Rare John Deere 4455 Open Station Power Shift Tractor
February 02, 2017A little interesting follow up information to the Youtube video I posted Sunday (January 29, 2017)...that was the video featuring the tractors of the Mark and Jean Gaul family in Farley, IA. One of the tractors highlighted was this John Deere 4455 open station. Here's a picture of it with Mark Gaul:
I got a note from Ronnie Haas, former Sales Mgr. at Schmitt Implement in Holy Cross, IA:
"I do not know if you noticed that tractor is also a 15 speed power shift," said Haas. "Near as we could tell at the time, he bought that tractor, there where less then 10 of them ever made and all of them but this one were exported. The 15 speed makes it rare being an open station."
"This tractor was ordered by the DeKalb Seed Corn Company for the seed corn plant in Anamosa, Iowa. It was used by DeKalb to plant test plots in the spring. They traded it in for a John Deere 7710 2WD with a cab. This was at Smother's Equipment in Monticello, Iowa. There was a heated battle to buy this tractor. There where actually about 5 guys wanting this tractor. The salesman , Phil Kluesner, was having kind of an auction with guys jumping offers ABOVE the asking price he started out at. LOL Phil has passed now but he talked about that sale being one of the most ODD ones he ever had. LOL."
5 guys bidding on a tractor on the dealer's lot...guess that does make this a rare tractor indeed!
In case you missed the Youtube video Sunday, here it is again...Mark and son Austin Gaul tell us about the 4455 open station, Power Shift, then middle son Brady Gaul shows us his beautifully restored John Deere 4440 that looks like new despite having 12,000 hours on it. And finally youngest son (12) Carter Gaul shows his restored Allis Chalmers 190XT tractor:
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