earliest MFWD

[Anonymous-0]

I have heard of some GVI FWA tractors , never seen one tho, did they make any earlier than that ? what brand of axle did they use if so ? anybody know ? And my buddy thinks John Deere started that whole thing LOL

 

[Alan K]

Hi schrocky, Im not sure. I do remember seeing a brown and prairie gold (it was a black and white photo but I used my imagination lol ) 5 star on the front of the MM corresponder years ago that had front wheel drive on it. The axle looked like it was the same that was used on the M504s. It is kind of funny...you dont really see much of any tractors from the 1960s with front wheel drive except MM and Oliver with a very small handfull of other makes. Ive seen AC, IH , JD. Ive seen one or two 4020s with it but hardly any after that for a long time. It looks to me that they all ignored the front wheel assist for many years down the road until they said hmmm thats an idea....(here is a picture of an AC 190 with it).

 

[oliver fan]

schrocky,
I am an Oliver collector so I don't usually post on other boards, but i will give a little info that I have.

I think the Elwood company was one of the first companys to put MFWD units on tractors. I have a collection of advertising brochures on all makes of tractors. The Moline brochure on the M 504 is the oldest MM brochure I have on MM MFWD. I think it was published in 1961. I also have a brochure on the IH 560's and 660 with the Elwood unit. I have seen a picture of a Case 930 with the same unit. I know that Oliver had the idea of MFWD on the 1800 tractors as early as a January 1960 brochure. They did not build any tractors with MFWD until late 1961 or early 1962. Oliver did not use the Elwood unit, ever. Elwood may have put that front axle on a 4010 John Deere, but the earliest I know of was a neighbor that had a 1964 model 4020 with one. That tractor had the power dis-connect that I don't think the earlier ones had.

Was the MFWD of the G-VI called the 704? I don't know Molines that well.

 

[MANHATTAN]

if you search in the tractor photos in the sidebar for a 1959 GVI you should come up with a picture of one with fwa.the serial# is #7 so from first day production of GVI.
(i will try to include the pic with this post)

 

[Jake Winn]

I have seen a couple GB's with front wheel assist as well. At a PGR convention in Nebraska last year there was someone involved with those early conversions there from what I understand and talked about how it was done.

 

[iowadave1957]

I'm from Elwood, and we own the 4010 John Deere MFWD that was used by Swede Erickson and Dick Pettegrew for demos of their axles. Our neighbor had a M5 with an axle at the same time. These tractors were new when these were done. Dick is still around and could answer any questions. Swede passed in the early 70's and much of the info died with him. There were many other ttractors they worked with, as they did bunches of 4020's and fords.

 

[Anonymous-0]

OLIVER FAN -- YOU ARE CORRECT ABOUT A M.M. GVI WITH AN ELWOOD AXLE BEING A G704 !!!!!

HOWEVER, I HAVE SEEN GVI'S WITH ELWOODS THAT WERE NOT DECALED G704. DEPENDS ON WHO DID WHAT. I OWN A 97 MASSEY WITH AN ELWOOD, BUT MASSEY DID NOT REDECAL THEIR TRACTORS TO ANOTHER NUMBER OR MODEL LIKE M.M. DID. A 97 MASSEY IS THE SAME TRACTOR AS A G705 M.M. A G705 M.M. WITH AN ELWOOD OR COLEMAN FRT. ASSIST AXLE IS A G706 M.M.

97 MASSEYS AND G706'S ONLY USED ELWOODS ONE YEAR. 1962 IN MY CASE.

 

[oliver fan]

Dean, you got me to thinking when you mentioned the MF 97. I looked at 2 different brochures on the MF 97 because I knew there was something different about the MFWD units.

The 1962 brochure on the 97 was printed in the USA and it shows the Elwood unit. I have a brochure on the same tractor that was printed in Canada in 1963 and it shows the Coleman MFWD axle (The one with the big hub cap in the center of the wheel).

I also have the I&T service manual (MM-16) and it shows how to repair both units.

I am just guessing, but maybee MM started using the Coleman axle in the MM G 706/ MF 97 when the M 604 was introduced.

 

[UB-ToMMy]

Ken Foland gave a talk about this subject at the PGR get together in Gering, NE last year. He's really knowledgeable about it since I think his father worked closely with Elwood in very early retrofits of GVI's and M5's. Seems to me the axles were military surplus. Later, the folks from MM took notice and integrated the axles into their product line with the M504, and G704.

 

[Anonymous-0]

We own a 1960 GVI with Elwood conversion. Keep in mind the GVI trans is very similar to the U and G series trans so its quite possible to add an Elwood conversion to any of these earlier models also. Unfortunately I can't post pics to this site.

Brian

 

[Howard H.]

Here is a pic of mine that I've posted before:

<a href="http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p268/case600lp/?action=view&current=DSC00683.jpg" target="_blank">

</a>




The brother of the deceased at the estate auction I bought my GVI diesel 4wd told me that the dealer made the comment "this is about the 75th conversion I've made so far...", when the dealer was out at their place re-fitting their new GVI with the FWA...

That was in SE Colorado.

I thought that was an interesting comment.

Howard