FRUEHAUF SEMI-TRAILERS EARLY IMPORTS

HI ALL,
YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED I AM RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF THE McGRATH TRAILERS, AND MY INVESTIGATIONS HAVE UNCOVERED A LINK TO THE FRUEHAUF COMPANY.
THE FRUEHAUF BLACKSMITH BUSINESS WAS STARTED BY AUGUST FRUEHAUF IN 1882 AND IN 1914 HE WAS ASKED TO BUILD A CONTRAPTION TO HOOK UP TO A T-MODEL FORD TO HAUL A BOAT, THE BLACKSMITHS BUILT A STURDY TWO WHEELER, CONECTED BY A LONG POLE THAT ACTED AS A CONECTION AND A BRAKE AND CALLED IT A TRAILER. THE NEXT TRAILER BUILT WAS A PLATFORM TRAILER FOR CARTING SAWN TIMBER, FRUEHAUF TRAILERS WAS NOW ESTABLISHED AS ADDITIONAL ORDERS BEGAN WITH A RUSH.
ON FEBRUARY 27th 1918 THE FRUEHAUF TRAILER COMPANY WAS INCORPORATED.
IN 1929, JUST AS J.J. McGRATH WAS OPENING HIS TRAILER BUILDING COMPANY, FRUEHAUF TRAILER SALES EXCEEDED $ 3,759,000.
ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COMPANY AND / OR IT'S TRAILERS WOULD BE VERY INTERESTING.
REGARDS BILL

PS. SEE McGRATH TRAILERS TOPIC

g'day HORNSBY .. my guess is fruehauf, being an american company, possibly fell in a great big hole with the onset of the great depression and more than likely, sold their australian interests to jj mcgrath, in or around that era...

Very interesting, sounds like you have quite a bit of research to do Bill?
Regards Billy

I have a quite early model Fruehauf .Strap trailer single axle 33 foot .the ID plate reads Fruehauf Australia Model ST1 chassis no 10021.I can't get a build date for it as access to early Fruehaufs seem hard to trace.It is currently on red permit plates.I would like to believe it may have been production number 21,as indicated by the chassis no. steveb

I had a new Freuhauf trailer built to my specifications in Melbourne in 1965.

If McGrath had a connection to them at that time it was not obvious or well known and they were considered competing companies.

Freuhauf were exponents of beam trailers long before most of the rest had changed from strap and other construction. The reason I bought it at a dearer price than a Freighter or McGrath etc was not only the reputation as an upmarket product but I really liked the clean lines and nice wide specially rolled side rails.

The others' side rails looked like they had just ordered an off-the-rack general purpose rolled beam from BHP and always looked a bit "home made" to my eyes.

Suppose most of the undercarriage was pretty much standard right across the industry.

Suppose most of the undercarriage was pretty much standard right across the industry.

Fruehauf were the only ones who used Propar axles ans suspension. The Propar axles also used to be square and all the others were round.

They also built their own Axle, (Heavy I beam)



More Here........

www.hcvc.com.au/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1342143790

G'day Hornsby Akroyd, I've recently purchased a Fruehauf Trailer and I am keen to find out as much as I can about it and Fruehauf Trailers. here is the trailer.

This trailer has what I believe to be a rare air/mechanical adjustable sliding suspension and i would like to find any information relating to it. The trailer model number is PH36L2AW and the serial number is 25488 but there is no date of manufacture, pic of suspension below.
I was also wondering if you had discovered any more info about Fruehauf, Thanks Debo.

Whilst surfing the net last night I stumbled on some info on the ATHS site (in America) and discovered that in the states Fruehauf trailer model numbers had prefixes that identified the location of manufacture, for example AV was Avon Lake and MI for Milwalkie. I wonder does anyone know where Fruehauf were made in Australia and does the prefix PH relate to where it was built?
Debo.

Fruehauf had a place out near Campbellfield where the built the trailers. They were taken from their to the main workshop on the corner of Footscray Road and Appleton Dock road for final fit out and pre-delivery. I worked for them there for about 6 months before I started at Kenworths just down the road.