POWER SHIFTING is a new breed of programme that gets to grips with tractors of all ages, types and configurations from all over the world, putting them through their paces and pushing them to the limit in action packed, epic challenges. This is tractor mania, as you've never seen it before.
So who would win in a ploughing & cultivating contest between a Massey Ferguson 178 and a Roadless 75? Power Shifting turns back the clock, field-testing these two iconic 4WD’s from 1969. Its ‘no holds barred’ when red meets blue out in the field in an exciting head to head challenge - a true battle between two of Britain's most revered and popular tractors.
Join Presenter Simon Henley as he also tackles the might and power of Britain's very first Steiger and gets to grips with a famous Ford FW60. In addition to these familiar giants of the seventies, we also test-drive a very rare 1955 Wagner Tractormobile – the world’s first patented articulated tractor and an equally rare 1962 'two-stroke' Wagner WA 4.
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This programme interweaves two Steiger archive films of 1974 and 1977 with filming and interviews from 2008 to show the second half of the Steiger marque’s life. There's footage of a Tiger, claimed to be one of the oldest Steigers still at work. Farmer Roy Bultman talks about and demonstrates the Wildcat he has owned since 1981. After more archive featuring Steigers at work with sugar cane and rice we move on to Series II machines, watching a Cougar and Wildcat working together with chisels and discs. Then a Panther goes through its paces rolling. This is big-field work with big implements. North Dakota salesman Warren Rust tells us what it was like to sell these machines. Besides their power and good weight distribution, he valued their durability, good trade value, dependability and the ease with which you could get to the engine for repairs. More Steigers in action: two 9180s, the last to be painted Steiger green, and a Puma, the smallest of the Steiger clan, introduced in 1986. Ben McIntyre of BTP (Big Tractor Parts) talks about the insatiable demand for Steiger parts worldwide and how his company reverse engineers to be able to supply them. Some account is given of Steiger's many alliances, with footage of Ford FW-30s at work and stills of rare machines, including the one prototype of the high-horsepower two-wheel drive tractor. The mechanic cried when he took it apart. More archive deals with Steiger's yellow days, with industrial machines pulling scrapers. The programme brings the story up to date with a look at the STX range and the benefits of Quadtrac design. "A farm boy - he wanted Steigers. That's all he wanted: Steigers." In the same series | |||
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English spoken, running time 60 minutes
Toy Farmer production
Part two in a series about articulated tractors. Included are Caterpillar, John Deere, Steiger, Versatiele - Buhler, also the 500 hp Schlüter 5000 TVL, the Russian Kirovets and French Bima.
60 minutes playing time, German spoken.
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