Yes, we do have friends that own those odd-sounding green tractors.  After much soul searching, we allotted some space on our site for some photo contributions.

The photo at left was taken at the 2002 Land of Legend Antique Tractor Club Plow Days.  Here, a very smug Jacob Evans aboard his smart-looking F-20 is lending some assistance to a stuck-and-troubled (no offense to the YT web site) fellow Club member and JD owner.  Scenes such as this one are not uncommon.

Guest photo courtesy of Jacob Evans

At right is a photo of a rare JD prototype from the early 1940s.  Information is somewhat sketchy about this machine, and only one is known to exist.  This was JD's first attempt at styling.  The JD designers as we understand, weren't simply going after a better looking tractor as there was functionality to the sheet metal--it kept geese from flying through the engine compartment!  There are no records of this model being submitted to Nebraska for testing.  Note the absence of the traditional hand clutch and external clutch housing/belt pulley!  Also, there is indication from the stylish-ness of the JD brand on this tractor that there were some first-generation graffiti artists employed in the paint department. Some JD reference books do mention this prototype, and we have learned that this design was abandoned in short order.  There was a scarcity of rubber and steel during the War years, and this forced JD to equip this model with 9.00 x 20 truck tires on the rear.  This was not practical as was the ostentatious use of sheet metal.  Some historians feel the resources JD spent on the hood would have been better spent by installing oil control rings on the pistons.  Perhaps JD felt it looked too much like a competitor.  Since this prototype was based on the JD model G, marketing had tentative plans to call this model (if it went into production) the UG-LI or the shorter UGH (un-styled G, hooded).

Guest photo courtesy of Peter Anderson.

Guest photo courtesy of Maddie Anderson.

At left and below are guest photos of two variants of the John Deere GP.  The one at left, unofficially tagged the X-EG, never made it to production, however the one in the lower picture did and was designated the EGAD--Elevated G, Advanced Design.  These units were developed in the mid-1930s to compete with the Farmall F-20 and were designed specifically for cultivating checked-row, hill crops such as corn.  From the placement of the exhaust stack and breather we see the first concepts of the New Generation 4-digit Series JDs of the 1960s.  The X-EG sported an innovative arched frame which provided clearance for full-width mid-mount cultivators.  The arched frame proved too labor intensive to manufacture, so a straighter frame design was incorporated into the later EGAD.  Clearance for the EGAD's mid-mount cultivators was provided by rather unusual 12.00 x 24 x 48 oval cross section rear tires manufactured exclusively by the Goodstone Tire Company for JD.  As expected, it is no surprise Goodstone recommended not filling these tires with fluid.  In order to under-price the F-20, JD eliminated the belt pulley. Also, JD avoided  a copy-cat version (and potential litigation!) of the very effective but rather complicated Farmall Triple Steering mechanism which allowed for quickly maneuvering around hills of corn that were not in line.

Guest photo courtesy of Sam Anderson.

Crop mis-alignment was deftly handled by the odd profile of the EGAD's tires--they lifted the tractor up and the cultivators out of the ground just before contacting a hill, and then lowered the cultivators just after passing over the hill.  Obviously, there was a need to keep all of this 'in time', but this was rarely a problem if wheel slippage was below 4%, and the fields were short.  In the event that traction conditions were poor and timing became 'out-of-sync', and also for getting everything placed correctly at the start of the work day, JD provided  a tape measure and instruction manual as standard equipment so that the EGAD could be positioned at precisely the correct distance from the first hills.  Reacting upon field complaints that the tape measures were too difficult to use, JD then provided a simple 'go-no-go' bamboo gauge stick of the proper calibrated length.  Also provided as standard equipment with the EGAD was a bottle of Dramamine.  Sadly, the EGAD's production run was short-lived.  Considering that it was equipped with an industry-first ROPS cab and seat belt, it may have been too far ahead of its time.  What really proved to be the EGAD's undoing was an extreme scarcity of oval-shaped inner tubes.