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At Deere & Company World Headquarters, the lawn is immaculate. The Deere complex in Moline, Illinois, is a midcentury Eero Saarinen masterpiece, low steel buildings hugging lushly forested hills. Nary a blade of grass is amiss. There sure would be, though, if they let me out of the showroom with the sweet model 648L grapple skidder that’s parked inside. With 756 pound-feet of torque and a ground-hugging weight of 39,340 pounds, that sucker could do some major damage in my hands. I know this because they have training simulators inside, and I did major virtual damage with every one of them. Next time you see a dump truck, check out the top portion of the dump bed. It’s probably all scarred up. Now I know why. As they say in the business, ’tis a fine dance betwixt bucket loader and dump truck, ’tis a fine dance, indeed. You hear that at job sites everywhere, just as sure as John Deere was founded by the man whose products still bear his name: Mr. Bob Tractor. READ MORE ››
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