Machines | What Killed Oliver?

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1. and we have around 10 olivers and 2 whites we dont hate them there not terablr
2. do i see a 77 in the bavk at the start
3. This sad story has been repeated over and over. We can't imagine what innovations we are missing because the front office or management far away had no understanding of the business they were supposed to run. It has also cost us millions of jobs because of the short-sightedness of instant profit versus long term stability.
   
   I guess it is beyond the scope of your talk but I'm wondering when the Fiat-White connection occurred. It seems that some tractors could be bought green or red for a while?
4. good story time
5. It's like all these fucking semiconductor manufacturers. They keep buying each other up, and/or selling themselves off to other companies. It's because the stock holders can make money that way. It's sick.
6. I need your help I'm getting a Oliver 600 and I don't know what year it is and how I can find out what year it is and I don't know where I can get parts for it at
7. This really takes me back. On our own family farm in northwest MO we had originally been fairly consistent JD or Farmall/IH customers. But starting in late '62 or early '63 we bought our first Olivers. A 1900(with the GM turbocharged truck engine) and a 1600(gasoline version). And then a few years later an 1850(with, I think, a Perkins truck diesel)which I operated for much of each summer whilst growing to adulthood on our farm. And loved that old tractor. But my hands-down favorite was the gas-powered 1600 because even at full throttle that power-plant didn't sound much louder than a hive full of angry bees--which at the end of 12-14 hours was a lot easier on the ears than a higher-compression diesel. Don't know if that owed more to the lower compression gas engine or better muffling in the exhaust system but my ears sure appreciated it. Many thanks to Oliver66FarmBoy!
8. Do you have any idea where I can get a 4 spoke steering wheel oliver 90 that's in pretty good condition
9. dealer I worked for was taking the bigger of the fiats in 4wl drive , making a gear box , putting the same wheels front and rear , turning the finals down and making row crop tractors out of them
10. I worked for a Oliver White tractor dealer in 1976 .The smaller tractors were fiats ,the mid size were using a Perkins , 1755 1855 series .
11. you forgot white freightliner
12. Cletrac HDR I guess.... https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/07/19/18/18/cletrac-165369_1280.jpg
13. Seems to me that it's Oliver's fault for selling themselves out to White. I mean they didn't have to sell themselves out and lose control of the company, unless they were in financial trouble to start with, and if they weren't in financial trouble, then it was just their own choice to sell out to White.
14. I grew up in Nebraska and I have to say my Dad ran International 86 series.  Tractors ran great.  My Dad's Uncle and sons ran Oliver and I always wondered why we didn't run Oliver also? I remember as a kid back in the early 90's when my Dad's uncle switch to International because of all you just described.  My dad wanted to run Oliver but I think he saw the writing on the wall when this all started back in the early 70's.  I thought Oliver were great tractors and so did my Dad but my dad's uncle gave him some foresight to not get into the Oliver issues.  That is how my Dad stayed with international; if this wouldn't of happened I believe we would have been running Oliver when I was a kid. So, I grew up an International kids. I have to also say that we had neighbors that ran Oliver and stayed with the switch to white.  We have a white dealer in town also so there was a good amount of business for them but I saw neighbors that stayed with white and others that switched to john deer or international.  Lots went to John deer because we had a local dealership that was passionate about service.  My dad had a family connection to an international dealership so that's what we stayed with.  I appreciate your description of this timeline. It brings back lots of memories and explains why things happened that way.  Just another example of big business thinking they know who the people in middle America are.  White because disconnected with the people that used their products (Farmers). If they wanted to stay in diesel truck engines, let the farming side work. As you said they wanted money and they knew they had access to it.  They killed Oliver from the start.  Anyways, thank you for the explanation.  I'm not into farming anymore. That's another story but that's part of why there are so few family heritage farms these days because of stories like this.  College educated and blue collar.  I miss farming but there are a lot of changing dynamics to farming these days, especially economically.  I commend you for getting started into farming  and being college educated at the same time.  It takes a special person the be a farmer these days.  God Bless the American farmer and rancher. Thanks again.
15. Thanks for sharing some of the rich Oliver history!  Growing up on the farm and around construction equipment, I always enjoyed hearing some accounts of why some manufacturers were no longer around, but you never knew how much truth there was to the info because it seems like it was a world away in the US.  We even had an old 1750 cockshutt which was the first tractor I learned to operate, which now I know was an oliver in red skin...  Also, never knew they were that technologically advanced as a company!  The history more interesting for me now since I design, validate and manufacture equipment for one of big names in the US.
16. You have received many positive compliments on your very detailed, succinct historical narrative on the demise of Oliver in the comments below, but the positive compliments bear repeating! Your knowledge of the Oliver range of machines is curatorial and detailed! Having growing up around small Ferguson and M-F tractors in VA, a state where Olivers are few and far-between, my knowledge of these Charles City-built machines is superficial at best. I have to say THANKS, firstly, for posting the video. Secondly, THANKS, for the education on White-Oliver!
17. Very Interesting!
18. just don't listen to her ur a great YouTube
19. CLETRAC, INC., a manufacturer of tractors for military and civilian use, was organized by ROLLIN H. WHITE† as the Cleveland Motor Plow Co. in 1916, with capital of $6 million. White, a founder of the WHITE MOTOR CORP., had 10 years earlier formed this new firm to produce the crawler-type tractor he had developed for general farm use. First located at Euclid Ave. and Lamb, the plant later moved to 19300 Euclid Ave. Renamed Cleveland Tractor Co. in 1917, the company sold 40,000 tractors in the U.S. and 70 foreign countries during its first decade. In the early 1930s, the needs of the Civilian Conservation Corps. and public works projects kept the plant open and by 1937 the firm, which employed 1,500 workers, enjoyed record tractor sales here and abroad. Two years later, the company introduced 3 new lower-priced tractors with 4-cylinder engines for use by the small farmer.
    
    The military application of Cleveland Tractor's products became dominant during World War II when the firm manufactured a new, high-speed tractor for hauling artillery. Although the company received a steady flow of orders, the low profit in defense work and the research costs for new products convinced President White to sell the company to the 96-year-old Oliver Corp. of Chicago in 1944. Oliver invested $3.5 million in the aging plant to develop new products. However, Cleveland Tractor remained unprofitable until the Korean War revived its business. When White Motor Corp. took a 2-year option to buy the tractor plant and acquired exclusive rights to the Oliver name in 1959, Oliver renamed its Cleveland facilities Cletrac Inc. In 1961 White Motor bought the local Cletrac inventories, engineering designs, and machine tools and closed the plant, consolidating all production at a second plant in Charles City, IA.
20. Damn it I can't find this chick that's talkin trash. Would've loved to light her up with some facts