COLUMN: Flashback February 3, 1950 – Penner brothers wheel out new idea for tractor tires

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/04/2021 (1561 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

John D. Penner and his brother Abe are never short of big ideas when it comes to anything on wheels and the two Steinbach auto dealers have shared their latest innovation in a big way, wheeling out a new way to promote their latest made-in-Steinbach product.

For the first time in the history of local business enterprises, the company purchased a full page of advertising in the Free Press Weekly.

The advertisement, at a cost of nearly $1,500, appears on the back page of the Feb. 1, 1950 issue of the Free Press Weekly, and touts the benefits of the Penner Brothers changeover from iron to rubber on wheels of farm tractors across the country.

Steel to rubber changeovers is big business for the Penner brothers, and until lately their method was the same as other manufacturers. The steel wheels would be cut off and rims for tires would be welded into place.

But John Penner came up with a better idea.

“Why not build a complete wheel and let farmers retain their steel wheels for wet seasons, when they would be more practical.”

The next step was to make patterns for the many various tractor wheels. A few popular makes were made first, but new patterns were created as quickly as possible, and now the Penner brothers offer wheels for more than 50 different models of tractors.

And just as innovative as the idea of switching tractors from iron wheels to rubber tires was for the Penner brothers, the idea of switching from rail transport to hauling tires and wheels by truck was an idea soon to be tested, as well.

Following a local transport company’s slogan, “If you bought it in Steinbach, it came by truck”, the Penner brothers eliminated the “middle man” to deliver tires and wheels across the country and into and out of the United States by truck, instead of shipping by rail, and then delivering by truck from the rail yard to the customer.

Railway freight rates were high enough to prompt Southeast Transfer to compete with the trains for long distance heavy freight loads. Since its beginnings, Steinbach businessmen had always come up with ways to even the playing field, because their community didn’t have a railway.

To show it could be done, Seaton Coleman and Clarence Rempel shared driving duties to truck a load of wheels in four days from Indiana to the Penner Tire and Rubber factory in Steinbach.