John Deere Snowmobiles

Download or read book John Deere Snowmobiles written by Ronald K. Leonard and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-23 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long respected as a manufacturer of sturdy agricultural machinery, the John Deere Company began in the 1960s to build a line of consumer products in a dedicated factory in Horicon, Wisconsin. Starting with a lawn and garden tractor in 1963, Deere soon entered the fast-growing snowmobile market, introducing two models in 1971. The next 13 years would see a succession of models as Deere vied against tough competitors in a weather-dependent market. This detailed history, written by two key participants in the snowmobile program, describes the development of John Deere snowmobiles from start to finish: the design and engineering decisions that shaped each important model; reception of the snowmobiles by consumers; the factory race teams; the introduction of front-engine and water-cooled models; the process of selecting engines and negotiating with suppliers, including when problems developed; and the snowmobiles’ impact on product engineering. The text provides an inside view of Deere’s Consumer Products Division at a time of rapid growth, and of the people and processes that made it all happen.