The famous Gradall excavator traces its roots back to the beginning of the 1940s. During this time, World War II had caused a shortage of laborers as nearly all of the young men went away to war. This decline in the labor force brought a huge demand for the delicate work of grading and finishing highway projects.
Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda was a Cleveland, Ohio based construction company that experienced this specific problem first hand. Koop and Ray Ferwerda were brothers who had moved from the Netherlands. They were partners in the firm that had become amongst the leading highway contractors within the state of Ohio. The Ferwerdas' set out to make an equipment which would save their business and their livelihoods by inventing a model that will do what had before been manual slope work. This invention was to offset the gap left in the workplace when lots of men had joined the military.
The brothers initially created a device which had 2 beams set on a rotating platform, which was fixed on top of a second-hand truck. They utilized a telescopic cylinder to move the beams in and out. This enabled the connected blade at the end of the beams to push or pull dirt.
The Ferwerda brothers improved on their first design by creating a triangular boom to create more power. Then, they added a tilt cylinder that allowed the boom to rotate 45 degrees in either direction. This new model can be outfitted with either a blade or a bucket and the attachment movement was made possible by placing a cylinder at the back of the boom. This design powered a long push rod and allowed a lot of work to be completed.
Not a long time later, many digging buckets were introduced on the market. These buckets came in 15 inch, 24 inch, 36 inch and 60 inch sizes. There was additionally a 47 inch heavy-duty pavement removal bucket which was also available.