Welcome back truckers. Hope the hauling is running on safe grounds. Today we’re up with some history facts about semi trucks, taking a turn from information about them. The invention was no less than victory for the nation and till date, it has been appreciated for their existence and also the inventor.
Alexander Winton, the creator of semi trucks in the year 1898. This Scottish man started his career by manufacturing bicycles in Cleveland and moved into the construction of “Horseless carriages” in 1896. Right after two years, he sold his first self manufactured car and one year later, his own semi truck. Of course, there were specific requirements and that’s how these semi trucks came into existence. His semi trucks played an important role in handling the deliveries of his manufactured vehicles.
Initial Days:
Winton was indeed a smart guy. He took up the challenge of promoting his new Winton Automobiles by touring the country with the vehicles and challenging other cars for a race. This strategy worked, and showed up some awesome results by the end of 1898. Winton Motor Carriage Company sold around twenty-two automobiles and around 100 in the subsequent year.
However, with time passed by, issues did arise. Not all customers reside in and around Cleveland and the delivery of the vehicle posed a problem. The question was how to bring the car to the client without burning mileage on the vehicle? Well, he did address the issue to an automobile hauler, asking if he would carry the new vehicle on his trailer. In 1899, Winton Motor Carriage started manufacturing haulers for their sole purpose and also for other car manufactures. The demand was increasing with time.
The Birth of Creativity, Invention:
The concept was running on a modified short wheeled touring automobile with a cart attached to it. The platform was made to rest on the top of the engine portion, while the end was supported with a pair of wheels. However, the platform had the capacity of holding only one automobile at a time.
Before the cart was mounted on the pulling car, the automobile to be loaded was wheeled onto the ramp of the cart and soon fastened to the platform. As the automobile is being loaded, the edge of the platform rest on the ground and once the load is ready to move, elevated platform gets attached to the top of the truck of the pulling vehicle.
Expanding Business:
With engines designs on Winton’s mind, he did not pursue his further design of his semi truck. However, in 1920’s, George Cassens took the hauling car business to another level and was extensively relied on car haulers to deliver the car to various delivery points. Later, manufacturers decided to ship the new cars directly to the buyers but soon he realized that shipment cost were prohibitive for car manufacturers. He thought of a solution, he stepped in and offered to haul the cars from the manufacturing site to the car owners and devised a $1,850 four-car auto trailer that was pulled with a two-ton Dodge truck.
A Token of Credit:
After Cassens, August Charles Fruehauf, a Detroit blacksmith by profession built a carriage for a person who wanted to transport his boat and called the carrier “semi-trailer”. Soon, he duplicated the carriage for many other similar purposes and in 1918; he incorporated the Fruehauf Trailer Company.
Invention through Invention, the Model T:
Next in the list is John C. Endebrock who was an experienced in building horse carriages and simply applied his wisdom in developing “trail-mobile”, an iron chassis mounted on wheels and springs, which would eventually trailed behind a Ford Model T. This design was conceived to keep the single operator hooked to the trailer and that to the car. However, it required 3 men to hook up the chassis to the car.
In today’s time:
Over a century, the four wheel design invented by Winton has converted into an 18 wheeled articulated semi truck with three axles. Today, these semi trucks transports more than 670,000 tons of good each year, destined by 3.5 million truck drivers. They represent 70% of U.S. freight delivery and that’s why it’s said, America runs on wheels!
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