When bumbling TV handyman/comedian Red Green, played by Steve Smith, uttered one his trademark lines: “If it ain’t broke, you ain’t trying hard enough,” he was speaking to people in general. But it’s a expression many engineers hold close to their hearts.
And it’s the philosophy behind tractor testing at Versatile. Before the engineers are confident they can sell reliable tractors, they need to know all the breaking points. Not knowing those points can cause massive warranty claims and a lot of unhappy farmers.
“We design to exceed a certain breaking point on every component. Then we test to make sure we meet that point,” said Grant Adolph, chief operating officer at Versatile.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
Adolph, a technologist by trade, says it starts with the company’s Finite Element Analysis computer software, which tests components. This step often finds faults before a component sees the light of day.
Once a component proves worthy of real-world testing, it goes to the test run on simulation machines, which replicate the entire working lifetime of that part. If it passes, it goes on a real tractor for field tests. If it fails, it’s back to the drawing board.
Many components are poorly suited for lab testing, so they get their tryout on the Versatile bump track located southwest of Winnipeg. The concrete bumps vary in size to give the early prototype test tractors a rigorous test.
“Every new tractor design does enough laps on the bump track to simulate an entire lifetime of heavy fieldwork. If something is going to fail, we want it to fail on our property, not in the customer’s field,” said Adolph.
Once the bugs are worked out of the early prototypes, which are hand-built units, second generation prototypes are designed.
Second generation models are also one-off tractors, but see actual fieldwork. They, too, spend a lifetime in field conditions before coming back to Winnipeg for teardown and inspection.
The next step is called pilot-build or pre-build. Although they are put together on the factory assembly line, they’re a long way from true factory production. The pilot-build tractors are put on the same rigorous bump track and given real-world tests as previous generations prior to upgrades being made.
“Right now, we probably have six or eight prototypes working somewhere on Manitoba farms. Plus we go to other locations. We’re testing in Arizona 12 months of the year.
“We go to the southern states to test prototypes in rice paddies and catfish ponds. They do a lot of scraper work in their catfish ponds.
“We also do a lot of prototype testing in Russia. The main difference in that market is they use a lot of three point hitches. Also, they seed much faster. They buy brand new Canadian-built seeding implements, but they travel over 10 miles per hour and they put everything down in one pass. Fertilizer and seed.”
