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Back in about 1997, Caterpillar got hooked up with Claas of Germany. The Claas "Lexion" was the largest capacity combine in the world (and still is). Caterpillar had been producing the "Challenger" rubber tracked tractors since about 1987. Cat felt the marriage of the big combine and big track tractors would gain them market share in Ag equipment, especially with bigger farmers. AGCO had purchased the Fendt tractor line also in the late 1990's. The Fendt tractor was a very high end and expensive tractor. By 2002, AGCO had figured out that sales of the Fendt tractor wasn't going very well, partly because of the fact that many AGCO Dealerships were smaller Mom and Pop businesses and they weren't doing business with these larger farm operations. AGCO had a plan. That plan was to try and convince Caterpillar to allow AGCO to market the Fendt tractor line exclusively thru Caterpillar Dealers. Their argument was it would be good for Cat to have a high-end big rubber tire tractor to compliment their track tractor, helping Cat to grow their Ag business. Cats relationship with Claas wasn't going all that well and when the meeting with AGCO was over, the "Challenger" tractor and name belonged to AGCO and the Cat/Claas marriage ended in a divorce. When AGCO now built 100 new Challenger track tractors, they called Cat for 100 engines, transmissions and rear ends. Those were built and (by 2004 ?) shipped to Jackson, Minnesota. AGCO assembled the track tractors there and marketed them thru mostly Cat/Challenger Dealerships. Much of the other Hesston/ Massey/AGCO equipment got painted yellow and branded "Challenger" so the whole complete ag product line could be purchased thru the same Cat dealer you got your big tracked tractor from. Eventually, many (not all) Cat dealers began selling Terra-Gators and Row-Gators to make their farm equipment offering even broader. AGCO had owned the AG-Chem company since 2002 and were using more and more Cat engines in those machines. In recent years, the Cat engines in AGCO equipment has given way to SISU engines, which are an AGCO product. The short answer to your question is this: AGCO wound up owning and assembling and marketing the "Challenger" track tractor, but in reality it was still 100% Cat components in the beginning. Claas got cut loose and have been on their own since 2002 or 2003. AGCO painted some Massey rotary combines yellow and called them "Challengers" and marketed them thru some (not all) Cat dealers. They aren't a Claas/LEXION, they are a CHALLENGER !!!!! Claas/Lexion has NOTHING to do with AGCO---they are competitors.
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