By Handsome James.
Eight maids are milking eh? Well Jock, bet you
haven’t had that much attention in years?
Mind you, I’m sure if you were writing this you would
say something along the lines of how it would take eight of them just to get
hold of it...
However, I could say that you could easily fit eight
milk maids' hands right in the place where you would need to be milked..... Ha!
I’m asking for it, I know, but I thought it was funny
;-/
Here we go then....
EIGHT, EIGHT-THOUSAND’S ARE ACE!
John Deere make the best tractors in the world. Fact.
Lets go back to 1983 when Deere released their Series
50 models to for the UK market. These tractors were high horse power units
designed for larger farms. The model range produced tractors between 128 and 215 horse power.
In ’87 the range was updated and called the 55 series.
The range topping 4955 produced 228 horse power and a whopping 203 hp at the
PTO. As I mentioned in my first post (and noted often by the agricultural
press), that this made them ideal for pulling large square balers.
These beautiful tractors were built with John Deer’s
core values in mind. One of which sticks out like a sore thumb: Reliability!
These 55’s are a basic tractor powerhouse that can
pull all day and all night without a glitch. Usually good for 10,000 hours
before you need to fix anything too drastic on them. Expect to pay £18,000 for
an immaculate low-houred 1994 model - (The year the model range ceased).
So “The year’s ’94 and the trunk is raw” (Jay Z) and
you have an amazing product with a strong historic platform and two generations
of enhancements and tweaks.
Here’s the question, Do you sit on your laurels and
pump out more of the same product with some innovative enhancements or do you think, Lets do something completely
different, but better at the same time?
And that’s what Deere did! Good firms bring out new
incarnations of the same things using strong inovation but great firms don’t
just take you to the edge of envelope, they re-invent it. Only better.
Check this tweet out as an example:
In 1994 the legendary 8000 series was introduced.
Since initial release it has spawned five generations and has become a standard
sight to any one with high horsepower demands who drives green.
My first experience observing these green giants was
one lazy summer’s day in 2006. I was sunbathing my handsome self in my friend’s
garden, when the local farm’s 8520 came tear arsing past pulling a corn cart.
My first impression of it was all about how low it
was to the ground. Almost like a grand tourer. Compare it to a Case Magnum say,
and the height difference is clearly visible.
I remember it looking nimble and well balanced.
Casting my mind back to ’94, I also remember the brochure for the 8000's making quite a point
of their turning abilities. The farm manager at the time was thinking about
replacing a large Renault with either a John Deere 8200 or a JCB Fast Trac 185.
They even demo’d the Fast Trac and its turning circle was horrific!
This is not what I want to talk about however. I don’t
want to bombard you with stats and facts about this series of tractors, I want
to refer you to number one on my list, which i made on the twelfth day!
> Spectacle, and in particular its noise!
Fast forward to 2009 and the farm had a New Holland
CR909 combine on demo! It was the then biggest and most powerful combine in production!
Accompanying the new Holland was a Claas Lexion 600 that was coming towards the
end of its harvest cycle. Servicing these two monsters was a John Deere 8530
and Richard Wesston 24t chaser bin!
Needless to say the chaser was busy! Even though it
was rape that was being cut, both machines were eating it up and had very
experienced drivers getting every ounce of productivity out of them as they
could!
My main memory from this spectacular event was the
exhaust note of the Deere, as it went charging up and down the gaps in the cut
rape, to service each combine. Once the chaser was full it would have to hoon
it to the edge of the field to empty its load in the waiting lorries. Then the
cycle would start all over again! Epic noise from a symphonic six cylinder
sound!
When the 8530 moved to cultivating duties, I recall
it pulling a Kvernland fixed cultivator all over the estate at break neck speed
too! You could literally hear that growly exhaust note miles away! Talk about a rumble in the distance! Like an
approaching storm!
As Deere so eloquently put as a strap line on their
website upon release – “Thunderous power”. Two words, but with all the right connotations.
All 330 horse power is put down from a John Deere
PowerTech 6-cylinder; 9.0L engine!
Want a used one? These babies
don’t come cheap! But you get what you pay for!
Here are a ‘stack’ of videos only to seduce your senses this time…. I want you to really appreciate that exhaust note, so they are all quite basic, but very bassy! Usually high end HD ag. tribute videos are cluttered up with eurodance as they are either made in Holland or Germany!
This is the handsome demo i told you about.....
No comments:
Post a Comment