Slick New Way To Go Tractor Shopping

Slick New Way To Go Tractor Shopping FARM HOME Novelty Items 5-5-21 How do you know if you're driving the best tractor in its class? Trying out a dozen different makes and models takes time and, even if you do it, you often end up comparing "apples to oranges" rather than comparable size models. Massey Ferguson is making it easy to do "comparative shopping". The company is sponsoring a first-of-its kind series of field days that gives farmers an opportunity to drive competing makes and models of tractors. During 1981, each Massey-Ferguson region throughout the U.S. and Canada will hold one or more of these "showdown" tractor driving field demonstrations. One of the first was held in Ontario earlier this summer. Enthusiastic dealers and farmers labelled it a "smashing success". Dealers from the province brought in key customers for eight days. About 50 customers each day got a chance to drive 23 different competitive tractors and compare their performance. The tractors were in four power classes under 30 hp., 40 hp., 60 hp., and 80 hp. "We tested every tractor on the dynamometer and adjusted the weight before the demonstration so they would all be equal," explains Wayne Cowley, training manager for Massey-Ferguson. "The 40 hp. fractors were hitched to 9 ft. disk harrows, the 60's to 4-bottom moldboardplows, and the 80's to 16 1/2 ft. cultivators." During a 7-hr. day at the demonstration site, a potential customer did actual field work with each tractor and got a chance to see how the hydraulics worked, and to test the tractor's steering ability, ease of handling, hitching, and torque. Don't you risk losing a customer when you let him drive a competitor's tractor? "It's possible," says Crawley, "but we don't worry about it because we have confidence in the performance of Massey-Ferguson tractors. Some of our salesmen wrote up orders for customers on the way home from the demonstration. To my knowledge, Massey is the first and only tractor manufacturer running a dare-to-compare-program of this kind." Massey plans to expand the pro-gram to some of its other equipment. The Western sales region, for example is conducting the field tests with competing brands of combines this year, and several Massey dealers are using the field tests to demonstrate competing makes and models of hay making equipment. For more information, see your local Massey dealer or contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Howard Tussing, Training Manager, Massey-Ferguson Training Center, Bell Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa. 50321 (ph 515 247-2011).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.