In 1977, the Ford Motor Company launched a new four-model, high-horsepower, articulated four-wheel-drive tractor range in North America. Built for Ford by Steiger in Fargo, North Dakota, the four tractors provided more powerful options above the 153hp 9700 (the largest tractor Ford produced at that time), and gave Ford dealers something to sell in this very important and growing sector of the marketplace.
Designed for the wide-open North American plains, the FW range had a limited impact due to the stiff competition from other manufacturers such as John Deere, International Harvester, Versatile and, of course, Steiger itself. However, when it came to the UK, this was a new area of the tractor marketplace; one in which Ford believed it could make an impact. The result was the introduction of the FW-30, although it wasn’t the FW-30 that already existed
