[AT] Farm tractor dealerships

[Al Jones]

Sign of the times.  Closest full line caseIH dealer to me is now a little
over an hour away.  CNH has just about given up in NC, in terms of numbers
of dealers, IMO.  They forced out two of the oldest (and IMO best) dealers
in the state within the last year or so.

There are basically two John Deere "dealers" in NC, James River Equipment &
Quality Equipment.  Each own multiple stores.  Most were at one time
individually/family owned dealers.

We have a wonderful MF dealer here in my hometown.  I think they may be the
last "down town" equipment dealer in the country.  They cater to the horsey
set that want small tractors with front end loaders and full time farmers
that need a tractor under 80HP.

Things have changed, even since I was a kid in the late 70s-80s.

Al

On Sun, May 19, 2019 at 3:40 PM Indiana Robinson <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> James' mention of the Oliver models got  me thinking (again) about the
> numerous dealerships we used to have in my county (Shelby County Indiana).
> We are not a big county, 17 miles by 24 miles, still mostly rural.
> In my period of reasonable memory (late 1940's through the 1950's and at
> least part of the 1960's we had quite a few tractor dealerships. Several
> were fairly large and progressive and quite a few more were car and truck
> repair garages that had a few new tractors on display and could get you
> about anything you needed fairly quickly through the dealer network. Most
> had a decent supply of common parts and had access to other parts if needed.
> I'll probably miss somebody but I recall:
> One progressive John Deere dealer
> Two  progressive IHC dealers
> One progressive Allis Chalmers dealer
> One progressive Minneapolis Moline
> One repair garage type Minneapolis Moline dealer
> One progressive Oliver dealer (actually the father of one of my
> son-in-laws)
> One repair garage type Oliver dealer
> One progressive Case dealer who later shifted to Massey Ferguson
> One progressive Ford dealer
> One Ford dealer who was also a Ford car dealership
> One repair garage type Ford dealer.
> One progressive Ferguson dealer
> One progressive Co-op dealer
> The Custom tractor factory used to be here and they sold some direct
> Co-op used to have a factory here but only produced implements
> There were a few others just outside of the county lines, one was Silver
> King. I always liked Silver Kings...
> Then for many years there were no new tractor dealers here at all... The
> closest we have is that about last month the local Rural King farm store
> brought in maybe ten new tractors made by ??? I believe they are branded as
> "RK" ???
>
> The division between what I call "progressive dealers" and "repair garage
> type" dealers is at best a fuzzy line but I think most can understand the
> attempted  division.  :-)  Most of the garage type were scattered around in
> various villages around the county
> I believe that all of them were in business all through the 1950's except
> for the Custom and Silver King who ceased production.
> The Ford car / truck / tractor dealership did well on cars and trucks but
> was almost a hidden dealer on tractor stuff after the 8N's. There were
> common reports of a lot of shaky dealing there on farm stuff during WW-II.
> Supplies were short but money talked...
> I have always thought of the 1950's as kind of the golden years...
>
>
> .
>
> --
> --
>
> Francis Robinson
> aka "farmer"
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson46176 at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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