Fruehauf Trailer Corporation
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A 1946 Fruehauf semi-trailer (mated to a 1952 Federal 45M truck tractor) on display at the Henry Ford Museum in 2012.
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| Industry | Semi-trailer manufacturing, defense industry |
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| Fate | Acquired by Wabash National |
| Founded |
Detroit, Michigan, U.S. February 27, 1918 |
| Founder | August Charles Fruehauf |
| Website | www |
Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, previously Fruehauf Trailer Company (1918–1963) and Fruehauf Corporation (1963–1989), was an American company engaged in the manufacture and sale of truck trailers, and other machinery and equipment, with headquarters located in Detroit, Michigan. It was founded in 1918 in Detroit, after August Fruehauf created the semi-trailer and launched a new industry. The Fruehauf trailer company introduced revolutionary inventions to trucking and transportation with hydraulic dump trailers, bulk tanker trailers, and automatic fifth wheel coupling among their over one thousand patents, including the shipping container in 1956. Expanding across the country, Fruehauf had 16 plants and over 80 distributorships for parts and service. Globally, the company expanded into Europe, South America and Asia. Following a proxy battle in the late 1980s the company filed for bankrupt protection in 1997. International divisions became independent, U.S. subsidiaries like Kelsey Hayes, Pro-Par, Budd Wheels and Hobbs were sold; Wabash National acquired the crippled company in 1997.
The company's founder, August Charles Fruehauf (1868–1930), was born in Fraser, Michigan, the son of Charles and Sophia Fruehauf. He began his career as a Detroit-area blacksmith and carriage builder. In 1914, a local businessman named Frederic M. Sibley asked Fruehauf to build a trailer which could be towed behind a Ford Model T and transport a boat to upper Michigan. Fruehauf successfully built the device, and Sibley requested he build additional trailers for use on his lumber yard. Fruehauf would call them "semi-trailers", and his product proved popular. In 1918, he incorporated his business as the Fruehauf Trailer Company.
The semi-trailers soon demonstrated their practicality and orders came in from competing lumber dealers and any manufacturer who wanted to expand their customer base. Closed van trailers were designed and put into service. Industries like dairy and fuel oil were revolutionized with this "go-anywhere" type of transportation. Capitalizing on August Fruehauf's slogan, "a horse can pull more than it can carry, so can a truck", the company continued to grow.
Fruehauf developed semi-trailers for use in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. Developing over 150 patents for military products alone, these were eventually introduced into commercial use. Among them were early versions of the shipping container used on some U.S. railroads and, after 1956, on the ships of Pan-Atlantic Steamship Co., the ship line controlled by container pioneer Malcom McLean and later known as Sea-Land. Fruehauf contributed to the creation of the American Trucking Association and were instrumental in the creation of the interstate highway system as advisors to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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