Deere’s RX fulfills requests for tracks

Few brands inspire the loyalty that John Deere does.

Even in the face of fierce competition from rivals with solid equipment lineups, it would be blasphemous on some multi-generational farms to park anything other than a green machine in the yard.

“The quality of our machines is what our customers have come to love and respect from John Deere, that’s why they buy John Deere,” said Lyle McMillan, the company’s product marketing manager.

“All these machines, whether if they have the 13.5 litre Deere engine, or if they have the 15 L Cummins QSX15 engine in the higher horsepower machines, they are all serviced by our … technicians at the dealerships,” McMillan said.

Fans of John Deere high horsepower tractors cite premium options such as an auto track guidance system and the comfort of the integrated technology in the cab as reasons why they go green.

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“We have the command arm in these cabs with all of the controls within fingertip reach,” McMillan said.

“We have a 10-inch command centre display that provides a touch screen user interface for an operator.”

Just as important as the constant march to more powerful machines, McMillan said, is fitting the tractor machine form to best match a farm operator’s needs.

“That’s why we strategically have three different machine forms available from John Deere in the four-wheel drive market,” he said.

“We are the only North American manufacturer of agriculture machinery that produces the 9R series in three machine forms. We have the wheel version, we have the two-track version and we have the four-track 9RX version.”

There were long-time John Deere fans who crossed over to other tractor manufacturers that offered four-tracked systems, but now with John Deere’s offering in the four-track high-horsepower market, McMillan is confident they will get back into a green machine.

Four-tracked machines allow producers to get into the field earlier and in wet conditions because there are four powered undercarriages that work in unison yet independently, allowing them to hug the ground and maintain ground contact even when pulling around obstacles.

“The idea and the concept of the four-track machines are two things: turning under load, and flotation and compaction,” McMillan said.

“With a four-track machine you’re going to have a much larger footprint than you would on a wheel tractor. Also, you’re going to get less slip, greater flotation.”