PART TWO
MAKING THE FIRST SIX-SPEED JOHN DEERE

A NECESSITY
Custom farming meant traveling by tractor over the roads between farms and job sites. Road time was costly to Dad, since he could not bill his clients for it. In 1939, a John Deere could only manage a top speed of six miles an hour in high (fourth) gear. It had a good range of speeds for working a field, but to become more profitable he really needed to minimize his transport time. The Allis-Chalmers already had road gears. To Dad’s point of view that was not reason enough to buy one, considering how it didn’t compare to the “B” in so many other desirable qualities. Charlie Groff of the ABC Groff dealership in New Holland, Pennsylvania, told Dad that Deere & Company would not be forthcoming with road gears for their tractors anytime soon, let alone offering after-market conversions. He was of the opinion that adding higher speeds to farm tractors was not a good idea. There was no certainty then that they could be safely operated at higher speeds. That left Dad only one other option; use the mechanical know-how already available to him and his big brother Dan and make the changes himself.

AN IDEA
It was the inherent ingenuity and simplicity of John Deere’s two-cylinder design that enabled Dad to arrive at his idea. With a crankshaft mounted crossways to the center axis on all Waterloo-built John Deere Tractors of that day, the transmission shafts ran parallel to the crankshaft as well as the axle. There was no need for ring-and-pinion gears. That allowed the outside bearings to be mounted directly into the sidewalls of the transmission housing.
“If I’d extend the main upper and lower spline shafts outside beyond the left side bearings,” Dad mused, “I could add an additional set of gears at a two-to-one ratio that would speed up the final drive to twice what it is now.” The idea was one thing, putting it together and making it work would be the real challenge. All he needed was an accomplished machinist, some gears, steel shaft material, and a shop equipped to do the work.

A PROCESS
This is where big brother Daniel enters the picture. He had an eighth-grade education as Dad did, but possessed a natural genius for the more technical angles of mechanical engineering. Being already married and out of the home, he had opened up a shop right next to the Stauffer home place. He also had the machining equipment Dad would need to make his idea a reality. They put their clever heads together and penciled out his plan on tablet paper. Having no real money to invest in the idea, Dad searched the auto salvage yards and found a set of gears from an old Dodge, as he recalls. They had a two-to-one ratio, and closely matched the dimensions necessary to fit the distance between the two shafts. With an acetylene torch, Dan carefully welded the extensions onto the original shafts. The bar stock was chamfered deep from the inside to allow a solid penetration weld through the entire thickness of each shaft. He then ground new bearing surfaces, milled splines to hold the gears, and turned threads onto the end of the upper shaft. The small lower gear needed a collar and a shifting fork fabricated. The car gears had to be ground down slightly to allow a proper fit, since the center points were not exactly the same as those on the tractor. A steel housing was crafted to cover the new gears that would still allow clearance behind the flywheel. With the old bearing cover removed, transmission oil could flow directly into the new gear housing. A lever was added to pass vertically through the rear of the new housing to engage and disengage the small gear on the lower shaft.

MAKING IT WORK
The operator had to be very sure to first place the main (center) gearshift lever in neutral. Then, and only then, he’d shove the new overdrive lever on the left side hard to the left. With the Hi-Lo gear lever in the right-hand position, the fifth gear would provide nine miles an hour. Shifting the Hi-Lo gear lever to the left would give sixth gear allowing a lively twelve miles an hour top speed. The idea worked! As long as those modified car transmission gears lasted under tractor loads, Dad could hurry along at twelve miles an hour between job sites. That cut road time in half! Now the question in Dad’s mind, as well as those who saw it work, was: “Why couldn’t Deere & Company make this great idea available to other farmers who needed it?”

MAKING IT KNOWN

On November 24, 1939, Aaron Stauffer and his brother Daniel wrote a letter to the John Deere Tractor Company in Waterloo, Iowa, describing their success at adding two overdrive gears to Dad’s Model “B”. Mr. Elmer McCormick, Chief Engineer, replied that they “do have an interest” in the idea. He requested a notarized sketch with his assurances that they would be compensated should the idea prove viable to their manufacturing process.
Using a school pencil, a ruler, and his best mechanical drawing ability, Dan drew the plans
showing how his brother’s idea had been made to work. The two drawings were duly notarized and forwarded to the Engineering Department on December 9, 1939. They were stamped “Received” by the John Deere Tractor Co. Engineering Department on December 16.

INTEREST FROM DEERE
A reply came back dated December 28, 1939, from Mr. Ray F. Finch, Manager of the Baltimore Branch House. The letter came with the original plans enclosed stating that the Engineering Department in Waterloo was finished with the drawings and that there was an interest in the idea pending an investigation by the Patent Department.

Nothing more was heard from Deere again until late the following May. A letter arrived from the home office in Moline dated May 20, 1940. Mr. E.C. Bopf, manager of the Deere Patent Department, had composed and signed the letter. He made reference to some patents issued in 1925 and 1932, years before the John Deere “B” or “A”. Drawings of those designs were enclosed with the letter. He wrote of another design by a Deere engineer being considered that extended the same shafts outside the opposite (pulley) side of the transmission housing. That plan would allow one overdrive speed. The plans to which Mr. Bopf alluded held no resemblance to what Dad and Dan had developed. The letter expressed some interest in their plan, and offered to pay the Stauffer brothers a sum of one hundred dollars in appreciation for presenting their idea.

As farmer-mechanics of Old Order Mennonite influence with no formal schooling beyond eighth grade, they accepted the offer, just glad to have their efforts recognized. It did seem to them, however, to be worth much more, but neither of them could conceive of getting entangled in pursuits with a large international corporation.

Another envelope arrived from Deere & Company of Moline dated June 4, 1940. In it was a letter from Mr. Bopf telling the Stauffer brothers that, indeed, the tractor engineers had taken particular note of the need for extra gears, and that they would likely have something to offer farmers in the near future. Enclosed with the letter was a one hundred dollar check in payment for Deere’s use of additional speeds, in accordance with the design suggestion they had submitted. Dan Stauffer signed a duplicate copy as proof of acceptance and returned it to the Moline office. That letter remains in the Deere archives to this day. It has a stamped seal marking the date received by the Patent Department as June 18, 1940. Across the top of the page is written: “License Agreement No. 181, #20818/B73006.” In June of 1993, a letter was received by our family and signed by Deere archivist Leslie J. Stegh. In it he stated that he had researched the question of the development of the 6-speed transmission, and found nothing different from what we already knew.

Six-speeds on John Deere Models “A” and “B” became available to the market less than a year after Dad received the check from Moline. The design was almost identical to the plan the Stauffer brothers had submitted in 1939. In fact, the gears and shafts Dad later salvaged from a 1941 six-speed “B” fit directly into his original modifications by grinding off only three thousandths of an inch from the bearing surfaces. He was able to use the same gear housing he had originally fashioned.

SATISFACTION

The incentive for innovation, ambition, and faith is more about a fruitful and effective life than it is about recognition and reward. Sometimes a well-managed corporation will pay attention to those who put their products to use, and recognize when their modifications are worth reproducing. It’s my hope this story will inspire others to discover and make the most of their God-given talents, to break free when the status quo of life and work tries to impose restrictions.

This story is from the book Two for The Road, which includes the fascinating life Aaron Stauffer experienced on a threshing team and later as a farmer. Copies of the book are available by contacting the author: Orlen Stauffer, 1720 Barron Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704. Phone: 1 757 397-2778. Email: orlen@kpc.org

Dad’s original 1937 “B” Service Manual has survived intact. It can’t hide its years of systematic use, but today Dad keeps it safe in a drawer in his basement desk. The old “B” is still running along fine to this day with factory-made six-speed transmission parts installed. Dad, now eighty-nine, continues to buy parts for his two Deeres — a 1965 Model 110 Lawn and Garden Tractor, and that 1937 Model “B” from ABC Groff’s of New Holland. It’s the same place he visited so often with his dad as a child those many years ago. It’s where as a boy growing up, I went with Dad to admire the early Numbered Series, and later the New Generation Tractors. I clearly remember marveling at the wonderful green farm toys lining the shelf behind the parts counter. Today it’s where, on occasion, I take my son Aaron to climb on the “Gators” and utility tractors waiting in the showroom to be put to the task for which they were built.