In 1974, White Farm Equipment was rolling out it's new line of White Field Boss Tractors. These tractors featuring a brand new color scheme, design, and decals set out to combine the Oliver and Minneapolis-Moline brands into one new brand - White Farm Equipment. But during this time, White was still producing meadow green Oliver branded tractors like the Oliver 2255 in the same Charles City tractor plant. During this transitional stage, a few Oliver 2255 tractors got fitted up with the new White Field Boss paint scheme and badges. Everything from the hood to sheet metal and fenders was Oliver on this tractor shown above, which is interesting because White designed a new hood, sheet metal, fenders and grill for the Field Boss line of tractors. Was White considering releasing the Oliver 2255 as a White model? Or was this a prototype of the later White 2-180 tractor (the successor to the Oliver 2255) in disguise? If you look closely, you will notice a few differences in the four pictures which begs the question if all the pictures are of the same tractor or if multiple of these Oliver 2255's in "White clothing" were made? One difference is that the grill appears white in one picture and silver in the rest. Additionally, the side of the dash is different on the right side in one picture than the left side of the dash shown in another photo.
Unfortunately, the real story behind this tractor is likely lost to history. Regardless, these awesome pictures did survive and give us proof of this one of a kind tractor existing at some point in time. Knowing that Oliver commonly repainted and rebadged tractors after their display or advertising purpose had been served, these tractors most likely got re-painted back to meadow green and sold to a customer as Oliver 2255's. So check your 2255's - if there is a layer of silver paint hiding underneath the green, you just might have this tractor in your fleet! Photo Credit: Oliver Tractor Plant Archives at the Floyd County Museum |
AuthorJim Fitzgerald Archives
May 2024
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