Stieger Tractor Vs John Deere

There are only two reasons to keep a conventional tractor over 100 hp anymore. The first and most important one is operation of trailer pto equipment. The second reason would be just pure inefficiency.

I had a 500 acre woodlot, (softwood spruce) had always used 300 and 560 in woodlot over the years, but workplace safety folks were pushing hard on ending that. Since I no longer had time to personally operate tractors in the bush, I purchased a Deere 540A forestry skidder, roughly 100 hp, 8 speed power shift and articulated. In winter I used it in forest, and in summer it became my favourite horse for tillage. Also used it to push and pack silage. I always marveled at how much easier that machine handled disk and cultivator and with a lot less fuel than 1066. If I had it to do again it would have been self propelled forage harvester and no 1066. Bear in mind I already had a 560D and 656D, quite capable of all other work I needed done, and I might add the most efficient tractors I ever owned. Looking back, of roughly 20 tractors, skidder, etc. i own over the years, my most economical hp was 560D, 656D and that Deere. I don't even put that 1066 in the top 10.

In the past three years I've had the opportunity to operate some quite heavy and new iron. Big hp conventional front drive tractors as well as articulated CaseIH, New Holland and Deere. While I don't have any cost comparison, I can readily see these big articulateds are doing the work for a fraction of the cost of conventional tractors.

Seems to me that if you keep using the tractor for the same tasks that it was made for at say 160 hp then it shouldn"t hurt it any to ad 25 or more horses and do the same job. Just burning more fuel right?

Rod

We also beat several 3 point quick-tach's completely to a pulp on two JD 6030's, 2 JD 4840's, and Dad's 4850.

It was nice getting a real slab of iron when I bought the Versatile. I really liked the outboard planetary axle drives on the big 4-wheelers - both Steiger & Versatile. They really multiply the torque out where it is needed - on the wheels - so it lessens the strain on the rest of the drive train.

I put a new set of 20.8x38 Goodyear's on the 895 and I guarantee if you could slip that much rubber traction-wise, you had a REAL problem.

If you've never driven a 4 wheeler like that - I'd say go test drive one first - you might really be surprised - to me, it was like moving up from a Chevy tandem truck to a Peterbilt semi.

As far as turning up the power, I guess I've always been a wimp in the sense that the engineers that designed the equipment were being paid good money to match components for the best fit. I figure they knew more about why they designed it that way than I did - and it would likely be false economy if I tried to create "more equipment" than what I had purchased, just by pouring more fuel to the fire by turning the engine up.

I had to put a Cummins re-man engine in the Versatile and it was rated 360hp instead of the 315 it had come with - I actually had the mechanic turn the new engine down, because I had plenty of power before anyway, and I didn't want to risk tearing up the trannie, drive train, etc...

One other thing - one of the neighbors bought a Steiger about that vintage from quite a ways off. He thought he got it pretty cheap, but found out the transmission was failing - I don't remember all the details, but he said it was an unusual type of trannie that was terribly expensive to work on. You might make sure it is not some oddball or at least that it is in really good shape...

Other than that, for primary tillage - I think a real 4 wheeler is the only way to go. Keep the elegance and polish of the JD row-crop tractors and their Sound-gard cabs for the "dainty" work.

Howard

YOu could be going along, get to the end and need to turn. Push down on the decelorator to slow you down and you can use your hands to turn and runthe hyds. When your turned around, let off and your back at operating speed...kinda like a crusie controll. I wish theyd put em on the newer tractors instead of all this eletrical crap.

Thats my 2 cents

A horse like that Steiger wouldn"t be good for row-crop or things like that - where the JD would shine.

But for raw beef - primary tillage, as you say - the Steiger would pull two of that size JD"s backwards...

Dad has a 4850 JD and I bought an 895 Versatile (fairly comparable to the Steiger you mentioned). I also have run two Steigers - one older and one newer than the model you mentioned. They were not better than my Versatile, but they were good, stout tractors.

My 895 will pull a 46" wide Krause disc socked all the way on the ground idling. It is rated 35 hp more than the Steiger you mentioned.

Howard