Fox tractor co.-Fox cutter

brutus49DC · Oct 1, 2017

I was looking at a Fox cutter at a sale yesterday. I never noticed before that the tag says "Fox River Tractor Company". Evidently at one time they made tractors. Maybe once I had heard they did but forgot. Just wondering if anyone had some history on the company.

marloweg · Oct 1, 2017

they were made in Appleton WI 15 miles from me. don't thing they made tractors per say at least i never saw any. and the chopper was not much ether heavy hard pulling pile of iron

coonie minnie · Oct 1, 2017

Yes, that was their title, "a tractor company." Instead, they were all about forage equipment, mostly choppers. Fox was about twenty years ahead of the other manufacturers when it came to choppers in the 50s through the 70's. While heavy, their stuff was built to last... tapered roller bearings on the cylinder, etc. Hard times in the ag sector put them in a financial bind, which sent them seeking a parent company. The parent companies (there were a few- Koering, another I can't remember, and finally Hiniker) cut back on R and D, and the product line fell behind. the last choppers were sold in the early '90's.

rrlund · Oct 1, 2017

I'd read at one time that Oliver tried to buy them out,but Oliver wasn't headquartered in Wisconsin,and the higher ups at Fox said they would never be owned by a company that was a Wisconsin company.

coonie minnie · Oct 1, 2017

Not sure on that one... Fox was still independent into the early 70's, and Oliver was part of White by then. There WAS a joint marketing agreement between the two, though... there are a few Oliver green choppers out there that are rebadged Fox choppers. There were pictures on here a few years ago of some, including a corn head with Fox orange under the Oliver Green. That agreement would have been late 60's very early 70's judging by the choppers pictured.

coonie minnie · Oct 1, 2017

Did a little more looking at old posts here with pics, that claim the Oliver choppers were built by Oliver. Sure looks like they used Fox components, though. The ones I found pictures of look like the feed rolls and cutterhead of a Fox Industrial 7, an early 60's model.

Anyway, obviously they did work together, and at a time when Oliver would have been independent yet...

rrlund · Oct 1, 2017

I'd thought they were Fox choppers too,but I read an article that said Oliver built them themselves. The Fox heads would fit right on them though. It was sometime in the 50s when there was talk of buying them out instead of building their own. If it had happened,given what happened to White,it probably would have only hastened Fox's demise.

CCCHS77 · Oct 1, 2017

This history states that they built 20 tractors.

http://agriculturalmachineryengineering.weebly.com/fox-choppers.html

DR. EVIL · Oct 1, 2017

BTO I worked for starting in 1968 had just bought a new Fox chopper to chop haylage that summer. I was not overly impressed. It chopped O-K, but any little excess bit of hay in the windrow would cause the feed rollers to shear the shear bolts. I didn't think a stock 4020 was too much power for it. I would have hated trying to chop corn with it.

KenL · Oct 1, 2017

The Fox Tractor building is about 14 miles from me in Appleton Wi. They did build a few tractors but, decided against continuing production and went with harvesting equip. Eagle tractors and Kools equip were also built in Appleton. The Sauberlichs also built a few. I'm not sure but they may have turned into Fox.

coonie minnie · Oct 1, 2017

Ever used an IH, Gehl, Papec, NH or Deere from that vintage? You wouldn't be impressed with them either. Some still had a "cut and blow" design yet, with the knives in the blower. And if they didn't, they had just phased it out a year or two prior.

At that point, everybody was into getting a really fine cut, often using a recutter screen- that cut capacity in a hurry. It didn't help cattle any, either.

I changed a lot of shear bolts on a Fox feed roll over the years. It helped a lot to go to a longer cut, and put more horsepower to the front. Hardened shear bolts were a must. FOx advised a soft bolt- that didn't work.

We ran Fox 3000s with 220 hp out front.

Eldon (WA) · Oct 1, 2017

(quoted from post at 12:16:19 10/01/17) I was looking at a Fox cutter at a sale yesterday. I never noticed before that the tag says "Fox River Tractor Company". Evidently at one time they made tractors. Maybe once I had heard they did but forgot. Just wondering if anyone had some history on the company.

I have a Fox chopper that is identical to the MF we used when I was a kid. We had problems with the corn head sickle drive, otherwise an easy pulling machine.

DR. EVIL · Oct 1, 2017

Nope, never ran any other chopper. I talked to the boss about using better shear bolts but he wasn't in favor of trying them. Two years after he got the chopper he traded both 4020's for a 4320 and 4020. The extra 20 hp didn't help at all, in fact I went back to chopping with the open station NFE 4020 and eating dust. The 4320 had factory ROPS cab, heater and A/C, A/C worked the first night I ran the 4320, the day it was delivered. By the first day of chopping hay the compressor had already locked up, so no A/C. Ran with all the windows open filling cab with dust. Last time I ran it chisel plowing five years later still no A/C. I did like that 4320, It did anything a 4020 couldn't quite handle. I bet over half the 4020's in our neighborhood had turbo's. In fact, Boss got a new 4230, put a turbo on it so it could try to keep up with the 4320.

Fox tractor co.-Fox cutter

brutus49DC

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marloweg

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coonie minnie

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rrlund

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coonie minnie

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coonie minnie

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rrlund

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CCCHS77

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DR. EVIL

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KenL

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coonie minnie

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Eldon (WA)

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DR. EVIL

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