| Already well known for their automobiles, it was not until 1911 that
Peerless entered the commercial vehicle field with a line of large trucks ranging from 3 to 6 tons. Within the year
they began producing funeral vehicles and ambulances as well. They were built on the Model 60 six-cylinder chassis
which featured a nice professional-car-length 140" wheelbase. A new 137" chassis appeared in 1914 and was used until
1915.
Peerless also offered a cheaper line of casket cars and service vheicles based on their 4-cylinder Model 40
chassis with a 125" wheelbase between 1912 and 1914. In 1915 the six-cylinder Model 38 (125" wheelbase) and Model 48
(137' wheelbase) replaced the 4 cylinder models.
Funeral cars were only offered from 1912 through 1915, and the numbers that were built are very small. Commercial
vehicle production ceased in 1918, and the firm folded within two years of the 1929 stock market crash.
The company, once renown as one of the three P's - Packard, Pierce and Peerless, the standards in luxury
automobiles - was founded in 1900 and ceased production in 1932 as the Great Depression deepened.
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Peerless. This is one of those firms that just changed its business
efforts to a new venture when the stock market crashed. An article many
years ago in SPECIAL INTEREST AUTOS on Peerless explained the change, and it
involved being licensed as the importer of Red Cap Ale from Canada. My
description is too brief to get the right picture of what transpired,
though, so that article is worth finding and reading for
the facts. BDW
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