Buckboard (automobile)

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Front view of an Orient Runabout Buckboard with simple steering and suspension (1904). The manufacturer advertised it as “the cheapest car in the world”.
Rear view of an Orient Runabout Buckboard with in-house single-cylinder petrol engine and without rear axle suspension.
Waltham Orient Runabout Buckboard (1906) with storage compartment in the bow.
Briggs & Stratton petrol engine buckboard on 5th wheel (1920). The vehicle is the successor to the Smith Flyer

A buckboard is the term used to describe primitive, four-wheeled motor vehicles for one or two people, which appeared around 1900 and flourished briefly until around 1910. As a toy and fun vehicle, they survived until the 1960s.

definition

Buckboards are originally older than cyclecars , but with their simple construction they anticipated elements of these. They are structured even more simply than this and are sometimes also viewed as a sub-form of them. Once motorcycle technology was available, it was also used.

technology

The name "Buckboard" is derived from their construction. It consists of a frame made of wood or, more rarely, of tubular steel. In a simple board (ger .:'s Board ) or a slat mounted on the turn of or the seats are mounted.

These light vehicles, which are usually designed for one or two people and have a very simple design, do not have a real body ; occasionally it is at least partially present. Early buckboards had a “cow tail” steering lever , later steering wheels were used. They have minimal suspension; analogous to some early motorcycles, often none at all. They are usually powered by an electric or more often gasoline engine. This was usually an air-cooled single cylinder , more rarely a twin . Two forms of power transmission are most common: one has the engine mounted in the rear and drives one of the rear wheels; this way no differential is needed. In the other, the power source is located directly on a fifth wheel, which is attached to a lowerable boom and in turn provides propulsion.

history

Well-known buckboards were the Orient resp. Waltham Orient of the bicycle manufacturer, motorcycle pioneer and later car maker Waltham Manufacturing Company in Waltham (Massachusetts) and the Smith Flyer presented in 1914 by the AO Smith Corporation in Milwaukee (Wisconsin); this durable vehicle was produced under various names and also with electric drive until the 1920s. A vehicle called just a Buckboard , which Harry S. Moore brought onto the market in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904 , only survived for a year.

After the Second World War , buckboards experienced a brief rebirth as play equipment for children and adolescents , especially in the USA . Representatives of this type were the Auto Cub, which was only built in 1956 and the Daytona derived from it , the Custer (built by a wheelchair manufacturer in Dayton (Ohio) ) or the Banner Boy Buckboard for US $ 399.50 from Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Gardner (Kansas) ) .

A more elaborately built version of a buckboard was the Bruce Buckboard and the American Buckboard , the latter built from 1955 to 1956 in Los Angeles (California). The vehicle with a roadster body made of GRP was hopelessly overpriced at US $ 3000; the cheapest Chevrolet had a list price of US $ 1726 in 1955. As a Bearcat for US $ 1000, the vehicle was just as unsuccessful as the Custer from Dayton (Ohio), which cost US $ 695 and was also available with an electric drive.

Manufacturer (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Kimes: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975 (1996), p. 1359
  2. ^ Kimes: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975 (1996), p. 157
  3. ^ Gunnell: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975, p. 819
  4. ^ Gunnell: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975, p. 805
  5. ↑ trombinoscar.com: McDonough Buckboard / Banner Boy (1960)
  6. ^ Gunnell: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975, p. 164
  7. ^ Gunnell: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975, p. 817

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Editor), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI (1996), ISBN 978-0-87341-428-9 ISBN 0-87341-428-4 . (English)
  • John Gunnell (Editor): Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946–1975. 4th revised edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI (2002), ISBN 0-87349-461-X (English, CD-Rom / PDF)
  • GN Georgano (Ed.): 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: 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 (hardcover). (English)
  • James J. Flink: America Adopts the Automobile - 1895-1910 , MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), 1970. ISBN 0-262-06036-1 (hardcover). (English)
  • Richard v. Frankenberg / Marco Matteucci: History of the Automobile (1973), Sigloch Service Edition / STIG Torino; without ISBN
  • Hans-Otto Neubauer (Ed.): Chronik des Automobils (1994), Chronik Verlag in Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich; ISBN 3-570-14338-4
  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader: The great automobile encyclopedia. 100 years of history. 2500 brands from 65 countries , 2nd edition (1992); BLV Buchverlag Munich, Vienna and Zurich; ISBN 3-405-12974-5 ; ISBN 978-3-405-12974-3 , hardcover

Web links

Commons : Buckboards with motor  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files