# History lesson



## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

Just figure I would give you all a quick history lesson on the Ingersoll brand. BTW, I am not going to say I know it all, dates could be a little off, and I may miss some stuff, but here is the cliff notes version.

Back a long time ago a small company came out with a hydraulic driven garden tractor. It was named Colt. Well, in the mid 60's Case had seen how well JD, and IH were doing with the smaller tractors, for the little farmers, that they figured they would join in the fun. Well, they bought this tractor brand named Colt, and rebadged it as a Case. Well at the end of the 60's they redesigned the tractor, and came out with the legendary 22_, and 44_ series. These were avable with a 10,12,or 14hp Kohler single, or the Onan 16, or 18hp motor. The first part of the model number was the style of tractor. The 22x was a normal, small wheel tractor, and the 44x was a high clearance, big rear wheel tractor. The last digit was the engine size. I.e. the 444 were a 14hp tractor, a 222 was a 12hp tractor, a 448 was an 18hp tractor etc. Now these tractors are not a hydrostatic drive, like a lot of modern tractors, it is true hydro driven tractor. A hydro pump is attached to the motor, and drives a hydro motor on the trans axle. One good thing about this setup, is the ability to use hydro powered attachments. Like a log splitter, or anything that can be run by a hydro motor. 

Well these tractors carried on for a number of years, and in the early 80's Ingersoll bought the GT line from Case. For a number of years the tractors carried both the Case, and the Ingersoll name. At that same time Ingersoll started to up date the tractors a bit. The big wheel tractors got a little longer to fit a bigger deck, and a lot of refinements were carried out through out the line. Well as the 80's were coming to an end, it was time to redo the old 20year old tractor. They made a lot of changes, while keeping the "real tractor" looks. The motors were changed around, and many updates made, but they still kept all the toughness that had made the Case tractors great. These are the 3000 series [small wheel] and the 4000 series [big wheel] 

Well this post is WAY to long already, so I will leave it here for now. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I may not know, but I will do my best to try to find out.


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## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

interesting history paul.. thanks... Hey, I like pictures... it would be nice to get different year pics so we got a visual history too... got any pics?


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## Ed_GT5000 (Sep 30, 2003)

Thanx for the history lesson, I know little about them other than they are workhorses built to last. Here is a 4000 that is on e-bay currently. nice!


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Interesting bit of history and background Paul. Where did you manage to dig all of that info. up? :thumbsup:


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Chief _
> *Interesting bit of history and background Paul. Where did you manage to dig all of that info. up? :thumbsup: *


Well, when I first got my 444, I knew nothing about the tractors. And it DID take some digging to do the reserch, but read all I could find on them. Hey, and I guess some of it stuck


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by simple_john _
> *interesting history paul.. thanks... Hey, I like pictures... it would be nice to get different year pics so we got a visual history too... got any pics? *


here you go...........


This is a 80's big wheel tractor. This is still the older style, but with the longer wheel bace.

<img src=http://www.tractorbynet.com/forumfiles/16-169225-444.jpg>


This one is a 80 big wheel tractor. This is the older, shoter wheel bace tractor. Look at the front of the fender area. You can see how they changed it a bit.

<img src=http://www.tractorbynet.com/forumfiles/16-169222-4462.jpg>

This is the small wheel tractor. These looked mostly the same throughout the years, other then the collors changing.


<img src=http://www.tractorbynet.com/forumfiles/16-169223-224.jpg>


Dont have a picture of the new style right now, but I will try to dig one up.


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## aegt5000 (Feb 22, 2004)

Good thread, thanks for posting Paul. :thumbsup:


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Good post Paul...somewhere in the archives I've got pictures of the two Case tractors that I owned, early seventies and mid seventies....I'll see if I can find and post them.


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Argee _
> *Good post Paul...somewhere in the archives I've got pictures of the two Case tractors that I owned, early seventies and mid seventies....I'll see if I can find and post them. *


Great, that will show the early colors.


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Here's the early 70's 446


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## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

Man them tires are big what size are they:question: 
Jody


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

And here's the mid seventies one with a Onan 218PG jammed under the hood!


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by jodyand _
> *Man them tires are big what size are they:question:
> Jody *


8.00 x 16


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

look eaven better with AG tires on them   

MUCH better in the muck also........


<img src=http://www.tractorforum.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=5892>


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## JesseK (Jan 22, 2016)

Here's my 1965 Colt Rancher 12. Although the color is incorrect it's one hell of a tractor. Not very many of these left around anymore.


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## cmac (Jun 17, 2012)

The Case garden tractor line was sold to Ingersoll after Case bought/merged with International.. Part of the agreement was that CaseIH would keep the Cub Cadet brand thus making the Case line expendable. The Case name badge was left on the Ingersolls as part of the transition phase. These tractors have a rich history and are some of if not the best garden tractors ever built, the Eastman Company bought the Ingersoll line in the early 2000's but unfortunately has not done a whole lot with the line. And unfortunately the brand name is not commonly recognized anymore.. New 4000 series tractors are available with some dealers sporadically stocking them.. I own three Case/Ingersolls with various attachments, I chose to purchase a new JD X729 only because a Ingersoll dealer was not located near me but these are still a true garden tractor built to the same standards as they were 30 years ago available with power steering and foot pedal control along with various upgrades. No plastic body panels on these bad boys. I'm very surprised there are not more Case/Ingy guys on this site as this brand has a HUGE following. One of the more impressive models was the Ingersoll 7020 4x4 loader/back hoe... Case started producing loader/hoe combos in the '70's with Ingersoll continuing up until the early 2000's these little tractors were beasts.. Ok I can ramble forever just wanted to add my two cents


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