STEYR - A PROFILE OF ONE OF EUROPE'S 

LEADING TRACTOR DESIGNERS

Stery-Daimler-Puch was at the forefront of Austrian farm mechanisation and came to dominate their domestic tractor market. By 1928 their first agricultural tractor was on the drawing board, featuring a water-cooled 4-cylinder petrol engine producing 80hp. The engine, transmission and rear axle were combined into one bolted assembly, the basic overall layout that is still in use by the industry today. 1947 saw the first Steyr-branded tractor to be built, the 26hp Type 180. Using common components from the parent company's truck division, the Type 180 went on to become the best selling tractor in the local market, with some 45,000 units being produced up to 1962. Steyr were equally successful with a smaller tractor, the 15hp Type 80 introduced in 1949. 65,000 of these were built up to 1966, which is a truly impressive figure considering the small size of their home market. 

By the mid 1960's, Steyr's prosperous Austrian farmers were demanding more from their favorite tractor brand, including hydraulic draft control, dual speed PTO's, four wheel drive and more creature comforts for the driver. The resulting Jubilee Series was introduced in 1964, with an eventual production run of 65,000 units. Incidentally, these tractors were amongst the first to be designed specifically to be used in conjunction with a hydraulic front-end loader. The Plus Series was introduced in 1967 and initially featured a 2, 3 and 4 cylinder model the 430 (32hp), the 540 (40hp) and the 650 (52hp). These formed the basis of a family of tractors, over 110,000 of which were eventually built, until the design was finally pensioned off in the late 1980's.

Those cleaver engineers at St Valintine in Austria spent the 1970's developing tractor technology that was way ahead of its time. For instance, by their 25th year jubilee in 1972, the standard Steyr transmission offered the farmer 16 forward and 8 reverse speeds. Two years latter in 1974, Steyr launched the Series 80, a range of tractors from 48 to 165hp featuring a unique flat-floor cab design. At this time in the UK, most tractors were manufactured by being based upon a basic skid unit with either a cab or roll bar fitted. Steyr was one of the first tractors not simply to have a cab bolted to the "export version", but was designed with an integral cab structure from the outset. This clean-sheet approach to design allowed Steyr to do away with the bulky transmission tunnel from between the drivers legs - the resulting flat floor allowed easier access and safer operation of the foot pedals. The design also allowed the hand-operated controls to be located in a better position - as they were no longer simply sticking through the floor of a base tractor intended for somewhere in Africa.

In 1975 the 140hp Steyr 1400a was launched, supposedly the first tractor anywhere in the world to feature a turbocharger, powershift transmission, central four wheel drive, as well as a fully soundproofed cab. Today, we are seeing the re-emergence of large horsepower arable tractors, in many cases replacing two or more conventional tractors. Back in 1980, Steyr offered it's bi-directional 260 hp model 8300. Offering low ground pressure and lots of PTO power, these tractors found favour amongst local authorities, contractors and large-scale farmers. Meanwhile, their new 8000 Series were maintaining Steyr's traditional dominance of the home tractor market, including the 48 hp 3 cylinder 8055 and two 4 cylinder models the 8075 (64hp) and the 8090 (80hp).

1986 saw the introduction of the 'SHR' and 'Informat' control systems onto Steyr tractors. SHR is an adjustable electronic hitch control system, complete with electronically controllable auxiliary valves. Informat was an electronic management system that reduced fuel consumption and allowed the operator to automate some driving processes and encouraged (according to the PR spin of the time) a "more relaxed operating style". A year latter in 1988, the SK2 cab was introduced, which made better use of the electronic information and control systems and once again reduced the noise level for the operator. Soon afterwards the second generation of information systems and control systems were introduced, which included automatic changes between powershift ranges.

Turning now to more recent times, lets focus our attention on the UK tractor market. Over the last decade, four companies - Ford, Case, Deere and Massey - came to dominate the Global tractor industry. The UK was a particularly competitive business environment, mainly due to the fact that it was one of the few places in the world where all the "big 4" had expensive tractor manufacturing sites - all intent on "moving the metal" - as their American managers would say.

John Deere and Case IH traditionally share the spoils of the huge American tractor market, but had different approaches to Europe. Case had always used acquisitions to grow its business and duly purchased International Harvester and David Brown. Deere favoured a more organic growth approach and has steadily improved their penetration of the UK market over the years. Ford was the UK market leader for a long time, with Massey a strong competitor with a healthy export market. This left the other European tractor manufacturers (such a Steyr and Renault) to chase after the remaining small slice of the UK tractor market.

In turn, these circumstances led to difficulty recruiting independent dealers in the UK, who had the ability to handle such relatively technically complex products. The long standing UK distributor of Steyr tractors, Morris Coldfield, built up a loyal - if not large - group of dealers and customers who understood the benefits of the technology being offered - and were willing to pay for it. However, against a background of relatively cheap tractors from the big boys, market share expectations were not high - no matter how good the tractors were.

By now (the early 1990's) Steyr Landmaschintechnik was an independent company, although still owned by the Stery-Daimler-Puch group. There were basic design differences between Steyr tractors and the products coming from the big 4. The likes of Deere were looking to increase tractor horsepower to achieve on-farm productivity benefits, whilst Steyr concentrated on developing advanced control systems to get the most out of lower horsepower engines. However, as tyre and traction technology solved some of the problems associated with using more horsepower, tractor design studios throughout the world focused upon the use of electronics to better control the engine and transmission, as well as integrating with operator information systems.

Meanwhile Steyr had moved on - to look at PTO management and front hitch design - so critical in a country dependant upon a livestock sector working in a challenging geographic environment. The Steyr 8000 Series were largely superseded by the introduction of the 900 Series (42 to 70hp) in 1992. These tractors offer high PTO outputs and were designed to negotiate the slopping fields, which are a typical feature of Austrian hill farms. A year latter the 9100 Series (155 to 190hp) and 9000 Series (78 to 94hp) of tractors were launched. In 1994 the Miltitrac upgrades took place, featuring sophisticated multi-speed PTO controls and innovative front linkage and PTO mechanisms.  The M900 series covered the 65 to 75hp sector of the market, whilst the first of the larger M9000 series was also launched. The M9000 Series would expand in 1995 to include 110 to 150 hp tractors, which would finally see the end of the road for the 80 Series tractors, first build way back in 1974. The 'M' Series forms the backbone of the current line up of new tractors, available today from your local Steyr dealer.

In a shock announcement made in 1996, Case IH purchased a controlling interest in Steyr. Case Corporation immediately gained leadership of the important Austrian market, but more importantly, gained access to the transmission and front axle technology that Steyr had been quietly developing. However, one of the first results of the takeover was that Steyr began manufacturing the CS series of Case IH tractors in their St.Vallintin plant, based upon existing Steyr products.

In an attempt to revitalise the brand, Case appointed the ex-Fendt distributor - Bonhill - to distribute Steyr tractors in the UK. Unfortunately this coincided with a further downturn in the UK tractor market and, despite their best efforts, Bonhill relinquished the franchise just before Smithfield 2000. Support for the Steyr brand in the UK is now being handled directly by the Case, which should throw up some interesting possibilities. Particularly, as part of the EU-imposed conditions of the merger between New Holland (as Ford had become) and Case to form CNH, the Doncaster tractor plant, together with the CX product line (<100hp utility tractors), was recently sold. This now becomes part of the growing Landini Empire, using the old McCormick brand name to promote a more internationally recognisable image.

With the acquisition of Steyr came a prototype transmission, which featured both hydrostatic and mechanical internal drivelines. This seemed to solve the inherent problems of achieving consistently variable transmission ratios - namely that a purely hydrostatic driveline is not particularly efficient way of transferring horsepower. Case brought the design up to production standards and, together with fully independent front axle suspension; the Steyr CVT tractor (together with its twin sister - the Case IH CVX) was made commercially available for the first time during 2000. Just as powershift transmissions have come to dominate the market in the last 10 years, consistently variable transmissions will undoubtedly become a standard feature in mid-horsepower tractors over the next ten years.

One would expect CNH to now wish to develop the UK Steyr dealer network and win business on the basis of specialist knowledge of non-agricultural sectors of the tractor market, as well as from demanding agricultural and horticultural applications such as front PTO work. There is also a loyal group of farming customers in the UK, who have "seen the light" and have little intention of switching back to a more "conventional" tractor. We must not overlook the fact that, with the Steyr CVT transmission, customers will have access to the most advanced tractor technology in the world - technology (shared with Case IH) competing head-on against the latest offerings from John Deere, JCB and Fendt.

Graham Black

Jan 2000