Marmon-Herrington
Marmon-Herrington ( MH or MH for short ) is an American manufacturer of commercial vehicles that specializes in the conversion of commercial trucks from other manufacturers such as Ford and GMC to all-wheel drive . The company used to be one of the major US manufacturers of medium and heavy trucks, buses and trolleybuses . Marmon-Herrington was best known for its military vehicles , which had a reputation for great reliability.
history
The beginnings
The company was founded as the Marmon-Herrington Company in 1931 by industrialists Walter C. Marmon and Arthur W. Herrington in Indianapolis ( Indiana ). The new company initially concentrated on the construction of mostly larger trucks with all-wheel drive, after the original Marmon Motor Car Company owned by Walter C. Marmon had to close due to the sharp decline in sales due to the Great Depression from 1929.
1930s
The Marmon-Herrington company got off to an extremely successful start, as it received numerous orders from the US Army and other armed forces in addition to the first commercial orders for commercial vehicles . Were subsequently produced Airfield - tankers (33 Low T-14 -Fahrgestell), four-wheel chassis ( 4x4 ) as tractors for light artillery and light guns This was followed by various types of 4x4 and 6x6 trucks for the US of various sorts. -american and Persian armies, which were used as trucks, workshop vehicles, tow trucks and balloon winches. The largest civilian orders included large tank trucks for commercial aviation .
Marmon-Herrington received a very large order from what was then the Kingdom of Iraq when the Iraqi Pipeline Company ordered a large number of the largest truck model manufactured to date, almost naturally with all-wheel drive. In addition to large civil and military vehicles, the management also added smaller and therefore more affordable all-wheel-drive commercial vehicles to its range, when the growing demand revealed a growing market potential. MH then specialized in the conversion of trucks from Dodge , Ford, Chevrolet , GMC and International . The program thus comprised trucks with a payload of between 1½ and 20 tons .
1940s
The first half of the 1940s was marked by the Second World War , but due to the neutrality of the USA until 1941, the manufacture of military vehicles and the corresponding technical components for them ( drive trains , gearboxes , transfer cases , all-wheel drive systems , conversion kits , etc.) was mainly commissioned of Great Britain and allied states of the Commonwealth such as u. a. South Africa .
The Marmon-Herrington armored car of the series II, which initially appeared in North Africa with the British and South African troops and was considered to be very reliable, became particularly well known , so that the German Africa Corps and later the German Wehrmacht every captured vehicle in the other theaters of war in Europe , which they could get hold of, continued to use it themselves.
During the period of the Second World War, in which the USA was directly involved, Marmon-Herrington built 4x4 forward control trucks on an Autocar basis, 4x2 tractors with short hoods on an international basis, 8-wheel armored cars , half-track vehicles of the M3 type and snow plows .
Shortly after the end of the war in 1945, Marmon-Herrington expanded its activities into new business areas and successfully started manufacturing delivery vans called Deliver-All . These were years ahead of their time with a front-link body, front-wheel drive and particularly spacious cargo space.
1950s
After the war, the ordinary business again ran successfully and Marmon-Herrington presented in 1950 also buses and coaches ago, after it was acquired the appropriate division of Ford Motor Company, while their trolleybuses on since the late 1930s, public transport operators many Cities in North America were successfully deployed.
During the early 1950s, the Canadian company Welles Corporation Ltd. from Windsor (Ontario) various Marmon-Herrington-Omnibuses under license (the corresponding vehicles were called WMH Motor Coaches or Wells-Marmon-Herrington coaches ). With the substantial profits the company was able to generate, the company's management decided to expand into North America and later bought the Canadian plant.
The production of trolleybuses in Indianapolis ended in 1959 with one last delivery for Brazil , after this market had become smaller and smaller due to a lack of demand. Bus production ended in Windsor in 1961 with the delivery of three school bus chassis.
1960s
In 1963 the Pritzker family from Chicago bought the company, whereupon the focus on the production of complete vehicles increasingly dwindled. The corresponding self-developed truck models were sold to a newly founded company, which sold them under the brand name Marmon , the company itself was converted into a holding company and divided into sub-areas. Another new business area was found in the manufacture of machines for metalworking .
1970s
From 1973 the company traded as Marmon Transmotive and moved to a new location in Louisville, Kentucky .
Situation today
The Marmon-Herrington company still exists today, but is only active as a retrofit from commercial trucks to corresponding vehicles with all-wheel drive - just like Marmon-Herrington once began. In addition, Marmon-Herrington, whose products are marketed under the new name Marmon Transmotive , became a major manufacturer of commercial vehicle drive axles and drives for the medium and heavy truck market. Thus, Marmon-Herrington axles can be found on the latest commercial and military truck models, as well as other military vehicles.
Operator of MH buses & trolleybuses
Note : These are historical operators, as the company has not produced such vehicles for a long time.
Canada
United States
Web links
- Official website of Marmon-Herrington (English)
- CoachBuilt (English)
- Trolleybus pictures from North America (English)