[AT] Oliver 550

[James Peck]

I saw the Ohio 550 owners at a reunion. It came from a relative that quit farming. 

The woman is from western Ontario. She had gone to grade school by boat.

[Grant Brians] My Oliver 550 is really just a newer Super 55. More HP and updated Sheetmetal but otherwise about the same. I used to have a worn out Super 55 before, the problem was that it had poor maintenance and so was not economic to keep going for me as a working farmer. The design is terrific with the 6F-2R Transmission, live hydraulics and PTO and stout gears in the rear end, but even a good design cannot be saved from abuse and neglect....       A good all around small utility tractor in gas or diesel and better fuel economy than many in the class.
               
[James Peck]
 https://www.todaysfarmer.ca/2014/08/13/oliver-500-was-really-a-david-brown/wcm/4c4907f1-dd60-5ac6-5661-f4ed68b21df8

 According to Tractor Data, the 550 is not successor models to the 500.

 http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/6/7/679-oliver-500.html

 I received a Steiner Tractor catalog in the mail. It had a picture of a vey nice Oliver 550.  This may have been the 3rd oliver mentioned here. Oliver is part of the Agco heritage.

 http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/6/8/680-oliver-550.html

 My grandfathers neighbor to the east got their 3rd Oliver in the mid sixties. This one was green and white with a flat nose, a very Fergusonish 3 point hitch utility tractor,. The man I knew from the school bus, about 11 years older than I am, is undoubtedly retired by now if still alive. He had inherited the place around 1970. He had married a woman from a Canadian immigrant family. I spoke to the woman about 1992. She told me they had bought a replacement part from a salvage yard to cure steering wobble on the rubber tired narrow front Oliver. She said the man regretted staying in farming due to low earnings but felt he was too old to change careers.

 They still had a horse team through the late sixties although they were not used. The first narrow front Oliver was on steel. The rear wheels were the narrow skeleton type.

 I am very curious as to what model they bought.

 Oliver brand transitioned to White. Agco bought the White brand and supplanted it with the Agco brand. The Agco models were being dual or triple branded as equivalent Challenger or Massey Fergusons. Agco dropped the Agco brand and replaced it with your choice of Massey Ferguson or Challenger.