How a tractor leaves the factory

Harvey 2 · Feb 9, 2013

Some people say such and such tractor didn't come from the factory equipped such and such way. According to the parts books that is probably true.
But a tractor that is sent to the branch house in knocked down crate might slip past the inspector, Lets say its Friday afternoon and the workers are wanting to go home and there is an order to get a tractor shipped out today. In the haste to go home a worker is going to grab the first widget off the shelf he comes to and installs it on the machine, when the inspector sees the mistake they probably say, Let the dealer sort it out. And when farmer comes in to buy the tractor he might not care and the dealer doesn't know if its correct or not. I have heard some wierd stories from people that have worked at the branch houses. What do you all think along these lines? One other thing back in the 1970s the Chevrolet dealer took delivery of a new pickup, on the tail gate it said GMC and it had a Chev grill, horn button had gmc.on it.

Bruce from Can. · Feb 9, 2013

You mean like a 3 door car , 2 doors on one side, 1 door on the other?

notjustair · Feb 9, 2013

I looked at a brand new Ford Taurus that had a complete Mercury Sable interior. No one at the dealer had even noticed it. When I pointed it out there wasn't much talking, just the sound of crickets chirping in the background.

Tx Jim · Feb 9, 2013

Harvey 2
What tractor factory & time frame are you referring to? I can guarantee not all tractors left the factory in a crate because I hauled several different models from the factory.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 9, 2013

Had a friend order a Ford 350 duelly that came into the dealership with 350 on the left fender and 250 on the right fender. The dealer told him it was because he was three times the size of his wife, don't think they ever changed it.

Rick Kr · Feb 9, 2013

Still happens today with new vehicles.

Rick

Whichester1 · Feb 9, 2013

I bought an IROC Camaro in 1990, it had the IROC label behind the front wheel on one side and RS (basic model) on the other side.

This stuff is still happening.

Adirondack case guy · Feb 9, 2013

We were Case dealers from 1931 to 1986, and I remained in the CaseIH chain until 1992. Never saw what you are talking about. When Case bought out David Brown, here in the east coast we had a port of entry in Jacksonville Fl. and an acessory assy plant there. I don't recall any screwups other than missing pallets of weights that could have been unloaded at earlier stops, before reaching our dealership here in Central NY. Once in a while however a tractor that we ordered for stock got diverted to a dealer somewhare else in the country for a retail sale, and we had to wait for another one to be built.
Case had build cards, still available for Case tractors from 30s to present, except a gap from 47-49. All one needs is a Sn# and model. Costs less than $10 bucks, to get the card telling all options, build date and shipping destination.
Loren, the Acg.

Greg K · Feb 9, 2013

Didn't Johnny Cash sing about that?

moresmoke · Feb 9, 2013

If the dealer I work for is any example, things get changed to suit the customer no matter how the factory shipped it out. Some times the order was wrong, sometimes the customer changes their mind, almost all the time the factory ships what is on the build card. Any parts that can be swapped from one machine to another are fair game to satisfy the customer...

gene bender · Feb 9, 2013

Tractors arent shipp that way anymore they get loaded at the factory. Why would you ship a new tractor to a place then load it up and move it again. I can remember when new ones came in on the railroad and unloaded to the dealer.

agonair · Feb 9, 2013

Grandpa bought a new 1951 F2 Ford Truck back in the day. It had the V8 emblem but came from the factory with the six cylinder.

Gambles · Feb 9, 2013

It can happen even there is no paperwork done on it.
I did some time as a wrench-turner for a Ford dealership. A recently-sold Lincoln Navigator came in to the shop because the owner complained that there was a drivetrain whine at about 100 MPH. So, we took off a driveshaft from a new Ford Explorer and put it on the Lincoln Navigator and we put the Lincoln Navigator driveshaft on the Explorer. The Navigator no longer had a whine at 100 mph. (Boy, wasn't that fun a fun test drive to see if it was fixed!) The rationale is that the future owner of the Explorer will probably never go over 100 mph. Problem solved, right? Not so fast. The Navigator driveshaft was made out of aluminum. The Explorer driveshaft is made of steel. So somewhere in the world there is a Lincoln Navigator that has a steel driveshaft (and shouldn't have) and somewhere there is an Explorer that has an aluminum driveshaft (and shouldn't have). Someday, that MIGHT have some tech scratching their head about how they got there, but the book will never show it. Before you jump all over me about doing a repair that shouldn't have been done, my hands were tied.

Dalet · Feb 9, 2013

Gambles: aren't they governed at 85 mph? How do they even know that there is a whine at 100?

Handyman · Feb 9, 2013

A friend of mine had bought a brand new C65 chevy truck and had used it for 15 years, when he took it in to have new tires put on it the tire guy asked if he knew about the odd wheel setup on the truck, it had bolt on wheels on one side and bud wheels on the other. untill then nobody had noticed.

Dalet · Feb 9, 2013

(quoted from post at 19:37:11 02/09/13) A friend of mine had bought a brand new C65 chevy truck and had used it for 15 years, when he took it in to have new tires put on it the tire guy asked if he knew about the odd wheel setup on the truck, it had bolt on wheels on one side and bud wheels on the other. untill then nobody had noticed.

I can believe that. Most of the really big screw ups will be with a GM product. I have a Chevy pickup that had issues from day one as well. I am sure it was built on the night shift before a holiday.

Gambles · Feb 9, 2013

I can assure you this one went over 100 mph. How do you think we tested it?

Goose · Feb 9, 2013

A large local Pontiac/Cadillac dealer (who no longer exists) used to do that.

If a customer"s car needed, say, an alternator, he"d have the tech swap the bad alternator onto a new car in inventory, install the alternator off the new car on the customer"s car, and charge the customer for the alternator.

Then when the new car sold and was found to have a defective alternator they"d turn it in on warranty.

The dealer got away with that for years.

Adirondack case guy · Feb 9, 2013

Gene,
Not sure about your post, but if you are refering about DBs; they were shipped from Melhiem England to Jacksonville Fl. in containers, less wheels tires etc. they were accesorized with tires and wheels, 2 post ROPS etc at the assy plant and then distributed state side. Racine built tractors left the plant with all options except weights installed. Things like radios and mirrors different tire sizes were dealer installed,or swaped out with other inventory tractors, and AC and Heater Kits were available if a customer wanted a stock tractor that didn't have it factory installed.
Loren

Karl in MD · Feb 9, 2013

Remember Chevy Citation X-11s? An acqaintance of mine had one that said "X-11" on the left rocker panel and "11-X" on the right. His answer was you can"t read both sides at the same time.

scotc · Feb 9, 2013

Dodge had a run of trucks recently that the stereo would turn off when you turned the key on, and turn on when you turned the key off. They had to be taken into the dealer to have the computer reset. Ah, the beauty of computers controlling everything.

Ken Macfarlane · Feb 9, 2013

I know this can happen quite a bit after delivery too, when trucks arrive and are PDI'ed for sale, scratches from delivery are often found. Often several vehicles head to the paint shop at a time and all those badges are off for the respray and bake. Very common to mix them up or see them reinstalled wrong.

toolz · Feb 9, 2013

I worked at a Ford dealer back in the 80s- a Taurus came in with "Sable" on one side. Things like that still happen. We bought a new Durango R/T last year, dark blue, had the correct blue wheel lip mouldings on the left, and textured black ones from the cheaper model on the right. Bought the car 3 hours away, and didn"t notice it till the next day. The local dealer wasn"t willing to find the car we wanted, so we had to go elsewhere. Local dealer took care of the problem, but not happily.

MJ in the UK · Feb 10, 2013

In the 1970s I sold IH tractors and being near to the Doncaster works I took parties of customers to see the tractors being built. Every tractor had a build card attached to it. It wes intresting to look at thise cards to see were in the world the tractors were going to including the USA and Canada. MJ

ericlb · Feb 10, 2013

kind of had that myself my first car i actually owned was a 69 olds cutlass, which i brought when it was 4 years old, popped the hood and there sat a small block chevy engine, now i had bought this car from a old spinster english teacher who had bought it new, no way was the old lady up for doing a engine swap! several years of once in awhile research, and i found that back in '69 there was a strike at gm, and olds did indeed install chevy engines in some of its cars at the factory to keep the line going, later they got into a law suite over this very thing, today its one size fits all

buickanddeere · Feb 10, 2013

There may have been some baffled drinkers of Molesons beer in the mid to late 1990"s.
Whole calibrating the empty bottle inspection line. There would always be many dozens of labatts , soda bottles, root beer bottles and assorted off brand/odd shaped bottles. However they were the power height and capacity.
So..................just about every shift I would slip a few dozen of these through the filler line and eventually out to customers.
Alsways wondered if any customers actually noticed they were drinking beer from a ginger beer bottle?

barnE · Feb 10, 2013

Bout l5 years ago I bought a 53 Caddy. Guess what the trans would not shift. It was not supposed to. It was the trans from a Buick dynaflow. Worked fine, just a tad slow. Caddy had a fire Don't know how many were like that. Not considered rare. Robins egg blue if you see it on the road not shifting. Dave

Owen Aaland · Feb 10, 2013

If you run across a used Schwan's truck from '96 to '02 there is a real good chance the serial number in the PCM won't match the chassis serial number.

Before they were put into service they were converted from gasoline to LP. Part of the conversion was to reflash the PCM. The PCMs were removed to be reflashed and since all the trucks were built the same they were not to careful about making sure the unit got put back into the same truck track that it came out of.

How a tractor leaves the factory

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