- Steiger Tractor
Steiger was an American tractor manufacturer founded in the 1950s by Douglas and Maurice Steiger, brothers who were farming near
Red Lake Falls, Minnesota , and needed a reliable, high-powered,four-wheel drive tractor. The Steigers first built a tractor for their own use in their farm shop, then built another and sold it to a neighbor in 1958. Demand grew, and the brothers soon began manufacturing the tractor in quantity at a location nearThief River Falls . From the beginning, the Steigers painted their tractors in almost neon chartreuse, contrasting with the more subdued yellow, green, blue, red and orange colors used by most other manufacturers.The tractor division of Steiger Farms was moved to
Fargo, North Dakota , in1969 . It was acquired byCase IH , which currently is part of Italy'sFIAT Group.Under CEO Eugene Dahl (formerly VP of Purchasing for the Melroe Company of Gwinner, ND) they have been one of the few successful mass-producers of 4WD tractors in the world. In the 1970s,
International Harvester company ofChicago purchased a 30% stake in the company. This stake was later sold toDeutz-Fahr ofGermany in1982 .Case IH , formed from the merger of Tenneco's Case with the agricultural arm ofInternational Harvester , purchased Steiger in1986 , and the familiar lime-green color of Steiger's was retired as CIH's red took over. The Steiger name disappeared for a while, but has been re-introduced on the 4WD tractors in Case IH's stable.Steiger has built tractors for various other tractor manufacturers & distributors under the International Harvester, Ford,
Allis-Chalmers , and Co-op Implements names.Steiger licensed their tractor designs to RÁBA of
Hungary , which built RÁBA and RÁBA-Steiger tractors. Vandel, ofFrance , also licensed the Steiger design and built tractors under their name.Former Steiger President Jack Johnson later formed Titan Tractors in Fargo to re-manufacture and retrofit old Steigers.
American Tractors, or AmTrac, in
England , currently retrofits and rebuilds old Steigers.Model history
* 9100 Series Years of Production: 1986-1989
* 1000 Series Years of Production: 1983-1986
* Series IV Years of Production: 1983-1985 (The Tiger IV was produced from 1984-1988 and ended production as the Case International 9190)
* Industrial Series Years of Production: 1982-1984
* Ford FW Series Years of Production: FW Series 1978-1982
* Series III PT/PTA Years of Production: PT Series 1977-1981/PTA Series 1978-1982
* Series III Years of Production: 1976-1983
* Series II Years of Production: 1974-1976
* Series I Years of Production: 1969-1974
* Barn Series Years of Production: 1963-1969External links
* [http://www.caseih.com Case IH]
* [http://www.bigtractorpower.com/steiger4wdtractorhistory.htm Steiger 1958-1986 BigTractorPower.com]
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