Monday, June 13, 2016

1918 15-ton Couple-Gear gas-electric powered tractor-truck by the Couple-Gear Freight Wheel Company of Grand Rapids.


the middle guy above, seems to be in the drivers seat below


From 1918 to at least 1922 Fageol designed trucks to replace the mule trains that were then hauling ore out of the mines of the American Manganese Products Company in California. They experimented with different combinations of axles and drivetrains, including the Couple-Gear chassis, which appears to have been the largest. In the end they settled on a Fageol designed six-wheel-drive 10-ton truck towing two 5-ton trailers, built by the obscure Rogers-Unit Drive Corporation.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/20990  and   http://www.shorpy.com/node/21034
thanks Steve

2 comments:

  1. Couple Gear built a special version of their four wheel drive, four wheel steered electric trucks for the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory in about 1906. It used a Fairbanks-Morse four cylinder gas engine/generator aboard to replace the batteries, as getting all the way up the Mountain from Pasadena,Ca wasn't possible with the batteries of the era.

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    1. Wow... how in the world did you know that?

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