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The Zettelmeyer company was founded in 1908 by Hubert Zettelmeyer and it started producing early agricultural tractors for farmers and railway shunters for the German railways using several car components with power sourced from petrol engines taken from scrap cars. Much later in the 1930s Zettelmeyer launched their first Zettelmeyer 20 diesel tractor of integral construction and powered by a diesel lorry mechanicals. In the 1950s they had also developed and manufactured their own original heavy equipment model range making them one of the oldest earthmover specialists from Germany. Their new earthmovers were mainly powered by domestic running gear including the first Deutz Diesel V8 engines one of the first makes to use them and were mostly air-cooled rather than water cooled.

In 1975, Zettelmeyer was purchased by IBH-Holding as their first purchase. IBH owned the company until its demise in 1983.

The company was later taken over by Volvo in 1991 and merged with other operations. The name Zettelmeyer has been renamed as Volvo Construction Equipment or VCE equipment for short and today their models are still produced at their Konz factory where a wide range is made although simply called Volvo VCE but no longer the brandname Zettelmeyer.

From the German website in states:

1908 begann Hubert Zettelmeyer mit der Entwicklung von Dampfstraßenwalzen, 1916 wurden zusätzlich Dampfzugmaschinen ins Programm aufgenommen. 1935 wurde der erste Zettelmeyer-Traktor ausgeliefert. Nach dem 2. Weltkrieg wurde 1949 eine modernisierte Version des Vorkriegs-Modelles Z1 vorgestellt. Nachdem die Absatzzahlen sehr gering blieben, wurde die Traktorproduktion bei Zettelmeyer 1954 eingestellt. Die Firma hat sich auf Baumaschinen spezialisiert. 1991 wurde Zettelmeyer von Volvo übernommen und in den Konzern integriert - Zettelmeyer als Markennamen wird nicht mehr verwendet.

ENGLISH Version Translated and Updated

In 1908 Hubert Zettelmeyer a self taught inventor and mechanical enthusiast like his father began development of steam road rollers based on early farmtractors models at his farm at Konz near Trier in Germany at the time. His new company then starts in 1910 under the trade name Maschinenfabrik Hubert Zettelmeyer AG . Later in 1916 steam engines were also included in their model range and Zettelmeyer also produced some war equipment to keep the firm going. From 1935 the first Zettelmeyer tractor was delivered with a car petrol engine. After WW2 a modernized version of the pre-war model Z1 in 1949 presented which now used a Hanomag Diesel running gear taken from a Hanomag rigid lorry. After the sales figures remained very low, after 1954 the tractor production at Zettelmeyer was adjusted and the company soon specialized in many types of heavy equipment such as dumptrucks, excavators and wheeled loaders now offering original models with or without 4X4 and were powered by domestic diesel or petrol mechanicals sourced from a choice of Deutz Diesel, Hanomag-Henschel but also larger models could be using MAN AG and Mercedes Benz running gear for more power. In around 1991 Zettelmeyer AG was acquired by Volvo and integrated into their own Volvo Group but the original German Zettelmeyer brandname was discontinued. Their Konz factory is now owned by the huge Volvo Of Sweden to produce the large Volvo BM dumptrucks and Volvo wheel loaders. Another manufacturer with a similar history is MUIR HILL and the BRAY firm both of these from England that started almost the same way making the same type of earthmoving machinery but using different running gear sources and were exported to all Europe like Zettelmeyer.    

Tractor models[]

The company built tractors from 1935 till 1954.

  • Zettelmeyer Model Z1
  • Zettelmeyer model Z2
  • Zettelmeyer ZL-Series Wheeled loaders
  • Zettelmeyer Roadrollers
  • Zettelmeyer Sitedumpers
  • Zettelmeyer Tractors

Construction plant[]

The company is best known (in the UK) for its range of compact Wheeled Loaders.But historically for steam rollers.

Rollers[]

A very early example Zettelmeyer no.71 of 1914 has recently being imported into Somerset England from the island of Sicily were it worked from the mid 1940s till the late 1950s.[1]

See also[]

References / sources[]

  1. Vintage Spirit issue 138 - January 2014 page 7

External links[]


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