John Deere Kicks Off Prove It Tour

The contractor is the star in 2009 at www.skidsteersmackdown.com from John Deere Construction & Forestry. Deere takes to the road to visit job sites, tradeshow lots and dealerships throughout the country to test the skills of real skid steer operators in the second season of the customer Web site campaign.

Dubbed "The Prove It Tour," both John Deere and its customers are being challenged this season. Deere is putting contractors behind the wheels of its family of skid steers to demonstrate the features that go into every machine. The tour also invites operators of competitor skid steers to join in the competition.

"At the same time, we'll have some fun with our customers," said Sam Norwood, manager of John Deere Commercial Worksite Products. "Obviously, we want customers to share these videos and all the information on the Web site. That's why we're making this a lot of fun."

The first set of battles were filmed recently in Bowling Green, Ky., and pitted a John Deere skid steer driver against real-world contractors driving their chosen competitive machines.

The second stop on the tour is the World of Concrete in Las Vegas where Deere will invite show goers to get involved, putting them behind the wheel of John Deere skid steers.