The story
The Steiger Tractor Company was founded in the 1950s by Douglass Steiger and Maurice Steiger, brothers who were farmers near Red Lake Falls, Minnesota. The Steigers first built a tractor in their workshop for their own use out of truck components, before beginning broader manufacturing and marketing of tractors in the United States and Canada.
In 1969, the tractor division of Steiger Farms was moved to Fargo, North Dakota.
In the 1970s, International Harvester company of Chicago purchased a 30% stake in the company. This stake was later sold to Deutz-Fahr of Germany in 1982.
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.
It was acquired by Case IH in 1986, which later became part of Italy's FIAT Group.
Case IH, formed from the merger of Tenneco's Case with the agricultural arm of International Harvester, purchased Steiger in 1986, 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 was re-introduced on the 4WD tractors in Case IH's stable as their flagship line, they can also be purchased as a New Holland. The 2009 models are branded as Case STX Steiger and are offered in power rating from 200 hp to 500+ hp, with a Quadtrac option on most models in the lineup.
Steiger has built tractors for other tractor manufacturers and distributors under the International Harvester and Co-op Implements brand, such as, Ford and Allis-Chalmers.
Steiger licensed their tractor designs to RÁBA of Hungary, which built RÁBA and RÁBA-Steiger tractors. Vandel, of France, also licensed the Steiger design and built tractors under their name.
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Former Steiger President Jack Johnson later formed Titan Tractors in Fargo to re-manufacture and retrofit old Steigers but the company ultimately went bankrupt after building only 12 tractors due to the fact that their refurbished tractors were very close in price to the brand new Steigers of the day.
American Tractors, or AmTrac, in England, retrofits and rebuilds old Steigers.
From Wikipedia’s article on Steiger Tractor, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3