Monday, August 01, 2022

pioneers in 6 wheel drive?


2 comments:

  1. From an issue of the magazine "Iron Age" in 1928 I found the following information. The issue is not in the public domain yet, so I can't read the whole article. Other articles indicate the company existed until at least 1932.

    "F. & F. Six Wheel Co., 220 East Market Street, Los Angeles, has been formed to manufacture six wheel frame extensions for trucks , particularly applicable to Ford models. Work is being done under contract and manufacturing is being ...."

    So perhaps this was something like the old Smith Form-A-Truck that turned a Ford Model T into a truck chassis except here it extended the chassis with dual axles? The company may also have been formed because of the changes to California vehicle registration fees that were implemented in 1928 (effective in 1929) that made no distinction in some registration categories whether or not the vehicle had four or six wheels.

    There was at least one other company in the Los Angeles area making these extensions. The magazine "The Motor Truck" in the January 1927 issue had the following short item.

    "Six Wheels, Inc., 1229-33 Santa-Fe avenue, Los Angeles, Cal., has been appointed distributor for Heil hoists in Southern California. Six Wheels, Inc., manufactures an attachment for converting motor trucks into six-wheeled units."

    Six Wheels was around until at least the late 1960s. The June 1943 Popular Science had a feature on them on page 73.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wow, thanks for the research! It's much appreciated!

      Delete