Badger Equipment took men out of the ditch

Today the thriving Winona company continues to sell specialized products in the municipal and contractor markets.

It has built more than 10,000 units so far during its operations.

An earth-shattering idea

The company started with a belief that men should not have to dig ditches by hand.

In 1944, a young man, Dan Przybylski, watched a work crew dig a ditch with picks and shovels in a waterlogged field near Windom, Minn.

He thought that if a machine could be designed to accomplish digging work more easily, a market could be created for it.

With that dream in mind, Przybylski set up a machine shop with welding tools in a garage where he worked during the day.

At night he worked to design a ladder-type trencher that would be portable and lowcost and would dig ditches in sticky farm soil.

Other ditch digging machines could be found on the market in the 1940s, but they were either too costly or not wellsuited for the average farmer or contractor.

After several months of hard work, Przybylski had completed the first Badger Trencher.

It weighed 3,000 pounds and could dig a ditch 6 feet deep and 16 inches wide at 250 to 300 feet per hour.

Sales of Badger Trenchers quickly surpassed those of other companies.

The number of employees soon increased from one to 75.

The company outgrew the garage and a 10,000-square-foot building in 1946.

In 1949, the organization became incorporated, becoming Badger Machine Co.

The product line grew to include larger trenchers, snowplows, the world’s first hydraulic hay baler, and the now famous HOPTO (hydraulic operated power takeoff.)

Badger’s early machines

The Badger company has brought many “firsts” to the market.

The first knuckle boom backhoes were designed and manufactured in the early 1950s.

The telescopic boom excavators were designed and manufactured in the mid- 1950s.

In 1957, Badger was purchased by Warner and Swasey.

This deal marked the first of several sales, mergers and acquisitions that would occur throughout its operations.

Meanwhile, a complete family of crawlermounted hydraulic knuckle boom excavators were designed and manufactured in the 1960s.

A new generation of excavators followed in the 1970s.

Hydraulic cranes were introduced into Badger’s production through the acquisition of Sargent Engineering of Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Both truck-mounted and rough terrain cranes were manufactured in capacities from 15 to 45 tons.

A new family of 35- to 50-ton-capacity rough terrain cranes were designed and manufactured in the early 1970s.

A smaller capacity family of rough terrain cranes was designed and manufactured in the early 1980s.

In the mid-1970s, Badger began to manufacture a line of customized firetruck chassis for a couple of years.

At the same time, the company started to produce its own carriers for the hydroscopic product lines.

Also in the 1970s, Badger undertook custom fabricating, machining and assembly for other operating equipment manufacturers.

These companies included Bucyris-Erie, Gallion, Keohring, Drill Tech, Ag-Chem and Getman.

In 1978, Avis International Corp. purchased the Badger Equipment Co.

Badger today continues to be a subsidiary of Avis, which is headquartered in Upland, Ind.

Avis comprises more than a dozen subsidiaries and plants that manufacture a variety of products that serve the automotive, metalworking, railroad, energy, aerospace and other industries.

Badger in the ’80s and ’90s

In 1980, Badger purchased Burro Crane and CF Lifter companies.

Badger has served as the parent company of those organizations since that time.

Burro-CFLifters offers a broad range of services that manufacture below-the-hook lifting devices.

In 1986, Badger acquired the Insley product line of crawler-mounted knuckle boom excavators through a manufacturing plant consolidation.

Insley became the sister company for that time.

Another acquisition occurred in 1990 with Burro.

Badger then took over the Burro product line of locomotive cranes and under-the-hook lifting devices.

Yet another important acquisition came in 1994, when Badger purchased the Cruz-Air product line of rubber- tire excavators from J.I. Case.

In 1995, the first model of a new family of high-pressure hydraulic telescopic excavators was introduced, with new models following within a few years.

In 2000, the Little Giant Corp. and the Badger Equipment Co. merged.

For more than 50 years, the Little Giant Corp. name had been well-known in the railroad industry.

The company produced hydraulic track cranes and other related railroad equipment.

All Badger products continue to be designed, developed, manufactured, serviced and marketed in the Winona facility at 217 Patneaude Drive.

About 68 employees work in Winona.

The products are known under the Little Giant Corp. brand name.

Throughout its history, Badger has recognized that in the real world, machinery must perform in hard-to-reach places.

Its various products reflect that mission.

Equipment operators are provided with safe and comfortable operating environments.

Machine controls are conveniently arranged for ergonomic comfort and safety.