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This short excerpt is from the book, Red 4WD Tractors. This portion takes place in fall 1957, when Douglass Steiger and his father, John, and brother, Maurice, determined they needed a larger tractor to have their farm continue to be profitable. They were interested in purchasing a Wagner tractor, which they could purchase for $24,000. They also believed they could build a tractor for $10,000. (…
It's Farm Progress Show Season and we're celebrating with posts from our history vaults about the show!
In this story, marketing wizard Syl Melroe explains how Stieger Tractor found a way around the rules limiting how many tractors could be working on the grounds at Farm Progress:
“John Deere could only have two tractors there: or International or Case or whoever, you got to have…
The following in an excerpt from the new book Red 4WD Tractors, which is packed with experimental prototypes and original stories from the people who made them. This section covers another one of the crazy experiments of Steiger engineer Paul Nystuen, who had previously created the famous three-engine tractor Big Jack. This time Nystuen went to work on yet another multi-powerplant design, but…
During the research for Snoopy and the Spy author Lee Klancher spoke at length with Bud Youle, a marketing executive with International Harvester. In this part he tells the inside story of how they decided to finally reveal the 2+2 to the world. It was a powerful machine, with updated capabilities that no other tractor on the market at the time had, and it was poised to take the farming…
During the research for Snoopy and the Spy (order here) author and Octane Press founder Lee Klancher spoke at length with Bud Youle, an executive who was one of International Harvester's secret weapons in their war with John Deere for control of the American tractor market. His stories were fantastic, so we're presenting some of these lost stories here. In this interview transcript Bud Youle (Yes…
Before McCormick Harvesting Machine Company was merged with International Harvester Company in 1902, the McCormick family name was already infamous among the men and women of the labor movement in 1880s Chicago. The anarchist Chicago publication The Alarm described Cyrus McCormick Jr. as "the very picture of human depravity and viciousness, only common to people who have exhausted their vitality…
William Powers moved from Illinois to Iowa in 1875. Central Iowa had recently been opened up to settlement, and Powers came to farm. He farmed with horse and plow, transforming the prairie into fallow fields. He passed away in 1903, and the torch was passed to his son, Samuel.
Samuel worked those same fields, determined to provide farms for each of his four sons and his daughter a farm to…
The following is an excerpt from the new book Red 4WD Tractors. It tells the story of one of the most innovative tractor prototypes ever designed by the Steiger. For another multi-engine Steiger experimental prototype, check out the story of the Twin Panther PT650.
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Steiger innovation was born the moment Douglass and Maurice fired up a cutting torch and built themselves Steiger #1. That…
During the research for Red 4WD Tractors, author Lee Klancher discovered one of the funniest stories of corporate espionage to ever rock the tractor world, and since it couldn't fit into the book we're sharing it here.In the early 80s, John Deere was working hard on its answer to International Harvester's 2+2 tractor, which was the leading tractor in its niche. Deere's engineers had been…
On an 11,000 mile, 65-day motorcycle journey down the length of the South American continent, you would expect to encounter major obstacles like impassable mountains, axle-sucking mud, and bone-chilling temperatures. What you probably wouldn't factor in are interactions with the local population. The following is an excerpt from Colin Evans and Alfonse Palaima's new book, Journey to the End of…