WHOA! Hold up there! Just what were the innovations in the AG department at AC?
I checked sales numbers when AC was making the Roto Baler. NH sold far more balers in the same time frame, something like 10 to 1. That's not looking at other brands, just NH. That wasn't too successful.
Cat had the first turbo on a tractor around 53 (and yes an ag model was available) so the D19 wasn't a first unless you want to claim first wheeled turbo diesel.
While the Gleaner had a decent reputation the big guys and custom operators used the MF's until Deere came out with the 7700. They were picked for productivity and durability.
Other so called innovations? The Snap Coupler? That kinda died like the IH Fast Hitch.
That really falls under marketing and market research or the lack of....both AC and IH should have known that the target market had grown up during the depression and wanted to shop around for implements. Being stuck with preparatory implements wasn't a great idea for either company. The Snap Coupler and Fast Hitch had another short coming. As HP increased neither system could be made large enough to harness that extra HP.
AC was late to the game with IPTO.
Late in the game to Power Shift.
IH at least learned from the 560 tranny failure where AC was noted for Tranny issues clear up to and including the hundred series.
It's kinda like the IH fans claiming the first diesel tractor when Cat beat them to the punch in 1933 IIRC. Cat even beat CaseIH to the punch on the Quad Track design. They experimented with a steel tracked loader in the 60's. The problem was tire punctures in mining operations from sharp rocks. About the time Cat was really looking at building the thing someone figured out that a special kind of tire chains solved the problem.
You really look at it. The big innovations after the tractor was invented:
Row Crop. (IHC)
IC engines, including LP, gas and diesel. (Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company)
PTO, live PTO and IPTO included. (IHC first production model, JD first IPTO)
Hydraulics. Live included. (not sure of first but both Ford and IHC produced tractors in 1939 that had/could have hydraulics)
3 point hitch. (Ferguson system on the Ford 9N)
Shift on the go/Power Shift. (Ford selecto speed)
These are based on what stay with us.
Tractors once proven successful were bound to get larger. HP was going to go up. Things like cabs were bound to happen. But those were the big innovations. Power steering was a necessity as tractors got bigger. The turbo was a no brainer. It aloud using the same engine in several models of tractors.
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