White Cub Numbers

[George Willer]

Darryl Darst, the guy who recovers the canvas seats, told me he has a picture from a tour group that was touring the plant in early 1950 and in the photo you can see white cubs on the assembly line as far as you can see. Brandon.

Darrell Darst was the source of the serial numbers that we so often quote.

Some of the demos escaped the red paint, as Casper did for many years. This isn't Casper.

[Brandon Webb]

CUBGUY47 is supposed to have an original white one headed his way, as of yesterday it hadn't been delivered yet. He's excited and I am excited for him. Can't wait to see pics of it.

Do you think these "survivors" were taken home by dealers? The original white Super A near my home, was bought new by the current owners father. My demo cub which I purchased from 2 miles down the road, I'm sure was sold by the same dealer, but was repainted red. They must have really been able to do whatever they wanted. The guy who owns that super A said his father and another man just over the hill each bought an A at the same time. I need to get back and see him, and check on that, I wonder if he meant they were both white? Brandon.

[nosih]

There is so much information in the archives that is just completely uncataloged or miscataloged, that will only come to light when someone stumbles upon this information by accident or thru true research. This past may, I located some serial number information that dealt with such things as shipment dates for experimental 3F tractors, and where they Were sent along with the shipping weight, order number, etc (covers S/Ns 104-110). in this information was also final serial number, production date, and ship dates for the last W30, I-30, WK40, WD40, etc. Also first production dates, serial numbers, and shipment dates for the first W9s, WD9s, WR9s, etc along with interesting facts with diesel engine development for the MD,TD6 etc etc etc.. The info you guys are looking for may be at Madison, and if someone is willing to put the effort into searching for the info, we all may be enlightened..

[John(videodoc)]

I got a demo. The PO stated he got it white from a retired IH salesman 20 yrs ago. Along with the gaggle of implements i got. Who was the only owner. So I am the 3rd owner of Bette. Now the PO rattle can painted it about 15-20 yrs ago, but there was white everywhere, as the rattle can paint, fell off.

[Brandon Webb]

Will they just let anyone go through these files? What about make copies? There's been so many books just written on speculation and there's a massive archive full of answers and no-one will go look?

[Rudi]

I am not sure who metioned this, but I think it was on this forum awhile ago, and it concerned a day in the life of the Louisville works shortly after JI Case purchased IH - possibly from Tenneco? That day was called Purge Day

And the post had to do with Manuals - especially the ones that are so very hard to find. BUT, the gist of the post was that this Purge Day was instituted by the executives of JI Case who wanted ALL ORIGINAL FILES from IH destroyed.

Thankfully a lot of these old manuals were not - many IH people apparently took them home with them. Some were manuals, brochures, catalogues etc., some where paint committee decisions, engineering decisions, production decisions etc., and some were design drawings. This may be one of the reasons why a lot of information is just not available anymore. I am not sure of the veracity of this, it may be another bit of IH folklore/legend, but it does explain a lot if factual.

The Purge Day scenario is not that unbelievable when history is taken into account and how many public book burnings have been held in societies over the course of man's existence and of course just in the last 100 years.

As far as there being 6900+ used tractors at the end of the program.. I am not sure how you come to this conclusion. If the tractor was not sold and then returned for a trade in to the dealer.. then why on earth would a dealer consider it used? These probably would have as has been pointed out repeatedly in the past, just been re-painted RED as IH dictated and have been sold as REGULAR inventory.

[rustynuts]

Just my 2 cents I have been waiting for a while for a post on the great number of white cubs and the a's and so on. Wouldn't it make sence that only each dealer got one or two of each? Why would IH make so many and keep making them for dealers when they were to be painted red before they left the dealers? If thats the case if you bought a cub in Feb IH made another white cub to replace it while they painted the sold one red. My money would be on a dealer getting his hands on one or two to show all year long and sell red ones as they came in or ordered. And then paint it red when it was sold when the new model came out. Or am I completly off base here? DEMO just brings to mind car dealers they sell theirs at around 10,000 miles. I really like the looks of a white demo cub and I think with a touch control system and a new name tag #100001 wire brushed and rubbed with reducer and a few hammer marks dipped in darkening solution my 48 just became a demo and I wonder how many are out there like that. Just a thought..................Bill

[gitractorman]

Having grown up at my grandfather's IH dealership, there are a couple of things that I think should be mentioned.

The DEMO program was not limited to 1950. IH did demo programs later in the 1960s and 1970s, with Ag equipment. The later demo tractors were painted Gold, but the one demo hydro was painted blue/white/gold.

The purpose of the Demo program was to have tractors available at county fairs, dealers, distributors, etc, that were offered to farmers to try out, to try to talk them into buying.

Dealers LOVE to get something different in. It catches the eye. It makes people look. When you have a showroom full of Red, a White tractor really stands out. This year CC dealers had the opportunity to order a special edition 4x4 Big Country at the Louisville meeting last month, and my people were lined up to order one. The only ones being made were the ones ordered, approximately 285, no extras.

However, I would be suprised to find that all 7000 cubs produced during those couple of months were painted white. IH took special orders on equipment throughout the life of the company, and would paint tractors orange, white, red, yellow, green, blue, whatever was ordered. If the Navy for instance, ordered 100 Blue Cubs in early 1950, you can damn well be certain that IH stopped painting white and ran 100 blue tractors. That is just how things work!

[Bermuda Ken]

The idea of the white demo program was to not only get orders for new tractors, but to sell tractors that IH and its dealers had in thier inventory.

In 1950 small tractor sales were slow. The late 1940's sold small tractors to the few people who had horses or mules left on the farm. (post war tractor sales boom). When the sales boom was over.....IH had to come up with some kind of plan to revive sales.

Typically when IH offered a "demo" tractor it meant they had a new series in the works, and used the "demo" tractors to clear the dealer lots of the "old" models.

[Brandon Webb]

RustyNuts I agree with you 100 percent. New car dealers don't sell their demo's as new, they sell them as used, with a savings to the customer. In my opinion there is no way IH could have sold these repainted tractors as new. I also agree that each dealer probably only got 1 or 2 and that was it. Anyone know about how many dealers there was in 50? Mulitply that number by 2 and see what you come up with. Maybe they issued a first order just to cover 1 to each dealer and then realized that the dealers could use 2. Maybe Earl had it out at his farm trying it out for a couple weeks, and the dealer needed another to sit on the lot. Or maybe they were so needed that some dealers sold them as soon as they got there while they were white. Then the dealer requested another white demo creating a demand for a second batch. This would explain why some were sold white. Brandon.

[Brandon Webb]

Ken I agree with what you said about them doing this promotion to move their Current inventory. If you think, there's no visible difference between a 48, 49, or a 50. No farmer would be able to tell the difference. They'd move their older tractors and be ready for new tractor sales. I'd really like to know how many dealers there were in 50, this would give us a general estimate of how many demo's each dealer recieved. I just don't see cubs piling up at dealerships from lack of sales, only 3 years after they were released. I thought they sold like hotcakes, they were the mule replacment for a farmer with 20 acres or less. I'd figure they'd have trouble keeping the dealers in stock. How many new red cubs do you think each dealer recieved? 3 or 4? They could sell those in one month? Most Cub Populated area's are rural small farms, away from big cities. They'd have local dealers such as mine, who still only stock 3 or 4 new tractors total. Brandon.

[Mike Schmudlach]

Just because they were called "Demonstrators" doesn't mean they were demonstrated. Granted many of them were but many just sat in the show room and they demonstrated with another one in stock. Many of the White ones just went to the Fair and looked pretty just like a trailer queen.
I don't know much about the "Purge Day" but IH did not loose all sorts of manuals etc........
The archives has a copy of 99.9% of all owners manuals and yes anyone can go to the archives and do research and we encourge you to do so.
If you come to Madison and do research I'll get Updike or Fay to take you to lunch from some brats and cheese curds.
Mike

[Jack Donovan]

I never new they even existed untill GW posted his about 5years back, I had seen the "H" and a "C" when I was a kid in 1950 LOL

[Brandon Webb]

In your opinion how long did they use these demo's? Most county fairs are in June-August. You know the demo's that were built in May would have taken at least a month to get to the dealers and get on the lots. I guess I had really only thought of the demo program as being the first 3 months of the year, but you couldn't do much plowing in february. Brandon.

[Bermuda Ken]

If you come to Madison and do research I'll get Updike or Fay to take you to lunch from some brats and cheese curds.
Mike

HEY...........I have two, two year olds at home (say that fast!!!) and if anything Fay can buy me brats and cheese curds!!!

If anyone does want to drop in at the archives, pm me. I might have some other "classified" CUB materials for you to see.....