Farmwithjunk
Super Member
Re: Oliver\'s are sweet
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What was the reason for the demise of the Oliver? Around these parts...you'd be hard-pressed to find one.
Was it competition, poor marketing, good-tractor-turned-bad in terms of cutting manufacturing costs?
Just curious...I never heard anything bad about them; the company just disappeared off the face of the earth. )</font>
Oliver built a great product. (tractors and plows especially) The rest of their product line was equal to about anything on the market in that era.
Problems arose when it came to business managment of the company, as well as some decisions that would have effected their future.
They were lightyears ahead of everyone in regards to VARIABLE SPEED 6 cylinder engines. Thinking of the day was to build engines designed to run at a given RPM. Oliver used a wide power spread. Their 1500 and 1600 tractors were on the market a couple years before Deere stole the show with the 3010/4010. About then is when they started to fumble the ball.
By the late 1960's Oliver was in trouble. They absorbed Cockshutt and Minneapolis Moline and became White. White was finally bought by what became AGCO.
Just like International Harvester, Oliver proved that just manufacturing a good product isn't enough. It takes business savvy to stay in the hunt. (Along with a design team that developes the "4010 of each generation")
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What was the reason for the demise of the Oliver? Around these parts...you'd be hard-pressed to find one.
Was it competition, poor marketing, good-tractor-turned-bad in terms of cutting manufacturing costs?
Just curious...I never heard anything bad about them; the company just disappeared off the face of the earth. )</font>
Oliver built a great product. (tractors and plows especially) The rest of their product line was equal to about anything on the market in that era.
Problems arose when it came to business managment of the company, as well as some decisions that would have effected their future.
They were lightyears ahead of everyone in regards to VARIABLE SPEED 6 cylinder engines. Thinking of the day was to build engines designed to run at a given RPM. Oliver used a wide power spread. Their 1500 and 1600 tractors were on the market a couple years before Deere stole the show with the 3010/4010. About then is when they started to fumble the ball.
By the late 1960's Oliver was in trouble. They absorbed Cockshutt and Minneapolis Moline and became White. White was finally bought by what became AGCO.
Just like International Harvester, Oliver proved that just manufacturing a good product isn't enough. It takes business savvy to stay in the hunt. (Along with a design team that developes the "4010 of each generation")
