The History of the Guldner Tractor
Germany's Güldner-Motoren-Gesellschafft manufactured tens of thousands of tractors between 1938 and 1969, and Guldner tractors have become a favorite of tractor enthusiasts both in Europe and in North America. The Guldner tractor manufacturing venture was, from its very beginning, only a relatively minor division of the company that would become industrial giant Linde AG, a fact that ultimately brought about the end of the Guldner tractor era.
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Company Origins
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German engineer Carl von Linde invented an ammonia compression refrigeration machine in 1875, and his entry into the ice machine business marked the birth of a company that would become, among other things, one of the largest manufacturers of materials handling equipment in the world. In need of engines to power his ice machines, Linde went into business with design engineer Hugo Guldner and locomotive manufacturer Georg von Krauss in Munich in 1904. The venture, Güldner-Motoren-GmbH, produced its first diesel engines in 1907, and after devoting its resources to the war effort during World War I and making components for rail cars and boats during the 1920s, the company was taken over entirely by Linde in 1929 and began full-scale production of small diesel engines.
Tractors and Post-War Production
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Güldner-Motoren-Gesellschafft, the motor division of Linde's enterprise, diversified its production yet again during the early 1930s, beginning the manufacture of gas-powered engines, airplane engines and powered plow machines along with diesel engines. In 1938, the first tow tractor model, the A20, was introduced. The company's manufacturing plant, which was located in Aschaffenburg, was destroyed by an Allied air raid during World War II, and when the facility was rebuilt by 1950, the company branched off into a new direction once again by introducing the production of hydraulically powered equipment. It produced the Hydrocar, a small truck with a hydrostatic transmission, in 1955, and in 1958 it bought the hydraulics division of Gusswerk Paul Saalmann & Sohne.
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Tractor Models
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The original A20 tractor featured a 20-horsepower one-cylinder diesel engine. In 1949, a new A-series tractor was introduced; the AF15 had a four-stroke diesel engine that produced 16 horsepower. Production of the A-series tractors would continue through the 1950s, the largest being 1957's 35-horsepower AFN. The G-series tractors produced in the 1960s were larger, utilizing engines with between two and six cylinders.
End of Production
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In the late 1950s, the company began to concentrate on hydraulics, and it produced its first hydraulic forklift truck in 1958. Production of construction equipment, farm and forestry equipment and municipal vehicles followed. In 1965, the Aschaffenburg division became known as Linde AG, Werksgruppe Güldner Aschaffenburg, and the focus on hydraulics went into full swing. In 1969, after the manufacture of nearly 100,000 tow tractors, the company's production of Guldner tractors ceased.
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