John Deere Construction & Forestry last week announced season two of its Skid-Steer Smackdown series where it takes to the road to visit jobsites, tradeshow lots and dealerships throughout the country to test the skills of real skid-steer operators in the second season of the in-your-face, yet irreverent customer website 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 made by John Deere. 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, John Deere Commercial Worksite Products. “Obviously, we want customers to share these videos and all the information on the website. That's why we're making this a lot of fun.

“Every time a contractor walks into a John Deere dealership, we've got something to prove. And we know we can prove that our family of skid-steer loaders can take on the competition anytime, anywhere.”

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.

“It was gratifying watching Deere come out on top against competitor skid steers, and their drivers, before a live audience of around 1,000 cheering fans,” Norwood said.

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

Videos of the skid-steer smackdown can be seen at www.skidsteersmackdown.com.