John Deere Pavilion-What a disappointment

[BB_TX]

Took a driving vacation to Illinois and points north. Made a point to detour to Moline to visit the Deere Pavilion. Maybe I read too much into their web site, but I was expecting a large collection of vintage equipment and a lot of new stuff. The building was not as large as I expected. It had only two true vintage tractors, a few pieces of vintage equipment (plow, drill, seeder, etc) and some new very large equipment. It did have a lot of information and displays on Deere history. But I was expecting a large collection of vintage equipment and a lot of the new equipment of all sizes. Their gift shop was almost as large as their display area. If you are passing thru Moline, it might be worth a visit. But I would not go out of my way to see it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[FordTruckGuy]

There is a small, old fashioned dealership right down the street from the Pavillion. Can't recall its name, but it is full of old style tractors and other implements. FYI.

 

[beenthere]

If you are from Iowa, its big. From Texas, not so big. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I visited it, and was very pleased with the experience. It is not touted as a display of actual vintage equipment. That is left for others to do. And there are several around the country that do a good job.

When I visited, there was an old thresher, that had an operators platform. The piece had been restored very well, up to the point of the 'wood' platform which had a new piece of 3/4" plywood. I left a suggestion that it was one change they could make to fit the 'era' the machine was built. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

It would take hours to digest all the items in the huge display case, a collection of 'time' that wouldn't fit into a bottle.

I'm looking to go back, and almost made it a couple weeks ago.

 

[RobS]

We stopped on a family vacation a couple years ago. I think I wrote about it here. It was nice, but as you mentioned, not many vintage tractors. They had just finished a large auction of vintage stuff before we got there so there were a few leftovers waiting to be picked up. The old store down the street is used to do restorations though they didn't have anything in progress while we were there. Overall, we enjoyed it but like you said, I wouldn't make a special trip just for it.

If I recall, they do offer tours with reservations. There are a couple of JD plants nearby. We didn't do that, do they still offer it?

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Iowa2210]

I have been through the engine works, PEC, foundry, and tractor line in Waterloo, the industiral works in Dubuque, the harvester works in Moline, the tillage works in Des Moines, the Hay/Forage works in Ottumwa, and the lawn and garden works in Horicon, WI. I know at most of them do offer public tours. I am an agricultural engineer and have toured these facilites with ASAE groups and through personal contacts. My fatther taught at ISU in the power and machinery group of ag engineering and many of the employees at the Waterloo works were his students. Contacts are great.

I think the coolest things I have seen are the 24 ton stamp press that makes the 72" mower decks at Horicon Works (in a single stamping!) and the assembly of the 9000 series 4WD units in Waterloo. I also got to see some crazy prototypes in the Product Engineering Center (PEC) in Waterloo.

If you are in the area I think Waterloo, IA and Horicon, WI are the two best ones to see.

 

[EquipmentJunkie]

By contrast, I was quite impressed by the Deere Pavilion and the mock 50's Deere dealership/Deere Collector's Center which is under the fictitious name Moline Tractor & Plow. It was very well done, clean, and well-staffed.

The last time I was at the Collector's Center, the first Deere tractor was on display. It is an unusual three-wheel-drive John Deere Dain tractor. It is the only one in existence. It was built around 1917 as I recall. Ironically, this is the same tractor that Deere was doing its best to deny that it was involved with, around twenty years ago or so.

The Collector's Center was also putting the finishing touches on a restored 4020. It was very nice. There were also some rare 2-cylinder tractors there.

I think the Deere Pavilion is well worth the trip. In fact, when I was in Peoria last week, I entertained the thought of going up to Moline to see it again. Cooler heads eventually prevailed and I'll just have to visit it again some other time.

 

[em14]

I have been to the Pavilion many times and each time I enjoyed it. It is not often I get a chance to crawl around and over some of that equipment. I guess the first time I went I was looking to see vintage equipment but, while there was some, there was a lot of very interesting new equipment.
Leo

 

[BB_TX]

After rereading my post, I sounded overly critical of the Pavilion. That was only because I had envisioned something more. Looking at their web site, they describe it exactly as it is. What they have is very good and very interesting. I need to pay better attention to what I read.

 

[chevy]

Bill if you ever get back to Moline, visit the John Deere Collectors Center & the John Deere World Headquaters. There is alot of vintage equipment at both places.

 

[johan3400]

BB. wish i had known you were in town. I now am living just south of Moline. I have lived much of my life here and could have shown you some of the sights you often do not find. The Deere pavilon is good at what it does, but there are better displays nearby. For any of the TBNers. If you are coming to the Moline area to see Deere, contact us(Wesdor or myself) and we would gladly help set up some tours. Shoot, Wesdor even owns a Deere, not like me keeping the Orange around.