Plant Fitter
Senior Member
The old Steigers seem to have somehow got a good reputation.
I am wondering how they got the reputation?
Take for example the popular "Series III" from the early 80's. The final drives need rebuilding every 4,000 to 5,000 hours. The transmissions need the bearings replaced every 4,000 to 5,000 hours.
Sure, they have a big fuel tank, a good strong frame, and most of the engines used in them were good. But that hardly makes them a good tractor.
The "Safari Cab" is like sitting in a house of mirrors when the sun is low. When driving away from the sun, the sun shines in the rear window and reflects off the windscreen and straight into your eyes. When driving towards the sun, there is no sun-visor, and then when you turn around to look at your implement, the sun reflects off the rear window and straight into your eyes. The side windows also show a reflection of the front and rear windows, so then you have another sun dazzling you from a side window as well. Sometimes if all the angles are right you can have 3 reflections of the sun, plus the real sun, all shining into your eyes. You have to put up with this for at least an hour after sunrise and at least an hour before sunset. Then there is the noise issue.
They don't even have a hi/lo powershift. Choose a gear and you are stuck with it, if there is a hill in the paddock, bad luck you can't drop back a gear.
The hydraulic system gives priority to the steering, which is understandable, but try running an air-seeder fan at a constant speed using the oil flow that is left after the steering takes what it wants first. Surely it wouldn't have been so hard to realise that a separate system would have been better.
They have 17 grease nipples that have to be greased every 10 hours.
Does this mean that the John Deeres and Versatiles of the same era were just as bad or worse?
Has anybody else spent any amount of time in one and decided that they are not as good as their reputation would have you think?
I am wondering how they got the reputation?
Take for example the popular "Series III" from the early 80's. The final drives need rebuilding every 4,000 to 5,000 hours. The transmissions need the bearings replaced every 4,000 to 5,000 hours.
Sure, they have a big fuel tank, a good strong frame, and most of the engines used in them were good. But that hardly makes them a good tractor.
The "Safari Cab" is like sitting in a house of mirrors when the sun is low. When driving away from the sun, the sun shines in the rear window and reflects off the windscreen and straight into your eyes. When driving towards the sun, there is no sun-visor, and then when you turn around to look at your implement, the sun reflects off the rear window and straight into your eyes. The side windows also show a reflection of the front and rear windows, so then you have another sun dazzling you from a side window as well. Sometimes if all the angles are right you can have 3 reflections of the sun, plus the real sun, all shining into your eyes. You have to put up with this for at least an hour after sunrise and at least an hour before sunset. Then there is the noise issue.
They don't even have a hi/lo powershift. Choose a gear and you are stuck with it, if there is a hill in the paddock, bad luck you can't drop back a gear.
The hydraulic system gives priority to the steering, which is understandable, but try running an air-seeder fan at a constant speed using the oil flow that is left after the steering takes what it wants first. Surely it wouldn't have been so hard to realise that a separate system would have been better.
They have 17 grease nipples that have to be greased every 10 hours.
Does this mean that the John Deeres and Versatiles of the same era were just as bad or worse?
Has anybody else spent any amount of time in one and decided that they are not as good as their reputation would have you think?