Did you know that Deere GTs &LTs are....

[Scooby074]

made by Murray! And there is only 1 or 2 actual manufacturers of lawn tractors in North America!!

At least according to the salesman I overheard the other day!!

Gotta love the outright lies eh? This was a well established Toro, Gravley and Cub dealer too!!


I guess I overpaid for my X540 then???

 

[schoolsout]

The dept store chain mowers are made by others...I want to say MTD was a big player back in the day. Assume they are still around.

Edit: I googled and am now more confused than when I first read this thread.

 

[EE_Bota]

The dept store chain mowers are made by others...I want to say MTD was a big player back in the day. Assume they are still around.

Our Products

They own Cub Cadet, and have for years.

Cub Cadet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MTD Products - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MTD has more brands than many know. I myself was surpised to see one of their first paying gigs was making a product for a company I used to work for, Standard Products.

 

[RandyT]

MTD is sold under the names of YardMan, Yard Machine, Cub Cadet, White, Bolens, some of the Craftsman, Troybilt, and some of the Murray. Husqvarna is sold under the names of Husqvarna, Poulan, Poulan Pro, Weedeater, some Murray, some Craftsman, Dixon, Jonsered, Red Max, Peerless transmissions. I know I missed a few.

The older light green Sabre were supposed to be a MTD, Murray hybrid

 

[schoolsout]

We used to have a Yard Man for years and years and abused that thing...it lasted about 10 years. Pops now has the cheap JD 130 or something like that (another HD/Lowes purchase) and it has been flawless, too. He's a Kohler engine fan, though.

and I guess the John Deeres are really John Deeres (although much cheaper versions)? I was reading that JD may have purchased chassis/body components from MTD before. Not sure how true that is, though.

 

[ctlguy]

There will be certain "components" mfg by different folks. Can you provide examples of who else sells an X540 in a different color ?? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Scooby074]

Thanks to many mergers and acquisitions, the "common" brands like Murray, Mastercraft, MTD, Craftsman, Husky etc. are all pretty intertwined.

As far as Deere goes, AFAIK the only thing remotely close to a Deere made by a was the Sabre line. But that wasn't a true "Deere". Maybe the Scotts mowers too.

As I understand it, all the mowers labeled "Deere" are made in house. Even the D series.

This thread was mostly about the lies either deliberate or accidental that dealers will use to try and make a sale.. And the importance of doing research on any purchase!!

Or maybe I'm wrong and a x540 is just a Green version of a Cub Cadet GT2554 with a different engine....

 

[Engine_Tech]

Sabres were simply cost-reduced JD's, built off old JD platforms. Example: most of the old Sabres were built off the old JD STX chassis. Same with the JD Scotts. What confuses people is that some Scotts were made by Murray before JD started building them for Home Depot in 1999.

JD built all of these, and the current value tractors in their factory in Greeneville, TN. Just Google it.

JD has never subbed out a tractor, ever. String trimmers, snowblowers, pushmowers - at times yeah. But never tractors.

 

[Scooby074]

Sabres were simply cost-reduced JD's, built off old JD platforms. Example: most of the old Sabres were built off the old JD STX chassis. Same with the JD Scotts. What confuses people is that some Scotts were made by Murray before JD started building them for Home Depot in 1999.

JD built all of these, and the current value tractors in their factory in Greeneville, TN. Just Google it.

JD has never subbed out a tractor, ever. String trimmers, snowblowers, pushmowers - at times yeah. But never tractors.

:thumbsup: It was the older Scotts I was thinking of. I thought that Deere was always behind them and continued to contract out them for the life of the product.. Didnt know that Deere wasnt always the OEM and that they took over the line and moved it in house!!!

See how these rumors get started :laughing:

 

[Dutch445]

premium JD tractors, select series, X3-5-7 are all made in the
Horicon Wisconson factory, which has been a JD factory for
decades.
Sabre/Scotts which have now evolved into the D100 line
(and all 100's prior) are made in that Greenville factory.
in my 14 yrs with a dealer, I have heard all the rumors,
and even from our 100 series partners at Lowes/HD

As far as the rest of the bunch, yea, MTD, AYP, Ariens,
and a few others actually have factories, of which many sell
with several labels. Simplicity/Snapper/Ferris are now all owned
by Briggs, and i believe still maintain separate manufacturing
facilities, but i'm not 100% on that.

There is a big difference in "assembly" and "manufacturing".
many of these facilities are just assembly, of components coming
from anywhere in the world.

and going up into the Ag world, wow have things changed
in the past 15 years. mergers, buyouts, etc galore.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Sabres were simply cost-reduced JD's, built off old JD platforms. Example: most of the old Sabres were built off the old JD STX chassis. Same with the JD Scotts. What confuses people is that some Scotts were made by Murray before JD started building them for Home Depot in 1999.

JD built all of these, and the current value tractors in their factory in Greeneville, TN. Just Google it.

JD has never subbed out a tractor, ever. String trimmers, snowblowers, pushmowers - at times yeah. But never tractors.

I don't know if your referring to just the lawn tractors since that is what this thread is about but John Deere has had others build some ag tractors. The first one that comes to mind are their 5000 series narrow tractors that are (or at least were very recently) made by a company in Italy where just about every narrow vineyard tractor is made.

 

[ctlguy]

orchard/vinyard tractors 20a, 76f, etc are the italy machines.

 

[aczlan]

Don't forget the Yanmar built Deere CUTs of the 80s and 90s.

Aaron Z

 

[Engine_Tech]

:thumbsup: It was the older Scotts I was thinking of. I thought that Deere was always behind them and continued to contract out them for the life of the product.. Didnt know that Deere wasnt always the OEM and that they took over the line and moved it in house!!!

See how these rumors get started :laughing:

Maybe to be more clear, the name "Scotts" was licensed by Home Depot from Scotts Co. for use on the lawn tractors HD sold (regardless of who designed/built them). Originally, the Scotts-branded tractors were provided by Murray and were based on other Murrays. In 1999 John Deere became the provider - and the machines were based on a JD design. Same "Scotts" brand, but totally different machines.

In 2002 JD redesigned the platform but Home Depot kept selling them under the Scott's brandname. In 2003, they went green and yellow and became John Deere branded.

I will also say any JD-built tractor will have a genuine "John Deere - Moline IL" serial number sticker on the frame. Even if JD wasn't on the hood, it was always on the SN tag.

 

[Cyclone Jake]

Looks like they are made by Deere to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqxv233lBS4&feature=youtube_gdata_player