formthe Waterloo Gasoline Tractor Company,which immediately beganstruggling as the companywas only able to sell two tractorsbefore running out of money.Then in 1914, they introducedtheir R model tractor,which unlike the firstattempt was a reallyfricking sick tractor,and the company sold8,000 of them before it was discontinued.The Waterloo company's experiencemade it very attractiveto another company thatwas looking to round outtheir farm equipment line, andthat company was Caterpillar.J.K., it was John Deere.In 1923, John Deerereleased their first tractormarketed as a John Deere.- No more Waterloo nameplate, okay.I'm calling this thing my name.- Thing had a fricking keroseneburnin', soil churnin',two-cylinder engine pushing 15 horsepower.They called it the Model D.While other tractormakers were experimentingwith more powerful four cylinder designs,John Deere was making a conscious decisionto make a less advancedtractor because they knewtheir customers were relyingon their machine to survive,and that stands in starkcontrast to Deere's fightto keep farmers from repairingtheir machines today.(engine sputtering)The Model D was a huge success.It's basically the '32Ford of the tractor world.Over the course of its 30 year lifespan,John Deere sold 160,000 model D's.So fast forwarding alittle bit through history,the Great Depressionmesses up the economy.Then World War II followed,which meant John Deerecouldn't make tractors,but when the allies won,John Deere got back to workon the next big thing.(engine rumbles)The 1949 Model M took twoyears to design and would beJohn Deere's best tractoryet, and it was conceivedas the complete farming package.Hydraulic touch-o-maticcontrols in front of the driverallowed them to adjustplow height on the flyand out back, the newquick-tach system meant anybodycould hook up equipment tothe Model M by themselves,which streamlined the entire experience.John Deere also made the ModelM super comfy for farmersby including an air cushion seatand an adjustable steering wheel.My cars don't even haveadjustable steering wheels.John Deere produced a version of the Mfor construction called the MC.The C stood for crawlerbecause this boogerhad tracks like a fricking tank.This was a big deal for thecompany because it showedthat John Deere could innovate outside ofthe farming industry and also,who doesn't like fricking tank tracks?chapter Three, Hay Bales and Snowmobales.If you're a city dweller like me,you might not ever encounterhay bales in the wildoutside of the Red Bull soapbox course,or maybe on Halloweenat Knott's Berry Farmor your local hayridefacility, but farmers,they rely on it because in the winter,when grasses aren'tgrowing in the pasture,they need something tofeed their livestock,and that's where hay comes in.It's like shredded wheatbig biscuits for animals.In the 1930s, automaticbalers were developedto form and tie hay bales with twine.The problem with these balersis that you usually neededsomeone behind you to throwthe bales in the wagon,but that changed in 1957 when John Deereintroduced the 14T baler,which had so-calledbale ejector technology,which could throw the balesinto the wagon for you making hay balinga one person job for the first time.Another leap for Deere,(drum rim shot plays)around this time was theincrease in engine displacement.Up until 1959, two cylinderengines had poweredall of Deere's tractors, but in 1960,that was about to changeas they introducedfour and six cylinder enginesacross the entire lineup,giving farmers even moreplow-ah, baby, in their fields.After the baby boom in the 1950s,the concept of the American suburbwas spreading all over the country,and with cookie cutter tracthomes usually comes a lawn,and boy, did Americans love their lawns!By 1959 nearly six millionlawn mowers had been soldin the U.S. and John Deerewanted in on that market,but with a different kind of mower,a tractor for the suburban age.In 1966, John Deere unveiledthe John Deere 60 lawn tractor.Besides the mowing blade underneath,there were a bunch ofattachments for the urbantractor warrior that lovesgear like a snow thrower,snow blade, and a pull behindsprayer so you can spraydelicious lawn treatmentformulas behind you.While John Deere had wide name recognitionwithin the world of agriculture,putting their baby tractorson suburban lawns all over the U.S.really brought the brandinto the mainstream.- Becausenothing runs like a Deere.- John Deere followed that upwith an even nuttier attemptat mainstream success witha line of snowmobiles.In 1971, they started with the339 cc model called the 400and a 463 cc one called the 500.Deere stopped building thesleds in 1982, after sellingthe brand to one of theircompetitors, Polaris.You ever heard of it?(snowmobile zooming)(snowmobile crunching)- Oh (bleep).- In 1972, John Deere waspoised to drop another bombon the farming game in the shapeof their Generation Two tractors.These beefy boys were unlike anythingthe company had released before.Instead of sitting on top of the machine,outside in the sun, GenTwos had an enclosed cockpitcalled the sound guard.Not only did it protect youfrom the black hole sun's rays,but the insulated cabin was also equippedwith ample sound deadeningto give your ears a rest,again improving a farmer'swhole way of life.The largest of thesetractors was the 4630,a crop row tractor making 150 horsepower.What's a row crop tractor?As the name suggestsa row crop is designedfor the cultivation of rowed crops.(gentle piano notes)As the '80s rolled on, JohnDeere started to focus moreon fuel efficiency withintheir lineup, and the change-upcouldn't have come at a moreopportune time for them.Thanks to the combination ofcrop overproduction, embargoes,and declining crop exports,farms around the U.S.were in pretty bad shape.The event was called the farm crisis.Finally, we got to talkabout another crisisother than a gas crisis.I talk about it so much.We're making it a shirt soon,(cheering)but because of Deere's refocus,while other manufacturerslike International Harvesterwere really feeling theheat of the farm crisis,John Deere was able to make a profitand went right ahead with new designs.They released a bunch of new tractors,but we like big stuff here.So I'm going to talk about the big one.The largest of these newtractors was the giganticModel 8850, a V8 powered, 370 horsepowerfour wheel drive beast.It's like the fricking ChargerHellcat widebody of tractors,but capabilities like this came at a cost,$120,000, about $320,000 in today's money.John Deere was on top ofthe game, but was once againlooking to break into some new markets,but this time around JohnDeere wouldn't be taking ona specific task like theydid with the lawn tractor.This new Deere would be about utility.Chapter Four, Gator Aid.in 1992, John Deere dropped the Gator TH.This humble work vehicle was designedfor all sorts of work in mind.They're a frickin' blast.It's like, the first thingthat most of us drive,that or a golf cart.The TH came in a sixby four configuration,meaning six wheels, four of themputtin' power to the ground.Deere also released theslightly less hardcore Gator TS,which had four wheels instead of six.Now the Gator is important notonly in John Deere's history,but I think it helpedshape an entire sectorof motor sports today.Now stick with me.With the success of the Gator,other manufacturers followed suitwith their own utility vehicles,companies like Polaris and Yamaha.Now, these things weredefinitely meant for hard work,much like the Gator, butowners discovered something.They are fricking so fun to drive.(engine revving)Polaris was the firstperson to recognize thisand built a utility vehiclethat wasn't so much utility,and they called it the Razor,and I don't know if you've noticed this,but Razors are fricking everywhere.You drive into any fricking suburb,you either got an RV, a boat, or a Razor.John Deere even got in onit with the Razor RSX line.The RSX had four wheeldrive and a top speedof 60 miles per hour,60 miles per hour inan off-road golf cart.The Gator re-introduced JohnDeere to millions of peoplewho have never otherwise comein contact with the brand.I mean, I've never driven a tractor,but I've driven like a million Gators.(engine revving)(water splashing)In 1994, John Deere droppedthe model 8000 tractor,another game changer forfarming productivity.The engineers wantedto drastically improvethe turning radius of the tractor,which would help farmersget their vehicles on trackin the fields more easily,but it just seemed impossibleuntil engineer Terrell Woodshad an idea, all right.Put the engine way up above the front axleand use a drop box transmission.This eliminated the needfor wider frame rail,so the front wheels couldbe turned much tighter.The design worked.The advancement was sosignificant to farmingthat the SmithsonianMuseum of American historyincluded Terrell's drawing in an exhibitof significant napkin innovations.It seemed that John Deerecould not be stoppedas the 20th century came to a close.They were killing the farming game,but as the 2000s got into gear,some people actually believe that like,John Deere was actually killing farming.Chapter Five, Right To Repair.Going back to the questionthat opened this episode,should farmers themselves be allowedto fix the tractors that they paid for?Because today's Deeres are so advanced,some even driving themselves,John Deere says that torepair the machine is lessof a mechanical issueand more of a questionabout software rights.Now technically youcan still replace partson your John Deere, but thenyou've got to take your tractorto an authorized dealerfor a mechanic to clearall of the error codes in the computerto get the machine operating again.Loading up a tractor ain't cheap.Some farmers have reported thatit costs a thousand dollarsjust to get their tractorto and from the shop,not counting the cost to havethe actual codes cleared.Now, farmers say thatJohn Deere essentially hasa monopoly on the repair market.Make no mistake, JohnDeere is making moneyon this arrangement, but the tractor makerhas a few rebuttals to this argument.Just like in your car,tractors have to meetemission standards, andlet's say a farmer has accessto all the engine controlsand tunes his Deere to makea little more power baby,creating more pollution in the process.Now that's not good.Another common Deeretalking point is the threatof unintended consequencescascading throughthe computer system bya well-meaning mechanicnot exactly knowing what they're doingand making the problem worse.That's sweet of you guys.20 states in the countryhave introduced legislationto help farmers regaintheir right to repair,but unfortunately, the battleis a very, very uphill one.Because the issue concernssoftware, tech companieslike Apple have a tendency of showing upto hearings on the subject.If John Deere lets theircustomers access their software,then a precedent mightbe set to make Applelet their users do the same.Apple doesn't want that,and because of thisshared interest, farmers haveteamed up with tech sectorright to repair advocateslike Louis Rossman,a YouTuber who shows peoplehow to repair their gadgets.He makes really good videos.You should watch him.- John Deere in many ways actssimilarly to how Apple acts.We have a lot of the same complaints,the people that work onfarms and farm equipment,and people like me to try to, you know,work on these devices.- Never thought I'd die fightingside by side with a techie.- What about side by side with a friend?- Aye, I could do that.(chuckles)- Chapter Six, Modern Venison.So the right to repair fight aside,what does John Deere look like today?Their largest tractorcurrently is the 9620 RX,a four wheel drive trackedfield machine with a 15 literCummins turbo dieselmaking 620 horsepower dude.The 9620 was designed for maximum tractionin wet and hilly conditionsand since it uses tracks,the 55,000 pound curbweight is distributedover a larger area minimizingthe impact on the soil below.As a bit of an amateur farmer myself,I know that you don't wantto impact the soil below.Also, I forgot tomention it drives itself.GPS guidance isn't exactly a new thing,but John Deere's Autotrack guidance systemsteers the tractor whilethe farmer on board is freeto look after whateverequipment they're towing behind.John Deere is an iconic namewith an undeniable impacton the world of farming and byextension the world together.As the tractors keepadvancing, the company standsat a crossroads, balancingthe tradition it helped createand setting a new standardthat is tarnishingthe company's reputation among the peoplewho rely on them most.If you liked this video,make sure you hit that subscribe buttonand the notification bellso you don't miss anything.We put out a new videopretty much every day.If you want to know moreabout another vehiclethat changed the American landscape,check out this video I did on Peterbilt.Follow me on Instagram @JamesPumphrey,follow Donut @DonutMedia, somefun behind the scenes stuff.I love you.