Coachbult.com - Dearborn - Transportation Engineers of Detroit



Dearborn - Dearborn Line - Brooks Line - Vanette Inc. - Transportation Engineers Inc. - 1930s-1970s- Highland Park, Michigan

Transportation Engineers of Detroit (aka Dearborn - aka Brooks). In 1935 Ford introduced their Dearborn-Ford line of steel COE cabs with bodywork done by Transportation Engineers of Highland Park, Michigan. - Owned by the Brooks family?

Transportation Engineers started with a stock 157" Ford Model 51 chassis and relocated the steering column as well as the brake pedals and transmission linkage. Early Dearborns utilized the stock Ford front fenders, grill, and headlamps, but by the end of the thirties, Dearborn was using their own distinctive bodywork, and buying drivetrain-only chassis from Ford.

Many Dearborn COE's featured attractive bodies designed to exploit the advantages of the COE design, while others were not so attractive, but no doubt just as useful to their owners.

While most Dearborn's were COE's built on medium to heavy duty Ford chassis, they also built a walk-in route delivery truck based on a Ford 1/2 and 1 ton chassis. Aimed at Dairies and other multi-stop vehicle customers, the van featured a Ford flathead V8 mounted on a 112" wheelbase chassis modified for forward control operation.

Dearborn's homely full-size cabs were redesigned in 1937 and featured a marginally more attractive forward-tilting hood assembly incorporating Ford's 1937 fencing mask truck grill.

(In his Ford Trucks Since 1905, Wagner claims the 1938 COEs were built by Ford and not an outside supplier, the 1937 COE's were probably still built by Montpelier)

The front-ends of 1938 COE's were noticeably better-looking than the 1937's and incorporated Ford's new 1938 truck grill placed in the center of totally new new sheet metal on a much wider, redesigned cab. The new 1938 COE Ford was available as a drive-away chassis, a standard cab and chassis or outfitted with a five-man crew cab.

Dearborn's 1938-1939 1-ton multi-stop delivery vehicles featured the new Zephyr-style headlights and grill found on Ford's 1937-38 passenger cars. United Parcel Service (UPS) ordered a number of these small delivery vehicles on 1-ton frames. Regular headlights were still available from 1938-1939 on the budget-priced 1/2 ton chassis.

Available from late 1939 through the 1940s was the Dearborn Van Ette. This new forward-control delivery vehicle superseded the multi-stop van first offered in 1935-36. It included a new center-split horizontally-slatted front grill plus the oval Ford-sourced headlights introduced in 1938. Although it utilized a 1-ton Ford chassis, it looked very much like the Metropolitan-International step-vans produced from the 1930s through the 1960s.

A Van Ette Junior shared the regular Van Ette body but was built on a lighter-duty 3/4 ton Ford chassis.

Dearborn also built a short-wheelbase route delivery vehicle that was designed for a 122" Ford 1-ton cowl and chassis that was shortened by 10" to 112". Called the Easy-Route Milk Truck, the compact truck could carry 42 cases of milk bottles, a day's payload for a typical dairyman.

By late 1941, Transportation Engineers were now calling the Van Ette the Brooks Vanette. Models included the 1-ton Vanette Senior and the 3/4 ton Vanette Junior, both available on either a 122" or 103" Ford forward-control chassis. The Easy Route was now called the Brooks EZ-Route and built using Ford's 1-ton cowl and chassis. A new model, the super-sized Wholesaler, was added in 1942, but saw limited production.

Vanette production halted during the War, but started up again in the fall of 1945, although on a limited basis as supplies and raw materials were in short supply.

Formerly known as Dearborn, Brooks and Transportation Engineers, the post-war firm changed its name to Vanette Inc. sometime during 1945-46 to better reflect it Vanette product line. 1946 Vanettes were available in all the pre-war varieties including the new Wholesaler body and featured a new, much more attractive front end on the Vanette Senior models. Some large municipalities such as Cleveland, Ohio used modified Vanette ambulances in their Police and Fire Rescue departments.

1949-50 Ford F-3 and F-5 Parcel Delivery vehicles featured a Vanette-sourced body which incorporated the front-end Ford introduced in 1948.

1951 Vanette's featured the brand-new 1951 Ford truck full-width grill and headlight assembly. 1953 Vanette's included the 1953 grills and headlights introduced on Ford trucks in 1953.

Mr Softee Ice Cream trucks of the late 50s and early60s appear to have utilized Vanette front ends and may have been built by the firm.

1965 Vanettes no longer featured the distinctive full-width Ford grills found on earlier models. Vanettes now used a horizontal louvered radiator opening flanked by single headlights mounted above the turn signals.

xxxxxxx

(ad in July 15, 1920 CCJ pp300)

Gravity Dump Bodies manufactured under the Winsor patents.

Transportation Equipment Co. 1685 Gratiot Ave. Detroit, Michigan

"Transportation Engineers & Manufacturers". Could be the same company, Gratiot Ave. is relatively near Highland Park.

For more information please read:

G.N. Georgano & G. Marshall Naul - The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles

Albert Mroz - Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks & Commercial Vehicles

Denis Miller - The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trucks and Buses

Tad Burness - American Truck Spotter's Guide, 1920-1970

Tad Burness - American Truck & Bus Spotter's Guide, 1920-1985

Robert M Roll - American trucking: A seventy-five year odyssey