International Harvester was founded in Chicago,
at first concerned with the manufacture of
agricultural machinery and construction equipment.
It came about as the result of a 1902 merger
between the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company
and Deering Harvester Company, along with three
smaller agricultural equipment firms: Milwaukee;
Plano; and Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner (manufacturers
of Champion brand).
The first major product
from International Harvester was the Titan
10-20 and 15-30 tractor; then in 1924 came
the “Farmall” tractor, a smaller
general-purpose iteration designed to fend
off competition from the Ford Motor Company's “Fordson” tractors. In automotive terms, International Harvester
is best remembered as a maker of relatively
successful and innovative “light” line
of vehicles, competing directly against the
Big 3. The most common were pickup trucks,
the “Scout” models being the most
known to Australians.
The Scout started out
as a small “Jeep” style 2 door
SUV, then in 1972 came the Scout II, and from
1974 onward “Dana 44” axles, power steering and power disk brakes became standard. The Scout Traveler and Terra were released
in 1977, they being longer than a standard
Scout II. International Harvester would abandon sales of passenger
vehicles in 1980 to concentrate on commercial
trucks and school buses. Today the pickups
and Scouts are minor cult orphaned vehicles,
although they are rarely seen on Australian
roads today. |
