Bethlehem Motor Truck Company

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Bethlehem Motor Truck Company
legal form Corporation
founding 1917
resolution 1927
Reason for dissolution takeover
Seat Allentown , Lehigh County , Pennsylvania ( USA )
management HF Harris
Branch Commercial vehicle and tractor manufacturers

Bethlehem Motors Corp. of October 29, 1920

The Bethlehem Motor Truck Company (also Bethlehem Motors Corporation ) in Allentown, Pennsylvania was an American manufacturer of commercial vehicles - tractors - and engines . An Ideal brand passenger car was only built in 1920 . In 1927 the company was taken over by the competitor Hahn Motor Truck Company , which then operated from here.

The first commercial vehicles from Bethlehem Motors Corporation appeared in 1917. These vehicles, called Model 1 and 2 or A1 and B1 , were vans and light trucks with bought-in motors and cardan drives . The chassis prices were US $ 1245 and US $ 1775.

Liberty Truck

Liberty Truck (ca.1918). The rear double wheels have a 3-ton Liberty Standard B out

At the end of this year, the United States entered the First World War one. Bethlehem joined the government's Liberty Truck program . This envisaged the construction of a military truck according to exact specifications. 15 commercial vehicle manufacturers and dozens of suppliers ensured that the practically non-motorized armed forces of the USA received a standard truck in the shortest possible time, and the logistics for the army were much easier. The Liberty was finally launched in four versions with 0.75 to 5 tons of payload , the three-ton Liberty Standard B being by far the most built. It can be assumed that Bethlehem also made this model. In any case, the number of items produced here is likely to have been a few hundred. Most Liberty trucks were built by the Peerless Motor Car Corporation .

post war period

Like all US truck manufacturers, Bethlehem was faced with a completely different market after the war. Government contracts were missing - ongoing ones were even canceled - and the market was flooded with well-maintained commercial vehicles from army surplus in the common classes of 3 to 5 tons payload. The worst was even prevented by lobbying to get the American Expeditionary Forces to sell the vehicles they no longer need in Europe instead of returning them. As a result, the demand for new vehicles both in the USA and exports collapsed and there was an initial concentration in the industry. Many small, often only regionally active commercial vehicle manufacturers (such as Bethlehem was one) merged, were taken over or gave up. Car manufacturers with a commercial vehicle department decided to exit (such as Packard ) or now had third-party production (such as Pierce-Arrow ). At White , they went the opposite way and gave up car manufacturing to concentrate on commercial vehicles.

Bethlehem advertisement from 1920 with 1½ tn, 2½ tn, and 3½ tn trucks.

Bethlehem focused on expansion. From 1918 a tractor type 18-36 with a four-cylinder engine was also manufactured by Beaver , which was delivered without a fender for price reasons.

In 1919 Bethlehem's annual output was already 3,500 vehicles; Chassis with 1½ tn, 2½ tn and 3½ tn payload were available at US $ 1865.-, 2365.- respectively. 3465.-. The ambitious plan for 1920 envisaged an annual production of 20,000 units. In addition, the North American Motors Company in Pottstown (Pennsylvania) was bought from one of its suppliers. The company now had two plants, had four rows of trucks with 1 to 4 tons in its program and also introduced a bus .

The managing director at the time was the engineer and experienced automotive manager HF Harris , who had gained experience with the short-lived Everitt and then worked for Studebaker and Overland . Prior to his appointment to Bethlehem , he was a sales director for the Republic Truck Company.

Ideal passenger car

The difficult market situation may have been the reason why Bethlehem developed a car only for export, despite tense finances. The vehicle, which was only available as a four-seater "sporting type" ( torpedo ), received an in-house four-cylinder engine with 40 bhp output - probably from the production taken over by North American - and a rear axle from Timken .

As a small manufacturer, Bethlehem was forced to buy many additional components ( assembling ). Accordingly, with the exception of the engine, the ideal was a typical assembled car . There were many manufacturers in both the passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors who assembled rather than constructed vehicles in this way. It worked better for trucks and buses, but few automakers (such as Cole ) had sustained success with this method. The quality of the end product did not only depend on that of the purchased components, but also on how carefully they were matched to one another. In addition, due to additional profit margins and often long transport routes , these components reduced the price competitiveness of the finished vehicle. In the case of the Ideal , an already high price of US $ 3000 made things more difficult, with which it was clearly located in the luxury class. This, in turn, was already hard-fought by long-established brands. In addition, after the First World War, large-volume four-cylinder engines quickly went out of fashion, as relevant European manufacturers (such as Bentley , Panhard & Levassor , Delaugère & Clayette , De Dion-Bouton or Voisin ) had to determine. Ultimately, only a few are likely Ideal have originated.

Bankruptcy and a fresh start

The ambitious plans did not work out, and at the end of 1920, Bethlehem filed for bankruptcy. New management was the first to stop the Ideal project and sell the last of these vehicles over the counter - for less than US $ 1,000 each.

The restart was on a much smaller scale. In 1923 a new series called Airline with a payload of 1 to 4 tons was introduced. The model name refers to the standard pneumatic tires, which were not a matter of course at the time. In 1924 only 42 trucks were built. Nevertheless, production continued until 1926. Then there were takeover negotiations with WG Hahn & Brothers Company , manufacturer of the Hahn truck in Hamburg (Pennsylvania) . Bethlehem took over in January 1927. The brand was discontinued and Hahn set up the new headquarters in the former Bethlehem premises. In the same year, probably after the takeover by Hahn, Bethlehem merged with the Lehigh Company , a small commercial vehicle manufacturer that manufactured a truck with a 2 ton payload in Allentown from 1925 to 1927.

There were several US manufacturers of Ideal branded passenger vehicles : Ideal Automobile Manufacturing Company , Richmond & Holmes Company , B. & P. ​​Company , Ideal Motor Vehicle Company , Ideal Runabout Manufacturing Company , Bethlehem Automobile Company , Ideal Electric Vehicle Company , Ideal Shop and Bethlehem Motor Truck Company.

Commercial vehicle models (selection)

Remarks

NACC rating 1916-1917.
  1. ↑ The NACC rating was a predecessor formula for SAE-PS . The NACC ( National Automobile Chamber of Commerce ) was an association of the automotive industry founded in 1913 and the successor to the ALAM ( Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers ), which was the first to introduce this standard in the US automotive industry in 1903. The formula thus corresponds exactly to the NACC formula, even if the representation in the table has been changed. The benefit is calculated; Cylinder bore ² × number of cylinders; the result is divided by 2.5. From this formula SAE-PS were later developed and it is also the basis of the British tax-PS at that time.

literature

  • George Nick Georgano (Editor), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles ; MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI (1979), ISBN 0-87341-024-6 . (English)
  • GN Georgano (Editor): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present ; Dutton Press, New York, 2nd edition (hardcover) 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 . (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Editor), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 . (English)
  • Frank E. Wismer III: An Inkling of Brewster: Brewster and Company Automobiles and the Wealthy Who Owned Them. Xlibris, 2012, Kindle Edition (file size: 3211 kB). (English)
  • Albert Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1996, ISBN 0-87341-368-7 . (English)
  • Albert Mroz: American Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles of World War I: Illustrated Histories of 224 Manufacturers. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson NC, 2009, ISBN 0-78643-967-X . (English)
  • CH Wendel: Standard Catalog of Farm Tractors 1890-1980 ; Krause Publications, Iola WI, 2005, ISBN 0-87349-726-0 (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Published by SAE ( Society of Automotive Engineers ) Permissions, Warrendale PA, 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X . (English)
  • Tad Burness: American Car Spotter's Guide, 1920-1939 ; Motorbooks International, ISBN 0-87938-026-8 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Bethlehem Motor Truck Company  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikibooks: Tractor Lexicon: Bethlehem  - Learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Georgano, Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. 1979, p. 83.
  2. ^ Mroz: American Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles of World War I. 2009, p. 29.
  3. ↑ Wendel: Standard Catalog of Farm Tractors 1890-1980. 2005, p. 111.
  4. ↑ a b c d trombinoscar.com: Bethlehem and Hahn.
  5. ↑ Bethlehem advertisement from 1919
  6. ↑ Wismer: An Inkling of Brewster (2012), p 53rd
  7. ^ A b c Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 (1996), p. 762.
  8. ^ Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. 1996, p. 245