A commercial truck - farm company built the first SUV

November 21, 10:07 PMAutomotive ExaminerKyle Busch

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Who am I talking about? Why of course - International Harvester..

1902 was the year that three agricultural equipment companies merged and created International Harvester.

Throughout the early to mid 1900’s the company concentrated on manufacturing farm implements and commercial trucks, but in 1950 the company decided to manufacture a vehicle to compete with the Jeep CJ. That idea came to fruition in 1960 with a model year 1961 International Harvester Scout 80. The Model 80 was built from 1960 until 1965 and was about a bare bones vehicle as you could get. Removable doors, sliding side windows, fold down windshield, vacuum operated windshield wipers, etc.

Late 1965-1966 IH changed the model designation to the Scout 800. That brought about some improvements in comfort and design. Things like bucket seats, better instruments and a heating system. !969 through 1971 brought new model designations, the 800A and 800B which included a few more creature comforts and heavier drivetrain.

Late 1971 through 1980 (which was the year of the Scout’s demise) IH redesigned the Scout and called it the Scout II. This was larger with a longer wheelbase and more “luxurious”. (if you can call it that), and more readily identifiable as an SUV in our standards today as what we classify as an SUV.

Engine availability varied through the years but included a whole slew of stump pullers built by IH from two different 4 cylinders and three different V 8’s, a couple of American Motors Corporation six cylinders and a Nissan six cylinder diesel and turbo diesel.

Unfortunately, IH was not seeing the profit in the “automotive” side of their company so the decision was made to stop producing these wonderful vehicles. As an owner of a 1966 Scout with the 152ci four cylinder, I’m here to tell you that these vehicles were practically unstoppable. Drop the tranny into four-wheel drive low range..(and yes, you had to get out and lock the front axle) and you could drive the IH through anything.

The IH Scout was my idea of the perfect SUV and ii’s to bad that IH didn’t have the foresight to know of what was to come with the explosion of the SUV market.

So, the next time you’re driving down the road in your new $50,000 SUV and you pass a farmer in a field on a IH Tractor, stop and thank them because without International Harvester and the good old Scout, you may not have the SUV you have today.

Kyle Busch is the author of “Drive the Best for the Price…” He
welcomes your comments or car questions at his auto web site:www.DriveTheBestBook.com