Steam tractor

In Great Britain, the term steam tractor is more usually applied to the smallest models of traction engine – typically those weighing seven tons or less – used for hauling small loads on public roads.

This article concentrates on the steam-powered agricultural vehicles intended for the direct-pulling of plows and other implements (as opposed to cable-hauling).

However, the heavier and wetter soils found in Britain meant that these designs were not successful, being less economical to use than the teams of horses they were intended to replace.

A distinctive example of a British-designed (agricultural) steam tractor is the Garrett Suffolk Punch, a 1917 design intended to compete directly with internal combustion-powered alternatives.

[1] The first steam tractors that were designed specifically for agricultural uses were portable engines built on skids or on wheels and transported to the work area using horses.

The steam engine was gradually phased out by the mid-1920s as the less expensive, lighter, and faster-starting internal combustion (kerosene, petrol or distillate) tractors fully emerged after World War I.