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Gotfredson Body Company - 1924-1927 - Wayne, Michigan

Let us go back to the time when Gordon Buehrig began his automotive design career; 1924 at the age of 20. He learned body engineering at the Gotsfredson Body Company in Wayne, Michigan. It was with this company that he did work on Wills St. Claires, Jewetts and the Peerless. By 1927 he was doing drafting work for Packard and later that same year was employed by the new Art and Color Department of General Motors.

Built bodies for the 1926 Wills Sainte Claire Gray Goose Traveler.

Built bodies for the 1924-1925 Jewett.

Gotfredson supplied some standard bodies to Wills Ste. Claire, among, others, and also built bus bodies.

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From 1924 Benjamin Gothfredson (B. 1863 Green Bay Wisc. D. Detroit MI 1/23/1938) produced auto and truck bodies at this site until 1927 - 36253 Michigan Ave. Wayne , MI

1/1/1917 to 1/1/1970

The Harroun Motor Company (Ray Harroun, winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911) started auto production at this plant in 1916. The plant reached a peak production of 200 cars daily, but by 1917 the site was producing military ordinaces for the U.S. Army. Because of hardtimes Harroun Motor Company ceased production in 1921. Only 3000 autos where made. In 1924 Benjamin Gothfredson (B. 1863 Green Bay Wisc. D. Detroit MI 1/23/1938)produced auto and truck bodies at this site until 1927, when it ceased production. That same year (1927) Graham-Paige Motor company bought the plant and produced their line of autos until 1941. In 1947 Garwood Motor bought the plant and made Refuse Collection Trucks, along with other truck related parts. Garwood Motors stayed at this site until 1971, when they moved production to Tenn.

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GOTFREDSON (CDN/US) 1920-1948

(1) Gotfredson & Joyce Corp. Ltd., Walkerville, Ont. 1920-1922

(2) Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd., Walkerville, Onto 1923-1932

(3) Gotfredson Corp., Detroit, Mich. 1923-1929

(4) Robert Gotfredson Truck Co., Detroit, Mich. 1929-1948

This company was American-owned, but it began in Canada and Canadian operations were on a much larger scale than the American, although the latter survived for longer. Originally known as the G & J, the Gotfredson was an assembled vehicle using such well-known components as Buda engines, Timken axles, Brown-Lipe and Fuller transmissions and Ross steering. Production included trucks from ž to 7 tons, 4- and 6-wheeled buses and coaches, fire engines and taxicabs, as well as car bodies. Annual production reached 2000 at its peak in the late 1920s, and the vehicles were sold all over Canada and also in England where the 12/14 passenger coach was popular. Gotfredsons featured an attractive cast aluminum radiator. The American company failed in 1929 and was reorganized on a more modest scale, and after the Canadian plant discontinued manufacture in 1932 it was acquired by Ford. Production continued in Detroit on a very small, largely custom-built, scale using Buda gasoline and Cummins diesel engines, and GMC cabs and fenders. The employment of Cummins engines led Gotfredson into a new field, and they became Cummins sales and service for the whole of Michigan. In the 1940s Cummins engines were used exclusively, mostly big 150 hp units for trucks of up to 100,000 lbs GCW. Production was reduced to one corner of the large Detroit plant, but on this very limited scale it continued at least into 1948, and possibly the early 1950s. HD/RJ

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Hands Across the Border: Canadians Liked Gotfredsons as Well as Yanks (Part One of a Two-Part Story ) by Rolland Jerry

Americans have benefited from a number of Canadian exports down through the years. There were the actresses Marie Dressler and Mary Pickford, and of course thirsty Americans managed to survive Prohibition with the aid of first-rate if slightly illegal Canadian scotch and rye. The Dominion had an export in the truck world, too - the Gotfredson.

The Gotfredson was an odd one to be sure. Canadians bought many more Gotfredsons during the 1920s than U.S. customers, yet the Detroit plant outlasted the firm's Canadian operation at Walkerville by several decades. Canadians considered the Gotfredson as "their" truck, yet Americans never doubted that it was American-built.

That's our story, the Canadian-built Gotfredson that never was anything but an American truck, though it did achieve fleeting Canadian status towards the end of production at Windsor/Walkerville.

The Gotfredson was a Canadian-built truck launched by American capital and enterprise. It got into production almost unintentionally. Originally there were no plans for commercial sale.

The project was the brainchild of two Detroit men, Benjamin Gotfredson and Frank Joyce. The time was shortly after World War I and the setting was Windsor and Detroit. Both men were involved in a major Detroit enterprise called the American Auto Trimming Company. This was an interesting outfit and I think it warrants a closer look.

Back in the early days of the automotive industry, car manufacturers were rarely equipped to paint, upholster and trim their own bodies. This applied to the large production bodybuilders, too. Both would frame and panel the bodies, then farm them out to specialty shops for paint and trim.

Vintage enamels and varnish could be touchy to work with. They were also slow-drying finishes and huge buildings were needed to store newly painted bodies until they were dry. Overall, car manufacturers and bodybuilders were happy to pay vendors and specialists for the service.

American Auto Trimming was by far the largest outfit in the business. In fact, it was a good deal larger than many of its customers for painted and trimmed touring car bodies. The firm operated a huge plant on Meldrum Avenue in Detroit, also other plants at Cleveland and Los Angeles. In general, the company set up shop wherever cars were built or assembled.

American Auto Trimming thrived in Canada, too. The firm operated a big plant at Windsor/Walkerville to paint and trim Model T bodies for the Ford Motor Company of Canada, while a second plant was located at Toronto, presumably to finish bodies for Ford's assembly operations there.

A lot of trucks were involved in all this. Bodies "in white" had to be collected from bodybuilders and manufacturers, taken to American Auto Trimming's plants for paint and trim, and then be returned for mounting on the manufacturer's assembly lines.

Nelson Brownyer, Gotfredson's chief engineer In the mid 1920s, recalls the whole operation largely hinged on trucks. "There was a constant stream of vehicles to and from these plants for the transport of bodies, either finished and ready for the chassis, or unfinished and in need of paint and trim. The traffic was heavy most of the time."

Just after the war, American Auto Trimming needed some new trucks for its Canadian plant serving Ford. But there were problems, as Brownyer comments: "New trucks were very expensive in Canada with the high import duty, since they came from the United States." So the company reasoned that if trucks were too expensive to purchase, why not build a few of its own?

It was sound reasoning. Trucks in 1919/1920 were so simple and fundamental that any good mechanic could assemble one from stock components. And that's what happened. "American Auto Trimming employed a very good Master Mechanic at the Walkerville plant, and he said there'd be no problems in assembling half a dozen trucks or so to meet the company's needs," Brownyer says.

"He just went across the river to Detroit and picked up his engines from Hinkley, a few axles from Timken, and whatever else he needed. McCord had a radiator plant at Walkerville, so he could get the radiators in Canada, also the frames from the Canadian Bridge Company."

The trucks were assembled in a corner of American Auto Trimming's big Walkerville plant. "They worked out as well as any trucks the company could have bought on the open market," Brownyer adds, "so it was decided to build a few commercially for Canadian customers."

And that's how the Gotfredson truck was born, except that it wasn't called the Gotfredson until later. The first units were named the "G & J" after Gotfredson and Joyce, heads of American Auto Trim. The new Canadian truck operation was called Gotfredson & Joyce Ltd.

Brownyer reflects that the idea was that Joyce's son would direct the truck venture, but for various reasons this plan was abandoned. "Around then, which would have been 1921 or so, Gotfredson's son Robert had just graduated from college, so he headed the company instead." A few G & J trucks were built before the operation was re-named the Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd.

Brownyer entered the picture then, too. "I was hired to help get truck production underway as I'd worked on them before for various outfits in Detroit." He recalls that his pay was $35.00; good for the times and an improvement on the $25.00 he'd been earning before.

Several things happened shortly after. Brownyer says the company had a chief engineer at this point but he left after a dispute of some sort. "I was called into the front office where young Gotfredson told me that as of not I was the new chief engineer." Brownyer was surprised, in fact floored by the big promotion.

"While I'd worked at the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company before joining Gotfredson, and I had some familiarity with trucks, I didn't know much about designing them." Brownyer says he was at a loss as to where to start, from the radiator or the taillight.

There was an added challenge, too. "Not only was I told that I was chief engineer, but I was also told that I had to design a new 5-ton Gotfredson in a matter of weeks so it could be shipped to England." He remembers that the truck had to be ready for loading on the "George Washington" when the ship sailed from Montreal. This was a right-hand drive unit, the first of a number of Gotfredsons shipped to England from the Canadian plant.

"During the next few years we designed and built some nine different truck models in capacities from 3/4 to six tons in a price range from about $1,700 to nearly $5,000" he recalls. Hinkley engines were retained in early' production before Gotfredson switched to Buda units.

Brownyer states that Canadian production proved so successful that the company then undertook to produce trucks in Detroit. American Auto Trimming decided that it could use a few more trucks in its American operations, selling the rest commercially. "Benjamin Gotfredson has a building in Detroit that was suitable for the purpose, so we started producing them over there," Brownyer says.

Indeed, the building had been used for "transportation purposes" earlier; it was the Kolb-Gotfredson Horse Market, in fact a large structure out on Gratiot Avenue where horses had been bought and sold. I made a dandy truck plant after a few alterations. And it's still standing now as a bottling plant.

There were other changes for Brownyer. With the opening of the Detroit operation he headed engineering departments on both sides of the border. And now he had a team of draftsmen to get his ideas down on paper. "The business boomed and we were selling as many trucks as the Detroit and Walkerville plants could produce. The 1920s were very, very good for the truck business."

Brownyer conceived a novel braking setup, which he used on Gotfredson trucks in 1922. This consisted of service braking through the rear axle final drive with an external contracting-type drum mounted right on the worm shaft at the axle housing. Drums on the rear wheels served as the parking brake.

"I got a tremendous mechanical advantage by braking through the worm gear and it worked out very well," he says. He felt this was a much safer arrangement than braking through the driveline with a transmission brake. That way, if a universal joint sheared the vehicle might be brakeless.

But the Timken-Detroit Axle Company wasn't very happy with braking via the differential and final drive. "Even though I was a big customer for TDA axles at the time." Obviously the firm was afraid of stripped gears and broken axle shafts, but Brownyer says he never had any problems.

"Actually, this setup worked so well that customers began to specify it on other makes of trucks," Brownyer comments. Big Detroit area fleets like Michigan Bell and Detroit Creamery wrote Brownyer's braking arrangement into their general specs for new trucks.

Brakes for heavy-duty trucks were a headache at the time. "Without air or vacuum assistance, the only braking effort you got was what the driver could develop with his foot, so applying the brakes tool a lot of effort, and it was tiring for drivers."

Brownyer state that the only way to increase the leverage with mechanical brakes was to increase the pedal travel, "so at time this was a foot or more." But this wasn't the case with his where the differential's mechanical advantage diminished the need for heavy pedal travel.

As a small producer of specialized assembled-type vehicles, Gotfredson was frequently involved in interesting projects. One was the production of taxicabs at the Walkerville plant in 1924 for the Canadian market. Brownyer recalls the very high-grade bodies which Canadian Top & Body Ltd., Tilbury Ontario, supplied for these vehicles.

"The outfit was headed by a chap named Odette, and he later built many bus and coach bodies for the Walkerville plant," he says. The same firm also supplied Canadian Gotfredson with its distinctive truck cabs. Of interest perhaps, Canadian Top & Body eventually undertook the assembly of Hudson and Essex cars for the Canadian market, also for export to Great Britain.

The Detroit plant was involved in a taxicab project, too. "In 1925, a cab operator in New York City wanted us to produce cabs for him." Brownyer says this was a different job than the Canadian model as it was designed to the operator's specs.

The Detroit-built vehicle was a striking unit, using a Minerva-style radiator instead of Gotfredson's standard cast aluminum radiator, which had been used on Walkerville cabs. "We used hydraulic brakes and they proved so satisfactory that we started thinking about four-wheel-brakes for the trucks," Brownyer adds.

But only one of the promising Detroit cabs was built -- enough for photographs and a catalogue -- but that was all. Brownyer doesn't know what happened except that the venture fell through. Gotfredson trucks at this time were among the most handsome on the road. Smaller jobs used closefitting helmet or cycle-type tenders in company with attractive step plates, which were "sportier" than conventional running boards.

The big and distinctive cast aluminum radiator helped, too. This was assembled from tour cast sections and featured "Gotfredson" spelled out across the top against a red background. Brownyer reflects that it was an expensive radiator to produce, "but I know it helped sell a lot of trucks for us as customers liked it." The radiator was topped by a big cap carrying the letter "G' for added identity.

Another feature was unusual -- the frame on heavy duty Gotfredsons. The side members for these were nickel steel "ship channel" sections, in fact a structural shape drawn from shipbuilding practice. It was premium construction at a time when most manufacturers were content with pressed-steel channel side rails.

"Ship channel was a rolled section and it differed from other structural shapes in that the flanges were much wider and there was 'more meat' in this area." Brownyer says this enabled a much thinner web, in fact the side or the interval between top and bottom flanges. "It made an extremely rugged frame, though there was considerable expense as it was premium construction."

Brownyer comments that ship channel wasn't a stock shape available from steel suppliers. "We had to order so many tons at a time before the rolling mills would produce it for us as special dies were needed." Obviously it was a first-rate frame; the last Detroit-built Gotfredsons in 1946 (and perhaps a few after that, too) still used a frame with ship channel side rails, and by then it measured 7" x 3" x 5/16", with 3/4" flanges at the widest point.

Gotfredson sales in the United States were regional (but not in Canada) to the extent that most of the firm's trucks were sold in the Detroit area, though branches and agencies functioned at Cleveland, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Chicago. Brownyer can't recall what sort of production the Detroit plant maintained but he knows that few sales were lost to Fisher, Standard, Signal and Denby. These were other Detroit producers offering specialized assembled-type trucks.

"We even gave Federal a good run for the money in local sales," Brownyer remembers. Of course, Federal was a much larger firm with a big national network of dealers and branches, but Gotfredson was hot competition in Federal's own backyard.

1925 was a busy year for Brownyer and buses were a big part of the picture. "The Detroit Street Railway was converting from street cars to buses and we thought there'd be some business there if we had something to offer."

And there was, two interesting bus chassis which Brownyer's design team produced in a relatively short time. Both were low, drop frame jobs, one a tandem axled chassis for double-deck bodies and the other a conventional two-axled unit for single deck service. Buda 6-cylinder engines were used in company with a variety of technical features.

The 21-29 passenger single deck chassis embodied in offset engine, also an offset underslung worm gear axle, to allow a flat aisle down the length of the chassis. Four-wheel air brakes were also provided with the brake chambers mounted on the brake drums to eliminate linkage. A special version of Gotfredson's aluminum radiator added to the good looks.

Brownyer used a Templin-type bogie for the tandem chassis. Ellis Templin had developed this earlier in connection with his 6-wheeler research backed by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Brownyer recalls there was an odd licensing fee incurred in using the patented Templin bogie.

"The only royalty that was involved was an agreement that we'd use Goodyear tires on whatever we built." The Templin bogie consisted of two axles, each with single tires, connected by a rotating tubular member, which absorbed braking and driving thrusts.

Big orders failed to develop. Instead, the DSR bought a fleet of Safeway Six Wheeler double-deckers, which also used Templin bogies. Brownyer can't recall more of Gotfredson's buses than the prototypes, but if there was little American demand, the single deck chassis found a few customers in Canada and met with more success.

Brownyer recalls that 1926 was an eventful year. "Truck sales were excellent. We filled big fleet orders for Detroit outfits like United Fuel & Supply, Otto Misch, Film Truck Service and Detroit Transfer, but the parent outfit was having problems." This was a move by American Auto Trim to get into bodybuilding, as opposed to merely painting and trimming bodies.

American Auto Trim acquired the former plant of the Harroun Motor Company at Wayne just outside Detroit. The plant had been vacant since 1922 with the windup of the short-lived Harroun car, which was named after Ray Harroun of Indianapolis and racing fame.

According to Brownyer, American Auto Trim committed itself to the production of wood-framed composite bodies, "and of course by then Edward G. Budd was making great progress with his all-steel bodies." The upshot was that American Auto Trim couldn't find customers for its bodies. Repercussions were felt at Gotfredson, the company's truck subsidiary.

Brownyer describes the situation as "jellylike", so he left in 1926 to continue what, would be a distinguished career involving more trucks, 6-wheelers and tandem units, "automotive-type" street cars and railway equipment, finally brakes and axles. On his retirement Brownyer was Director of Research for Rockwell-Standard, one of the world's largest producers of axles and brakes. Perhaps I'll have an opportunity to cover other phases of Brownyer's career in another article.

But in the next article on Gotfredson I'll deal with the firm's highly successful Canadian operations, which for a time at least, overshadowed what happened in the United States. Then, too, in later years there were closer links with the Ford Motor Company of Canada, still involving trucks but now Fords instead of Gotfredsons. And last but no least, this interval would also see a revival of Gotfredson's Detroit operations.

After 1926 the various Gotfredson interests on both sides of the Canadian - U.S. border involved in a blinding complexity of financial problems. Gotfredson's interests consisted of the Canadian company -- the Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd. of Windsor/Walkerville; and the American arm of the firm -- the Gotfredson Corp. and American Auto Trimming, both of Detroit. All were affected by the financial headache.

Actually, the firms Canadian and American-built trucks were selling like hot cakes with the rising prosperity of the mid-1920s. For instance, Canadian Gotfredson reported a sales volume of $800,000 for the first four months of 1926. As Canadian Gotfredson vehicles sold for between $4,000 and $5,000 that was a lot of trucks and impressive output.

U.S. truck sales were almost as rosy as the Canadian picture with numerous Detroit fleets electing to "Go Gotfredson" with big truck orders for 10 and 15 vehicles at a crack. The Detroit plant introduced a new line of jobs in 1927 powered by six-cylinder Buda engines as an option to the Buda four-cylinder. The same year also saw four wheel hydraulic brakes on some light and medium duty Gotfredsons, but only in the U.S.

Cause of the financial trouble was something called the Wayne Body Corp. at Wayne just outside Detroit. It appears that American Auto Trimming changed its status and became the Wayne Body Corp. to produce production-type bodies. With the arrival of fast-drying lacquer finishes and the big trend to closed and sedan-type bodies, one imagines there was a diminishing demand for American Auto Trimming's services, that is, painting and trimming bodies. So it appears a corporate switch was made to get into bodybuilding through the Wayne Body operation.

Troubles at Wayne Body were marked by a flurry of meetings and gatherings of creditors. One of the headaches was that the firm had contracted to produce production bodies for a Detroit automobile outfit (apparently Paige-Detroit) and the deal proved anything but profitable. Paige-Detroit reported that year it was having difficulty getting enough sedan bodies, so presumable this was linked with problems at Wayne Body. The body outfit had a fair-sized plant of some 240,000 square feet and it was appraised at $1,250,000.

In 1927 an announcement was made that the ailing body concern had been sold to the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co. through the intervention of the Graham brothers and their takeover of Paige-Detroit -- in fact, the forerunner of the highly successful Graham-Paige Motors Corp. a year or two later. A new body plant would fit in nicely with anticipated expansion, it was said.

Sale of the plant didn't produce solutions, though. It appears that transfer of the property failed to yield the funds which had been expected, nor did Paige-Detroit want all of Wayne Body, only the Wayne, Michigan operation. There were still the ex-American Auto Trimming plants at Cleveland and Los Angeles now grouped with Wayne Body enterprise. Reports stated these plants were mortgaged and presumably added to the dilemma.

I appears that the Gotfredson Corp. attempted to keep what was left of Wayne Body afloat by tapping the Detroit truck plant and Canadian Gotfredson for the funds. Now, while both truck production plants were doing well, they weren't doing that well.

By 1927 the Detroit Gotfredson truck plant was sagging under the strain. Then, in July of that year, it was announced that Canadian Gotfredson -- the Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd. -- would assume financial responsibility for what was left of Wayne Body. As I said earlier, Canadian Gotfredson was thriving on truck production, also the painting and trimming bodies for the Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd.

It appears to have been the undoing of the Canadian company, at least temporarily. In March of 1929, the Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd. was in receivership. Executives complained that while business was good with steady truck sales and body sub-contracting for Ford, the company couldn't meet its payroll at 110 workers because fund were tied up in the receivership tangles.

Then it was Detroit's turn. In the same month the Gotfredson Corp. (the truck plant) was involved with bankruptcy proceedings instigated by the Timken-Detroit Axle Co. and the Motor Products Corp. Events were breaking fast, unhappily so.

Reading behind the lines in all of this, it's apparent that executives of the Canadian company were incensed at what had happened. After all, Gotfredson's Canadian business was sound and making a profit. The Canadian firm was linked to U.S. Gotfredson only through corporate ties.

This set the stage for the "all Canadian" Gotfredson truck. Realizing that the business should and could be saved, Canadian executives moved to buy the company from U.S. Gotfredson interests. Apparently that's just what happened, too. In 1929 the Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd. became Truck & Parts Ltd., a Canadian-owned company.

Buildings and premises went with the deal. Truck & Parts issued advertising stating that while the firm produced Gotfredson trucks, it had no interests or affiliations with any other company bearing the same name. Regular 1929 Gotfredson models were retained in production, though there were some changes later on.

Interestingly, in the midst of these negotiations, the Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd. got an order from Studebaker of Canada Ltd. to build and supply bodies for 1929 Canadian-built Studebakers and Erskines. Who filled the order, or if it was filled, isn't known. Presumably it would have been Truck & Parts as the successor to the Gotfredson Truck Corp. Ltd. Studebaker had its Canadian plant in Windsor/Walkerville, too.

Going back across the Detroit River, what happened to Wayne Body in the end isn't known. What is known is that the Gotfredson Corporation's Detroit plant closed out 1929 with an output of just under 200 trucks. And the receivership problems appear to have been overcome, too. There was a change in names as well. In 1932, the Gotfredson Corp. became the Robert Gotfredson Truck Co.

The company was still issuing truck specs in 1930 and there were a few new models as well. In 1931 the firm announced some light duty jobs with four or six cylinder engines and prices starting at a low (for Gotfredson) $975. Then too, more new jobs were added to the firm's lineup in 1932 with a range of three, five and seven tonners. All resembled earlier Gotfredsons as the aluminum radiator was retained.

Unfortunately, back in Canada, Truck & Parts Ltd. had just got itself all nicely reorganized when the Depression set in with the 1930s. The firm had managed to build around 100 Gotfredsons during all the confusion of 1929 and looked to 1930 for better times. But it wasn't to be, at least not for a few years.

Canadian Gotfredson output slipped badly in 1930 when only some 40-odd trucks were built, though this wasn't bad compared to Mack and White's bottoming sales in Canada then, Gotfredsons best year had been 1927 when some 400 trucks were produced. The Canadian truck demand wasn't large, but it was profitable; most of the sales went to customers in Ontario.

Gotfredson always had a firm grip on the Canadian market and its trucks were very popular across the Dominion. The firm operated six or seven big branches in major Canadian cities, though this network of sales outlets was paired down somewhat with the Depression. Big Canadian brewers and oil companies liked Gotfredson's looks and the handsome aluminum radiator. So did department stores who bought many one-ton Gotfredson "Speed Trucks" in the 1920s, though the firm dropped these lighter units in 1929 or 1930.

Busses and fire trucks were profitable as well. Gotfredson busses were numerous, and there were few Canadian cities that didn't claim Gotfredson-Bickle trucks in their fire department. Bickle was a Canadian producer of fire apparatus and the firm used Gotfredson chassis for many years.

Gotfredson enjoyed some export sales, too, essentially to Great Britain. How many were sold isn't known, but the company did make an effort to develop a British market in 1928. And the Canadian Army had a few Gotfredsons as well, including an experimental tandem 6-wheeler using a Hendrickson bogie.

To indicate the interest Canadians had in Gotfredson, when Truck & Parts announced that it had taken over the Canadian production of these vehicles, several brewers and oil companies rushed to place orders for trucks demonstrating their regard for Gotfredsons and their faith in the new company. Gotfredson trucks had an added appeal in Canada now that they were "all Canadian". Of course, the fact that Buda engines, Brown-Lipe transmissions and Timken axles were imported didn't matter. The truck was seen as "more" Canadian than it had been, though this was impossible technically.

Truck & Parts got another big order for automobile bodies in 1931 with the announcement that it had a contract for 850 bodies to be supplied to an unspecified car manufacturer. The order called for bodies in batches of 100 "as warranted."

This is of interest, I think. As the Depression deepened the Canadian government raised the import duty on American-built cars. The idea was to generate more employment through Canadian assembly and manufacturing operations. Almost overnight, Packard, Hupmobile, Studebaker, Graham-Paige and one or two other firms took steps to either launch or widen Canadian assembly plant operations in the Windsor/Walkerville area. The move generated some new business for Canadian bodybuilders, at least until the market for new cars and trucks almost vanished in the depths of the Depression. For instance, Hupmobile's Canadian sales fell off to only 500-odd cars in 1931, so who needed bodies "in batches of 100?"

There was another switch in names by 1932. Truck & Parts becoming Gotfredson Trucks Ltd. Sales dipped sharply that year to only 30-odd trucks; by comparison, White sold around 70 units; while International -- always a big volume seller -- had to be content with sales of a paltry 500-odd trucks.

Gotfredson introduced a new six-ton tandem in 1932, certainly a novelty for the times. The job used a very early version of the Thornton tandem. This would be a very popular bogie in a few years for the conversion of Fords and Chevys to tandems or six-wheelers. But Gotfredson had it first. The company sent the new unit on a 2,500 mile jaunt around Eastern Canada to drum up sales. It was also demonstrated to the Canadian Army, but without success.

The penny-pinched Canadian Army was buying a few new trucks around then, though one can't imagine where the funds came from with Depression budgets. In any event, the Army needed some trucks. But instead of Gotfredsons -- or GMC tandems for that matter, since GMC was hot after the same order -- the Canadian Army bought British-built Leyland six-wheelers.

It is not known how many Gotfredson tandems were built in 1932 (perhaps into 1934). Shell Oil bought a few. They were good looking units with such advanced features as veed, two-piece windshields and "streamlined," or at least, rounded and somewhat curved cabs. Specs were the same as ever, typically Buda Engines, Timken axles and Brown-Lipe transmissions. For all of this, the trucks still carried big polished aluminum radiators.

Gotfredson Trucks Ltd. of Canada made a surprising move in 1933. The firm took on the distribution of Diamond T trucks for Eastern Canada, while plans were advanced for Canadian assembly as well. This didn't develop, although Gotfredson branches promptly offered Diamond T's. It couldn't have been overly profitable; less than 20 Diamond T's were sold in Eastern Canada in 1933.

Gotfredson stated that Diamond T would be handled in addition to the production of its own trucks. Available data indicates that 13 trucks were sold during the first five months of 1933 and more may have been built as the firm still listed itself as a truck manufacturer in annual reports as late as 1935. It seems unlikely that these would have been old or unsold trucks as Gotfredsons in the 1930's were custom-built and no longer a production job.

Around 1934, Gotfredson received some large contracts from the Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. for truck cabs, also for a variety of stake and rack bodies. Later the firm was asked to trim and finish convertible coupe bodies for Ford, and also build station wagon bodies, it's believed.

Gotfredson's links with Ford of Canada were certainly very close and the firm was identified within Ford as being capable of doing anything that Ford didn't care to undertake in its own plants. Apparently Gotfredson also produced packing cases and crates needed to export Ford cars and trucks to world markets. In 1938 Gotfredson Trucks Ltd. took on yet another new name, now Gotfredson Ltd.

What happened after really isn't part of our story as it doesn't concern trucks and an earlier era. Essentially, Gotfredson flourished on Ford subcontracts for a variety of needs. In particular, the firm supplied Ford with thousands of cabs and bodies for military vehicles during the war years. Then after the war it was back to Ford cabs and truck bodies, also convertibles. And by then Gotfredson Ltd. had expanded into Studebaker of Canada's old Windsor assembly plant.

By the 1960's, all traces of Gotfredson Ltd., Windsor, had disappeared when Ford purchased the buildings and property to merge with its own. But vestiges of Gotfredson Ltd. survived elsewhere and well into the 1970's, only to be acquired by American Motors of Canada Ltd. as A.M.C.'s upholstery and trim plant. What was happening in Detroit during all the shifts and the changes that marked Canadian Gotfredson? The Robert Gotfredson Truck Co. survived the worst years of the crash and never did shut down completely, though activity was certainly at a low ebb at times. A few trucks were built, never more than in ones and twos.

In 1932 or 1933 the firm made an advantageous move by acquiring the Michigan distribution rights for Cummins diesel engines. A new subsidiary was formed, Diesel Sales of Michigan. A service depot was set up in the Gratiot Avenue plant, functioning along side what truck production there was.

As legend has it, the company had trouble in getting the payments for some of the trucks sold in the Depression to transport operators. In one instance Gotfredson had to take over and run a firm to get its money. The truck line prospered, so Gotfredson bought a few more to build up a network of connecting routes in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

This laid the foundation for Transamerican Freight Lines. By the mid-1930s the firm was one of the largest transport companies in the Eastern United States. The early saw many Gotfredson trucks entering Transamerican service, since the latter was an affiliate. And they were diesel-powered, too, with Cummins engines supplied through the other affiliate, Diesel Sales of Michigan. Some of the earliest diesel-powered trucks on American roads were Gotfredsons.

These trucks were needed in some numbers during Transamerican's formative years, namely 1932 and 1933 when Gotfredsons were supplied in batches of 10 and 20 trucks at a time. Some of these jobs used the traditional Gotfredson cast aluminum radiator, while other employed plated and slightly veed radiator shells.

In 1936, Gotfredson adopted GMC cabs for its trucks. These were ultra custom heavy duty vehicles produced in very small numbers, no more than five or six a year and all for Detroit area customers. At the time, if a truck operator wanted a diesel-powered job, he had to go to a custom producer like Gotfredson to get it. Major truck manufacturers didn't build diesels and left what little business there was in this line to specialty and custom truck outfits.

Gotfredsons were big trucks then, far larger than the firm had built earlier. In 1940, Gotfredson's RW146 was offered in gross combination weights up to 100,000 pounds. The job was powered by a 150 hp Cummins HB-600, used in conjunction with a 5 speed Brown-Lipe transmission and a Timken worm-gear axle. As ever, the frame was assembled with ship channel side rails, in fact premium nickel steel. Drive was by radius rods.

The company continued to build these custom jobs in very small quantities until 1946 when production ended, though it's believed a few were built afterwards, too. And as of 1946, the Robert Gotfredson Truck Co. and Diesel Sales of Michigan occupied only a small part of the former Gratiot Avenue "horse market." The emphasis had changed as well -- now it was on Cummins engines, not the trucks that had carried the "Big G" for so many years on both sides of the border.

Š 1977 Rolland Jerry - Old Cars August 9, 1977

For more information please read:

Rolland Jerry - Gotfredson - Old Cars August 9, 1977

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Car

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Era

Beverly Rae Kimes - Packard: A History of the Motorcar and Company

Beverly Rae Kimes & Henry Austin Clark Jr. - Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942

Richard Burns Carson - The Olympian Cars

Raymond A. Katzell - The Splendid Stutz

Marc Ralston - Pierce Arrow

Brooks T. Brierley - There Is No Mistaking a Pierce Arrow

Brooks T. Brierley - Auburn, Reo, Franklin and Pierce-Arrow Versus Cadillac, Chrysler, Lincoln and Packard