Eicher tractor
History
The first experiments with agricultural machinery took the two company founders, Albert and Joseph Eicher in 1934. They built an old Opel Opel from his father's representative to the " Mähauto ". 1941 founded the brothers in their hometown Forstern the trading company "Gebrüder Eicher tractor construction ". So they parted from the Father, who waited meanwhile agricultural machinery operation. The first Eicher tractor factory was built a short time later also in Forstern. During the Second World War, the Nazi regime ordered the construction of farm machinery, the operation did not require petroleum. Eicher therefore built at this time wood gas tractor. From BMW, the company participated in Eicher orders of the defense industry. Were also employed forced laborers.
After the Second World War
After the Second World War, the company Eicher was on the rise. First one manufactured tractors with 20 to 30 hp, initially with engines from Hatz, Deutz MWM or. In 1948, however, Eicher built the first diesel tractor with an air-cooled engine - then a world first. ED and EKL were named the first series with this engine. Two other Eicher plants were built or acquired, in a Forstern and one in Dingolfing. By the year 1953 about 20,000 tractors were sold.
1959 Eicher produced in a joint venture project the first Indian tractor. In the German parent company EKL and ED models, meanwhile, were superseded by the " predator - series". By 1986 they built 120,000 Eicher tractors.
From 1963 to 1967 177 tractors of the type " Farm Express" were produced. These were equipped with modified cabins of the "Tempo Matador". From 1962 to 1967 and the compact trucks " Trans Express " was made , for the Eicher own cab had developed. As was hardly sell in the Agriculture distribution network of Eicher this truck, they gave from the construction of Magirus -Deutz, where a light truck model in the product was missing. Magirus -Deutz offered the so-called " Eicher types " for light to technical and optical changes particularly in the cab front and the chassis from 1967 to 1976. The vehicles were air-cooled engines of Klöckner- Humboldt -Deutz ( KHD), the parent company of Magirus -Deutz, equipped, who performed between 70 and 120 hp. The payloads were 3.05 to 7.05 tons. By 1972, about 25,000 pieces of Eicher types with Eicher for Magirus -Deutz were manufactured from 1972, Magirus -Deutz then the model itself in Ulm ago.
Eicher Good Earth
After financial problems Gebr Eicher tractor factory was taken over in 1982 by the Indian subsidiary. In 1984 the company changed due to persisting economic difficulties hands several times, the sales figures fell further, however. Finally, in 1992 the bankruptcy proceedings for lack of assets was rejected and dissolved the Eicher GmbH. To this day, in India by Eicher Good Earth Ltd.. - The largest vehicle producer in the sub-continent - not only tractors, but also trucks and motorcycles ( under the brand name Royal Enfield ) made . With the former German company, the Indian company has only common but the name.
Resurgence of the brand
The former Dutch Eicher importer Hissink Oeken presented from 2007 to 2009 tractors under the brand name Eicher ago. The two types 677 and 777 are equipped with four-wheel drive and be like the old Eicher models of an air-cooled Deutz diesel engine driven. This met the new requirements of the European emission standards no longer, so the production was stopped.