The Birth of the Ag-Rover.

The Ag-Rover project came about in part by the closure of Trantor manufacturing.
Having worked on and demonstrated both series one and series two Trantors and recently returned from demonstrating a series two in India (the year 1985), I felt that this should not be the end of the search for a true multi-role multi-purpose on/off highway vehicle that filled the gap between a bog standard Land Rover and the legendary Unimog.

Back in my native Rossendale I rented a workshop and began building anything I could in order to provide me with an income so that I could begin collecting around me the fabrication equipment I would later need.

At the same time I had also started collecting interesting oddments that individually meant little, but which eventually would combine to give me the bare bones of the Ag-Rover concept.
These included an Allis Chalmers B tractor.
This poor tractor had lain on its side on the hillside above Edenfield after it had been pushed over the edge by a group of latter-day hippies, no doubt high on magic mushrooms and known locally as "The not a full shilling club".

Other items included a Land Rover gearbox complete with the transfer box, a Land Rover power take off unit, some tractor type dumper wheels, plus countless articles and press cutting about tractors and on/off highway vehicles.

Now I can hear you saying: what has an Allis model B to do with the history of the Ag-Rover?
Answer: huge reduction boxes on the rear axle i.e. portal boxes.

Around this time I had an unexpected visit from another ex-Trantor employee Steven Castellani and his beloved.
Steve was interested in purchasing a foundry and producing architectural iron work and street furniture and wanted to know if I would be interested in going in with him.
I was mildly interested but said I too had an idea, to create a multi-role tractor using a Land Rover or Land Rover components as the donor.
After much talk Steve said he would go away and think about it, a few days later he called back and agreed so began the partnership that created AT Vehicles and the Ag-Rover.

Even though we were fortunate in receiving government funding to build a proto-type, nevertheless the costs overran creating pressures to go to the market as soon as possible even though in truth you are marketing a pre-production proto-type.
This is a common problem and is indicative of many companies and many products.

Initially we thought that our target market should be the agricultural sector
i.e. low ground pressure crop spraying and fertilizer spreading and our first sale was indeed a crop sprayer to a Stuart Wilson from Scotland.
There is a saying that it is easy to identify a niche in a market but is there a market in the niche, we were about to find out.

It was obvious that the agricultural market would take a long time to enter so we looked around and saw the local authority market just as it was opened up to the private sector.
Here was a chance to capture a sizeable slice of a burgeoning market and we began actively pursuing that.
Even so, money was exceedingly tight and as a consequence Steve decided he wanted out.
I bought out his stake and Steve went back to Trantor.

With a concerted sales push we began to make headway, local authorities desperate not to lose their ground care contracts to private contractors were more adventurous and orders began to trickle in.

The entry into the local authority sector was just what was needed, in many cases we were knocking at an open door, large ground care departments that had quietly ticked along for years below the radar were now exposed to the rapacious appetite of the private sector and panic set in.
Being the only company that could offer real across the board increases in productivity both on the road and on the playing field meant that we were making real headway and it seemed that at last things were starting to come together.

However, there is nothing more soul destroying than, having taken your time, money and commitment to build something to the best of your ability than for it to fail in the field.
You have worked the oracle, you have beaten the sceptics, you have convinced strangers to buy from you, and then it breaks.
Eventually you work out what is wrong, but now you are fire-fighting and your responsibilities multiply by the number you have out in the field.
With the gift of hindsight I was able to see a pattern emerge.
I had been here before, the product may be different, the parts may be different but the brief was the same, in my eagerness to get the product to the market I had left decisions that would eventually cripple the company with others and as a consequence the company paid the price.

So would I do it again?
Most certainly, the Ag-Rover for all its faults was and still is a unique vehicle, a concept who's day has yet to come.
As I look around I can see it coming.
Land Rover, unlike Mercedes and the Unimog, have reneged on the people who made them - the farmers, the contractors the forestry etc, etc.
Whilst the likes of the John Deere with the Gator, Kubota's RTV Series, Kawasaki's Mule and many more are quietly moving in the same general direction.
I can't wait!

Roger G Stephenson ©
15 March 2007

Allis-Chalmers model B Tractor.