Pioneer

Pioneer_Austin04.jpg
Pioneer 30 at the
Manitoba Agricultural Museum,
Austin, Manitoba, Canada in 2004.

Pioneer

The Pioneer Tractor Manufacturing Co. was founded at Winona, Minnesota in 1910. The following year they introduced their best-known model, the giant Pioneer 30, alongside the smaller Pioneer 15. The Pioneer 30 featured a four-cylinder horizontally-opposed engine, and was advertised as "vibrationless" due to the smoothness of its operation. The tractor was certainly advanced for its time, with an enclosed engine compartment and operator's cab with glass windows. In an attempt to appeal to smaller farmers, the Pioneer Co. introduced the 15-30 hp "Pony" and "Special" around 1917, but these were not as successful as the Pioneer 30 and the company vanished from the scene in the mid 1920s.