Gold Key Tour.

Farmed for 40+ years and never had a brand new tractor. So when the wife came home from work a couple of weeks ago and asked if I wanted to go on a Gold Key Tour I jumped at it. The tour is when you buy a new piece of equipment from Deere you get to drive it off the assembly line. The county bought a new 700 Deere crawler. Some of the county road crew, the county engineer and two of the supervisors-my wife-and me went on the factory tour in Dubuque Ia. where they make Deere crawlers, skid loaders and backhoes. VERY interesting. The building where they build this stuff is a mile long and I pictured three lines like you seen in the old Henry Ford pictures a mile long. They didn't want us to take pictures because they said it might offend some employs?? Instead of a long lines they have carts the machines ride on and stations where groups of employs put on different parts. I took pics. of the last station where they put on the tracks and getting ready to drive it outside. The outside pics, are of the crew, the salesman and the supervisors. The one pic. is of the guy who will run it---smiling like a skunk eating s---. Deere used to make the smaller two cylinder tractors here and the one pic. is the very first one-the M. Had to get a pic. of it. My Dad bought a new 420 back in 57. Had a real good time, I just tagged along, Deere fed us a very good noon meal with CLOTH napkins and treated us all VERY good.---Tee

can anyone go up there and do the tour or do you have to buy a $100,000 piece of equipment?

That looks interesting. I have been in the factory were the dodge B engine were built and they were turning out 100s, How long does it take to build a dozer?

Tee -- Wow!, Sounds like a great day for sure!! Thanks for posting pics and letting us know how the day went....even though you weren't considerate enough to get us each a doggie bag from the lunch country. :lol:

They really did not say. There are-maybe-6 to 8 stations where people put parts on but the only one that moved while we were there was the one where they put the tracks on. Someone asked how many they made a day and they would not really say-SECRET??? This line made the smaller crawlers-the next one over made the bigger ones. 700 crawler---31000 lbs.----1050---93000 lbs.---Tee

I think anyone can go, Probably won't get the same tour though. We rode on 4-wheel carts with seats on them but got off and walked to follow the crawler through the line "MY" new 700 went through. It is a neat tour, I recommend it to anybody. It is right on the Miss. river so we drove 70 mi south to Moline and did some more touring the next day.---Tee

Thanks-I traded my Wife my steamed veggies for her beef??? Yum---Tee

What all did you see in Moline?

We"ve done the Waterloo tractor tour, and last summer, the combine plant in East Moline, on the way back from Branson. Nice break half-ways back! Both places, it"s a riding tour (carts pulled by lawn tractors, narrated by retired employees). Kids have to be a certain age. Tours are free. Combine tour had an optional walk, up/down stairs to see the paint tank operation. Very interesting stuff. Tractor plant had a quarter mile walk to the start, but they provided a wheel chair and escort.

(quoted from post at 08:11:10 06/02/17) can anyone go up there and do the tour or do you have to buy a $100,000 piece of equipment?

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https://www.deere.com/en_US/corporate/our_company/fans_visitors/tours_attractions/factorytours.page

Davenport, Dubuque, and Waterloo Tractor works are not part of the open to anyone tours.

Definately check out the Harvester Works, Des Moines, Works, and Engine Works tours. Seeding in Moline is out of build season until late August or early September.

That new 700 is drop dead beautiful......too nice to work!