Fabco wide-track lettuce truck.
With just a terse statement through P.R. Newswire, Livermore, California-based Fabco Automotive, one of the last vestiges of the San Francisco Bay Area’s proud automotive history, vanishes. The meat of the statement reads as follows:
“TROY, Mich., Sept. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Meritor, Inc. (NYSE: MTOR) today announced that it has acquired the product portfolio and related technologies of Fabco Holdings, Inc. (“Fabco”) and its subsidiaries. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.”
The name Fabco is not well known, even within the heavy truck industry where most of its products have been focused. This invisibility was partly by design – the strategy the company pursued throughout most of its history was to target niche markets, avoiding direct competition with better-financed firms usually, enjoying greater economies of scale as found on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Of these niche products, the most notable over the years are probably the Lettuce Trucks which still roam the Salinas Valley of California
The F.A.B. Manufacturing Company was organized in December of 1918 and incorporated on February 28, 1919 as a California Corporation. The company was named after its three founders, Freitag, Ainsworth, and Beane. A manufacturing plant in Oakland, California was acquired to manufacture pumps for handling lubricating oils and other liquids from steel barrels, and an external contracting brake system for Model T Fords, always under the brand FABCO. The brake system was the first foray of the company into the specialty vehicle market where FABCO would focus its efforts over the next 99 years. The manufacture of extension truck frames for Ford trucks began in 1919. Sales were made through the Ford dealer organization in Northern California and Western Nevada. Extension truck frames and lumber handling equipment were produced for several makes of trucks and the sales territory extended to cover the entire Pacific Coast.
Fabco Model T Ford Frame Extension, and its use on a Stake Bed Truck.
The manufacturing plant was located at 1249 67th Street and eventually expanded to 208 acres, split between Emeryville and Oakland, with the border between them running through the offices adjacent to and connected to the plant itself. The plant itself was by no means an anomaly on the West Coast. Just down the road in Oakland, Chevrolet (before it merged with General Motors) had opened its West Coast Assembly plant in 1916, with a Fisher Body plant to follow in 1923. Fageol, later to be taken over by T.A. Peterman and become Peterbilt, began with a plant also in Oakland and in the same year, 1916. Gillig, later to move to Hayward, south of Oakland, began focusing on custom vehicle body manufacture in their original San Francisco location in 1907. Just north of the Fabco plant, the Berkeley-based Hall-Scott engine company was a key player in early aircraft engines but made most of its profits from large gasoline engines for heavy trucks, buses, and marine applications. The Ruckstell two-speed axle for Model T Fords was originally developed by an employee of Hall-Scott, and manufactured in Berkeley until 1926, when the product was taken over by Eaton Axle Company of Ohio.
These automotive manufacturers were supported by a large industrial base which got its start supporting the West Coast shipping industry. Notable in the early years were Union Iron Works (later to become part of Bethlehem Steel) in San Francisco, Judson Iron Works in Emeryville, and numerous foundries, the most notable of which were the H.C. Macaulay Foundry in Berkeley, which among other feats cast the blocks for the Offenhauser racing engine, and Pacific Steel Casting Company, regular supplier of castings to FABCO throughout their mutual history (though no longer as Pacific Steel is closing as of December 2017).
In the 1920s, FABCO expanded their line of extension frames to cover both Ford and Chevrolet trucks, developing along the way custom truck suspensions, and a series of dump bodies, tag axles, semi-trailers, and full trailers, concentrating on markets unique to the West Coast, which meant lumber (FABCO “Grizzly” log trailers for Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Phillipines), and specialized trailers for sugar cane harvesting in Hawaii.
The company continued to look for additional markets, designing a line of flexible couplings in 1925, and in 1927 beginning the manufacturing of a diesel engine, the FABCO Tuxham, under license from Europe.
1927 Fabco Tuxham Diesel Engine, built under license.
In the early 1930s FABCO developed a tandem drive axle unit for trucks was developed and manufactured. Because interaxle differentials had not yet been developed, this was designed as a drop-box power divider, with individual driveshafts sending power to forward and rear axles of the tandem axle pair, with the power divider directly coupled to a Brown and Lupe two-speed auxiliary transmission.
Fabco Tandem Axle Conversion “Dual Drive” with “Power Selector” power divider, 1940’s. Note the herringbone gears.
The development of the tandem axle conversion lead directly to fire truck and school bus chassis production, along with special lettuce harvesting and packing equipment. Originally fire trucks were manufactured for California Fire Departments on modified Chevrolet chassis, but by 1940 the company had begun building its own complete chassis.
1937 Chevrolet/Fabco Fire Engine.
1941 Fire Engine, Fabco Custom Chassis.
More importantly, the power divider led directly to the development of FABCO’s first transfer case, the DD71-4B of 1936. The complete custom chassis capability also led to the first Gillig bus with a midship-mounted engine, with a chassis by FABCO and powered by a laid-down Hall-Scott engine. By 1940 sales distribution of FABCO products covered most of the U.S. and Hawaii.
During World War II, tandem drive axle conversion units were built for the U.S. Army for use in airport construction and other uses. The company was also a prime contractor for the production of barrage balloon winches, fire trucks and trailer-mounted emergency pumper units for the U.S. Army and Navy.
After the war company solid its fire truck business to two employees, who formed Coast Fire Apparatus in Martinez and built fire apparatus mainly on International Harvester chassis until 1966, which they obtained from the new International Harvester plant built after the war just down the street in Emeryville. FABCO eventually found itself neighbors not only of International and Peterbilt, but also of Mack Truck, which opened a plant in Hayward in the 1960’s.
FABCO turned from building school bus and fire truck chassis to concentrating on various niche markets where its expertise in tandem axle and transfer case design would provide the greatest return amid the least competition. The most memorable of these products were the FABCO WT (“Wide Track”) Lettuce Trucks. These were 6×6 trucks using special wide-track single-tire axles on both the front and rear, designed to drive right into the lettuce fields without hurting the produce, take on a load of lettuce whilst moving slowly down the rows in concert with the farm workers, and subsequently drive down the highway to refrigerated storage as quickly as possible. The design originated from FABCO’s experience converting trucks to 6×4 for the lettuce industry. The most common versions utilized either Ford V-8 or Detroit Diesel power, coupled to 5-speed Clark main and 3-speed Spicer auxiliary transmissions, with a Fabco 2-speed transfer case, providing a total of 30 forward speeds and 6 reverse, allowing for speeds down to 1 mph.
Early Fabco Wide-Track Lettuce Truck, late 1950’s or early 1960’s
The FABCO Lettuce Truck became ubiquitous in the Lettuce-growing regions of the Salinas Valley in California and the Yuma Valley in Arizona. Production continued throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s, only ceasing sometime in the early 1980’s.
FABCO Wide Track Lettuce Truck, model WT6630D.
FABCO Lettuce Truck Advertisement.
A number of factors contributed to the end of production – the prospect of increasingly stringent Federal regulations (some of which never went into effect) made further investment in lettuce truck production a risky proposition. But perhaps a more significant factor was simply market saturation – by this time most operators had built out their fleets, and the product, being simple and rugged in design, proved long-lasting – operators preferred to maintain, repair, and improve (and in many cases manufacture their own replacement parts) rather than buy new trucks. Even today, more than 35 years since the last WT-series truck was produced, a large fleet of them is still utilized by Massolo Brothers in the Salinas and Yuma Valleys.
In the early 1950’s the company also began in earnest to develop products for the conversion of medium- and heavy-duty trucks to all-wheel-drive. FABCO saw as its niche four-wheel drive components that would also allow for traveling at typical highway speeds. In this way, it aimed to differentiate itself from the typical all-wheel-drive trucks produced before or during WWII, which gained all-wheel-drive capability at the cost of limited top speed and/or decreased agility and driver comfort.
The first postwar Fabco all-wheel-drive conversions were applied to Ford and GMC trucks in the early and mid-1950s.
1955 Ford F-350 Dually FABCO 4-wheel-drive conversion, side view.
1955 Ford F-350 Dually, FABCO Transfer Case Shift Instructions Data Plate.
1955 F-350 Ford, 4×4 FABCO Conversion, Close up of Axle Hub.
In the mid-1950s the company extended these to include a range of front drive axles which were developed to span the range from 9,000 to 18,000 lb load rating. The FABCO TC-500 was developed with an increased capacity, and a range of options including differentials for full-time AWD, as well as declutchable front driveshafts. These drive axles and transfer cases were applied to FABCO’s own specialty trucks as well as conversions of other manufacturers’ medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
FABCO 4×4 Snow Plow Conversion, using a Ford C-series cab-over from the early 1960’s.
FABCO TC-500 transfer case from the late 1950s to mid-1960s.
FABCO continued to build tandem axle conversions, including developing a lightweight version, and also continued to build specialty trucks. FABCO designed and built the first yard tractors in 1958, and in 1972 FABCO designed and build the first yard tractors for the roll-on roll-off (“Ro-Ro”) method of container and trailer loading. A range of specialty utility vehicles were also designed and built in the 1960’s. These included various utility trucks, the FABCO Flat Top for transporting and installing pipelines and utility poles, an arctic vehicle for the U.S. Navy, a dual-steer/dual-direction tunnel washer for CalTrans, a specialty self-propelled fruit harvester, a container loader for the first generation of wide-body aircraft, and the FABCO “Hy Gy” for power line insulator washing.
FABCO Boom Truck, Date Unknown, Paul Knowles Collection, Hanks Truck Pictures.
FABCO Flat Top Truck, designed for transporting pipe and other long items. Date unknown.
FABCO AWD Refuse Truck on Ford Chassis, designed for collecting refuse on sandy beaches.
FABCO Yard Hustler from 1968. Fabco developed the first yard tractors in 1958.
FABCO Aircraft Loader from the late 1960’s, for the first generation of wide-body aircraft.
16-wheel FABCO Arctic Vehicle, for transporting loads with low ground pressure in the Arctic and Antarctic.
FABCO Hy-Gy Power Line Insulator Washer, mounted on a C-Series Ford Chassis.
In 1968 the descendants of the founders sold the company to Kelsey-Hayes Corporation, and F.A.B. Manufacturing became the FABCO division of Kelsey-Hayes. Increasingly the company focused on the business of front drive axles, transfer cases, and conversion kits. Notable in this time frame was a project to equip a fleet of several hundred International Unistar tractors with special double-cardan front drive axles with an overrunning clutch, for use in the winter conditions encountered in the western mountains. Trucks with this system regularly logged a million miles of service with only regular maintenance.
FABCO FD256 for the International Unistar 4×4 and 6×4 tractor. Double Cardans and Overrunning Clutch.
A complete line of transfer cases was developed to accompany Fabco’s axle offerings, and included innovations such as de-clutchable output shafts, automatic front axle engagement, differentials, high torque capability, proportioning differentials, integral air shift capability, two-piece housings, tapered roller bearings, among other engineered features. The current line ranges from variants of the TC-237 two-speed transfer case nominally rated at 6,000 lb-ft input torque and 350 Hp, and its iron-case 4-shaft cousin the TC-38 nominally rated at 8,500 lb-ft and 350 Hp, up to the TC-143 single-speed and TC-142 two-speed transfer cases nominally rated at 20,000 lb-ft input torque and 600 Hp. Transfer case variants have been produced for both “part-time” AWD and “full-time” AWD, the latter incorporating differentials to allow for varying speeds between the front and rear axles. A recent application of the latter is a variant of the TC-170 used on the Australian Bushmaster.
As the 1970s progressed, FABCO concentrated more and more on the front drive axle and transfer case business. The specialty truck market had become more difficult, with both increased regulation (the introduction of the FMVSS standards) and increased competition. The last endeavor in the specialty truck market was a line of all-wheel-drive utility trucks with full-width cabs, the UV series, introduced in 1972. By 1975 FABCO had withdrawn from all specialty truck manufacture apart from the continued production of Lettuce Trucks. Sometime during this era the logo changed from FABCO in all upper-case, typically block-style letters, to a script “Fabco” with only the first letter capitalized.
FABCO UV Utility Truck. All Wheel Drive, Full-width Cab. Circa 1972.
One of the first fruits of the Kelsey-Hayes/Fabco linkup was the incorporation of Kelsey-Hayes’ newly developed disc brakes for heavy trucks into Fabco’s newly designed 23,000 lb steerable drive axles, first introduced in 1976. This was partly spurred by the introduction of the Federal brake standard FMVSS121, which specified no more than a 245 ft stopping distance within a 12-foot lane.
Fabco SDA-23 with Air-over-Hydraulic Disc Brakes. First introduced in 1976.
There exists an SAE paper from 1977 about the Fabco SDA-23 Axle, SAE paper #770669 “A Front Wheel Drive 23,000 pound axle”, by J. Stanley L. Thomas. The paper includes a cutaway diagram of the Fabco axle:
SDA-23 Wheel End Cross Section.
The diagram illustrates a number of characteristic features of Fabco axles, including adjustable Nylatron bushings used for the king pin pivots, a bronze bushing inside the wheel spindle to locate the yoke shaft, and tapered roller wheel bearings. At various times both single-Cardan and double-Cardan universal joints have been utilized. The related SDA-18 and SDA-21 (21,000#) had wedge brakes, and the later SDA-1800/2100/2300 and its successors have S-Cam drum brakes as is conventional for domestic applications in the United States. Over the years Fabco has had a number of U.S. patents granted, including #’s 2781211, 3253670, 3472349, and 3605930.
AutoCar DC7386S 8-axle tandem-steer truck, with Fabco SDA-23 front driving axle as the lead axle in the tandem steer. One of the first applications of the SDA-23.
Fabco had always had a relationship with International Trucks, made simpler perhaps by the Emeryville International Truck plant just down the street. Building off their experience with the Unistar, International began to offer Fabco axles and transfer cases as factory options, as they do to this day. Eventually, Fabco axles spanned the range between 8,000 and 23,000 lbs, with transfer cases ranging up to 20,000 #-ft of input torque, and were offered as factory options by International, Mack, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Western Star, Sterling, and Autocar, and on Freightliner, Volvo, and GMC/Chevrolet trucks through conversion shops such as Monroe Truck Equipment or Tulsa Truck Manufacturing.
International S-Series Fire Truck with Fabco Front Driving Axle and Transfer Case.
1997 International 4800 4×4 with Fabco TC-38 Transfer Case and SDA-1200 front driving axle.
Peterbilt 348 with Fabco TC-237 and FSD-16A (16,000 lb) front driving axle, for PG&E.
GMC with FABCO AWD, by Monroe Truck and Equipment.
Fabco TC-237 transfer case. Aluminum housing, 3-shafts. Shares many components with the iron-housing 4-shaft TC-38.
International TerraStar, with Fabco AWD.
Kenworth T880S with factory-installed Fabco AWD.
Fabco, in cooperation with International, for many years had a large percentage of the medium-duty AWD market. This was due to a combination of the economies of scale provided by installation on the International factory assembly line, and the advantages of the Fabco axle and transfer case – in contrast with their competitors at the time, Fabco offered axles with an offset bowl which allowed for reduced frame height, in combination with the four-shaft Fabco TC-38 and TC-200 transfer cases.
Fabco SDA-1200 Steerable Drive Axle in an offset bowl configuration. This series was superseded by the outwardly similar FSD series which incorporated double-cardan joints for smoother operation.
Fabco TC-38 4-shaft transfer case and FSD-series axles with offset bowl and double-cardan joints. Warn Hubs are an option.
Fabco TC-38 installed in International TerraStar.
Fabco FSD-20A 20,000 lb driving axle with offset bowl.
Various Fabco Axle Applications from recent history.
Western Star Truck 6900XD with Fabco TC-142 2-speed transfer case.
International Paystar with Fabco TC-270 Transfer Case and SDA-1600 Front Driving Axle.
International Workstar with Fabco Front Driving Axle, probably 16,000#.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Fabco expanded from axles and transfer cases to “split-shaft power take-offs”, or split-shaft PTOs. Installed between the transmission and the rear axle, these devices, essentially a 3-shaft transfer case mounted with the input shaft at the bottom, allowed pumps and other devices to be powered by the full power of the engine when the truck was stopped. The current TC-180 and the Cushman-derived TC-500 series build upon this success. Recently Fabco expanded into the auxiliary transmission business with a variant of the TC-237 used in Agricultural fertilizer spreaders, and the FAT-30, named for the 30,000 lb-ft input torque rating, used in heavy-haul applications.
Fabco Single Speed Transfer Case/Split-Shaft PTO.
Fabco Split-Shaft Power Take-Off installed.
Fabco Model 500 Split-Shaft Power Take-off.
Fabco FAT-30, 30,000lb-ft input torque rating auxiliary transmission.
Throughout all this time Fabco remained a small business with a total headcount rarely exceeding 100 people up until the absorption of R.A. Cushman and GMH Transmission. Yearly production for the largest-selling range of front-drive axles rarely exceeded 1000 units, and the assembly line never incorporated much in the way of automation. For much of its history Fabco in some sense was “allowed” to operate by the larger manufacturers Rockwell (now Meritor), Dana/Spicer, and Eaton, since Fabco serviced a small niche market which was an inconvenience at best for the large players, yet significant enough that if these customers were not served by someone it would become a problem. To that end, Fabco was allowed to purchase differential and brake assemblies from large suppliers, initially from Eaton and subsequently from Dana, after Dana bought Eaton’s axle and brake business.
Fabco Axle Production Line.
Even after the Kelsey-Hayes takeover, descendants of the founders and long-term employees continued to contribute. In 1970 Lane Ainsworth, the son of the “A”, was president, with Terry Smith and J. Stanley L. Thomas in Engineering. Mark Niemela began as production manager, eventually promoted to general manager sometime in the 1970s, and maintained his leadership until his retirement at the end of the 1990s. Terry Smith likewise ran Engineering until his retirement in the mid-1990s as well. Sam Ruffino began working in Engineering in 1970 and (apart from a few detours) has been a constant presence since then. In the mid-1990s Al Sunderland joined, first in Sales, then taking over Engineering, finally leading the company as president for nearly 20 years, for much of that time assisted by Tony Miller as head of Sales. Other longtime employees from both the Emeryville and Livermore locations included Robert Anderson, Robert Barter, Rini Indriani, Lou Keane, Emmanuel Marti, Sean Murray, and Stephen Sellick.
In the later period of Sunderland’s management, the company enjoyed a period of expansion, buying their competitor in specialty gearboxes, R. Cushman of Michigan (successor to Noster Industries), and subsequently GMH Transmission based out of Austria. Perhaps this period of expansion led to the takeover by Meritor, historically the truck components manufacturer most commonly in direct competition with Fabco, dating back to the days when the Meritor truck components division was known as Rockwell.
The stability of the company internally was not matched by the stability of ownership. Kelsey-Hayes merged with Fruehauf in 1976, and the marriage was rocky, leading eventually to the bankruptcy of Fruehauf and the re-emergence of Kelsey-Hayes as an independent company. In 1987 Fabco was packaged with sister companies Gunite Corporation and Brillion Iron Works (Brillion itself was shut down in 2016) and sold to a group of investors organizing themselves as Truck Components, Inc. Thus began a sequence of mergers, divestments, relocations, and acquisitions. Here is the timeline since 1968:
- 1968 Fabco acquired by Kelsey Hayes.
- 1973 Kelsey Hayes and Fruehauf Merge.
- 1987 Fabco acquired along with Gunite and Brillion by Lovejoy Management Truck Components Inc (TCI).
- 1994 TCI acquired by Castle Harlan.
- 1995 Castle Harlan sold TCI to Johnstown America.
- 1999 Johnstown America formed Transportation Tech Inc (TTI) .
- 2003 Oakland site sold and plant demolished to make way for condominiums. Fabco relocates to Livermore, California.
- 2005 Accuride acquired TTI.
- 2011 Wynnchurch Capital acquired Fabco from Accuride.
- 2012 Fabco acquired R. Cushman and Associates, formerly Noster Industries
- 2013 Fabco acquired GMH Transmission (Austria)
- 2017 Gerry Giudici (Management) acquired Fabco.
- 10/2017 now owned by Meritor.
Fabco Timeline, up until September 2017.
All in all, it’s been a good run. For most of its history Fabco survived in equal parts in spite of and because of its small size and location in out-of-the-way/off-the-radar California. It is ironic, perhaps, that it is disappearing just as it has expanded both geographically (with locations in Michigan and Austria) and financially. Perhaps Fabco finally became too successful for its own good. The products themselves may live on, as well as perhaps the Livermore location, but the name Fabco has in all likelihood passed into history.
Fabco Logo.
Here is a cross-section of the two-speed TC-142 and TC-142 PD (Proportioning Differential). The standard TC-142 has a declutchtable front axle, for part-time AWD. The TC-142 PD has a differential which proportions the torque 26% to the front and 74% to the rear, with an air-operated differential lockout. Both have integral oil pumps which can be routed through an oil-cooler for high-horsepower and/or extended high-speed operation in hot climates.
Here is a diagram of the latest-series FSD-18 to FSD-23 (18,000# to 23,000# axle)
Great story about a company I’ve never heard of until today. If R Cushman and Associates is an indicator, Fabco is truly an engineering company building great products. I had some dealings with R Cushman in the 1980s and they were great.
Sounds like their products are tougher than cast iron britches and wear like a pig’s nose.
Is that Hy Gy a GMC or Chevy? To me they tend to look a little angrier than the C series.
Was recently in CA and saw a lettuce truck or two. Of course I did not know what it was until now.
Thanks for this, yet another great read on CC.
Definitely GM but I can’t tell whether it is a Chevy or GMC. Either way it is not a Ford which has the flat front instead of a bump.
I enjoyed the story of a great American engineering firm.
I learned some things today. First, I became aware of the phrase “lettuce truck” – a new concept to me. And I learned that the phrase “wide track” did not originate with the Pontiac automobile.
Thanks.
Fascinating stuff here .
-Nate
Terrific detailed look at a company I’ve been aware of for a long time, but never really read anything about in-depth. The lettuce trucks were of course a very common sight in CA. Thanks.
Thanks for a fascinating trip down Memory Lane plus a bunch of side alleys I never knew about. I grew up in the East Bay and was fascinated by seeing the road-side signs and buildings associated with the automotive industry, some of which (Ford in Richmond and GM in San Leandro) was already gone at or soon after I was born. Pacific Steel and Judson Steel are two other names I remember well, as well as Berkeley Pump for marine power.
In the late ’60’s, in junior high, I became friends with the son of one of the Fabco execs (I’ll keep the names out) , and got a tour of the Emeryville plant and offices, coming home with a stack of brochures that I kept for decades but are now gone. This was just after the K-H buyout; even as a pre-teen I was familiar with their disk brakes from my obsessive reading of Road & Track. Living in the Monterey Bay area now, I still see lots of the Fabco lettuce trucks, and the new front drive axle PG&E (local utility company) Peterbilts are a common sight as well.
That late ’60’s visit to Fabco was probably one more nudge toward my eventual engineering career, which started at Peterbilt in Newark (California) and exposed me to alumni from the local IH and Mack plants, as well as learning about Fageol and HallScott, and gave me the opportunity to tour the Milpitas Ford and Fremont GM plants in full production. Though I soon moved out of the auto industry, NUMMI/Toyota and now Tesla continued to provide significant vehicle production activity and employment in the area, along with Gillig, not just in their own shops but for sub-tier suppliers.
This was an eye opening read about a heavy equipment manufacturer based in the Bay Area that I’ve never heard of that builds powertrain components used in modern heavy duty trucks. It also me appreciate the history of manufacturing in the Bay Area, which is now more known for producing virtual social networking and smartphone application platforms. The only truck manufacturer I know of in the Bay Area is Gillig, which builds city buses in Hayward.
I figure the lettuce trucks are driven no more than 10 miles a day from where they are stored to the lettuce fields where they are stationary most of the time while they are being loaded with produce, hence their longevity. The lettuce can also be transported on smaller trailers towed by farm tractors. Reading about the lettuce trucks kind of piqued my interest in farming; there is a field in Pescadero where volunteers can work alongside farmers to help pick various produce and learn about sustainable agriculture.
“Is that Hy Gy a GMC or Chevy? To me they tend to look a little angrier than the C series.”
I believe you are correct, it is a Chevy or GMC, from sometime around 1966, e.g.:
https://hiveminer.com/Tags/1966%2Ccoe
Thanks for reading!
A very comprehensive and interesting article about a company I had never heard of before. Good job Jerome!
Regarding front drive axles, the selectable hydraulic front drive axle has made inroads in heavy on-/off-road trucks and tractors in the past years. If you want/need some extra traction frequently, without all too extreme off-road conditions.
As I understand it, yes the hydraulic front assist has cut into sales, as had earlier the development of CTI (Central Tire Inflation). In the end, of course, nothing beats true AWD.
Fabco developed and marketed a hydraulic front drive system for on/off highway trucks in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s. Decades ahead of the Poclain / Tuthill system. The hydraulic axle option was available in the Fabco UV. Cost, complexity, poor ground clearance, limited TE and poor high speed performance killed the product.
A great article on a corner of the industry very few know about. Thanks for the terrific write up.
My late father was in the auto aftermarket industry for over 30 years. He worked for Maremont, muffler company and makers of the Cherry Bomb glasspack and Gabriel shock absorbers. They were purchased in 1986 by Arvin, which later became ArvinMeritor after a merger with the former Rockwell Division.
A very detailed and interesting look at manufacturing in the East Bay. I remember the auto manufacturers and many of the other companies. Others rang a faint bell of recognition. As a child when we visited family in Berkeley and Richmond and later as I drove around Hayward on my own, I remember seeing signs for the factories and production sites. Just as an aside, the Doble steam car manufacturing company was located in Emeryville Ca. I think this building is still standing.
I’ve lived in northern California since 2005, and I have never heard of Fabco until now.
Regarding the “Hy-Gy”, why exactly do power line insulators need to be washed? I’ve never heard of that before. Does the buildup of dirt diminish their effectiveness as insulators?
So there is a nice article about this practice
http://www.tdworld.com/overhead-distribution/insulator-washing-helps-maintain-reliability
but the gist of it is here:
“Coastal utilities like Southern California Edison (SCE; Rosemead, California) experience salt contamination when salt fog condenses on electrical equipment critical to delivering power to customers. The insulator pollution builds up gradually, but does not decrease the insulation strength when the insulators are dry. But when the polluted insulators become wet, a conductive layer forms on the contaminated insulator surface, initiating leakage current. The line voltage flashes over this contamination, causing a line outage or relay operation. In most cases, several arcing periods may precede an actual flashover that results in an outage event. Most flashover outages are unpredictable and take several hours to remediate.”
Thanks for reading!
Great post. I had heard of FABCO from my military time – would see them on the flightline or in the heavy equipment section. Also was familiar with their aftermarket 4WD conversions. But this added a lot more – again, great job. Jim.
Love all the information, Jerome. Over the years I had sold FAVCO equipped trucks. These are reliable front drive axles.
Fascinating. I was aware of the lettuce trucks but (wrongly) assumed they used bits from M-Series military trucks, kinda like a Zeligson or similar; obviously Fabco is a far more sophisticated operation. I was also unaware they own GMH which is a couple of hours drive away from me here in Austria.
I found a vid of a Fabco twin rear axle conversion which clearly shows the set up by the way.
That’s a great video!
Thanks for a great read, Jerome.
I’d seen FABCO components and conversions, but never would have guessed they were west-coast based nor that old. Something about the acronym-like name had me guessing that it was a much younger company, or possibly that FABCO was a “modern” shortening of an older spelled out name. I would have bet (wrongly) that FAB was derived from fabrication.
What’s interesting about acquisitions is how in time the acquiring company will often add to their list of “firsts” accomplishments that were made by the acquired, even if the two were in fact fierce competitors at the time of the breakthrough.
How about the cab of the featured white lettuce truck? Seems like about EVERY specialty manufacturer used that cab. Anybody know its manufacturer? Is it Orrville?
Great in-depth history that helps situate Oakland as a manufacturing and innovation hub, connecting the city to the valley and the farming industry. I know Oakland as a food manufacturing center in its manufacturing heyday, but never knew beyond Gillig about the connection with steel production, farming and vehicle manufacturing. Fascinating piece as Oakland undergoes a new transition to housing and high tech.
Jerome, this is one of the best and most interesting in-depth history articles I’ve read on this site.
Kudos to you!
I had heard of the FABCO AWD conversions done in the 50’s, but had no idea regarding the other things the company did until today.
One thing I may have missed, or may not have been made clear – is Meritor continuing production under their name rather than FABCO?
Well, it’s early on in the acquisition but the front page of the website is re-directed to Meritor corporate, the front door of the plant in Livermore has had the Fabco insignia replaced by “Meritor”, and the location is now referred to as “Meritor Livermore”. So it seems as if the name will disappear, though it appears at least initially some of the products will remain in production.
Fantastic article, Jerome. This is what I love about CC – you get to learn all about a company you never knew existed, in depth and detail. I get to Berkeley about every other year, and never fail to notice the old Hall-Scott plant. Knew about Fagoel, White and Peterbilt, but not these guys.
At 200 acres, that was a big plant – it would fill downtown Pittsburgh, AKA the Golden Triangle!
I need to check on the 208 acres, you point out a possible error in my sources. Thanks.
I double-checked things and the parcel size was 2.8 acres (not 208)!
Here is an article about the development:
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2002/12/23/story4.html
The relevant information is here:
“The latest Pulte project will include 92 townhomes mostly in that category � though 20 percent are slated as “affordable” � with 142 off-street parking spaces on a 2.8-acre site between 66th and 67th streets. The company expects to break ground in the fourth quarter of 2003.
Because the site sits on land in both Oakland and Emeryville, the two cities are drafting a memorandum of understanding that spells out their respective responsibilities and rules, according to Emeryville Planning Director Charles Bryant.”
And another article from the same time period:
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2004/10/25/story1.html
“Pulte, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., sold $9 billion worth of homes last year across the country, largely in suburban communities. Still, it has a track record locally of industrial redevelopment, with three such projects in Emeryville, including Elevation 22 near an Amtrak station, a proposed redevelopment of the Fabco Automotive truck manufacturing site on the Oakland-Emeryville border and a former corn syrup plant site called Liquid Sugar.”
Here is the parcel map from the development:
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/ceda/documents/webcontent/dowd008643.pdf
I attach the relevant image. The Oakland part of the old Fabco site is in yellow, parcel #1 on this map:
Interestingly enough, I found a Fabco axle on CC !!
This DM-series Mack had a Fabco SDA-21 (21,000# axle, with wedge brakes)
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-mack-dm-series-4×4-the-really-tough-mack/
I attach the close-up from the CC.
The wedge brake is a strange throwback spec.
The steering arm arrangement doesn’t look so tough. Especially if this is “single steer” IE one side drag-link only.
In fact one wonders if the picture shows evidence of a repair to the arm’s anchor?
And as long as we’re picking the nits, that big plain u-joint has got to give a lot of “whip” in tight turns.
Dear Jim,
Regarding the wedge brakes – the SDA-21 was from the same generation of axles (though introduced a bit later) as the SDA-23 mentioned in the article, which was introduced in the mid-1970’s. Like the SDA-23, it was designed in view of the newly introduced FMVSS-121 standard which mandated stringent maximum stopping distances for heavy-trucks. That initiated a wide variety of braking innovations in heavy-duty trucks, which included air-over-hydraulic disk brakes in the SDA-23, and wedge brakes in the SDA-21. These systems were engineered into trucks designed during this time period, which meant that the SDA-21 and SDA-23 continued in production alongside newer generation axle designs as long as the trucks designed with them did, which meant in some cases as late as the mid-1990’s. As it turned out, the FMVSS-121 braking distance requirements were invalidated by a court decision in 1978:
https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/121_stopping_distance_fr.pdf
Subsequent axle design generations in this capacity range, the SDA-1800/2100/2300 series and their successors, utilized/utilize the simpler and easier-to-maintain S-cam brakes, as has become common practice in North America as a result of customer demand. Note, however, in Europe air disc brakes are now common.
In terms of the steering connection, these axles could be ordered with single- or dual steering arms. That was/is up to the customer.
In terms of the single-Cardan joints in the steering knuckle – that’s not uncommon for axles of this capacity. For the axles in the 8,000 to 16,000 lb capacity, customer demand has gone back-and-forth over the years between single-Cardan joints, with their lower cost and complexity, and double-Cardan joints with their smoother operation and tighter turning angles. The Unistar axles from 1968, for example, were double-Cardan, as is the current generation of axles, but customer demand in the intervening years generally preferred single-Cardan joints.
Thanks for reading!
Jerome
THANK YOU JEROME ! .
When I tried my hand at Heavy Duty Equipment Mechanic in 1984 the fleet has 121 equipped trucks that constantly had dragging brakes, no one there understood this system and we were instructed to strip then out and retrofit to air brakes with s cams .
For me it was a big jump from being a older American car and VW Mechanic to working on big rigs in one day .
-Nate
Consolidated Freightways spec’ed wedge brakes on their trucks right up to their end (2002).
Jerome:
Excellent article. Regarding the steering joints, it is worth noting that Fabco was an innovator in constant velocity (CV) joints for HD AWD front steer drive axles. Mr. Laine Ainsworth (the “A” in Fabco, as you state) invented and patented a CV joint with a compensator ring design in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s which, combined with the unique and patented Fabco inclined kingpin, produced exceptional steering feedback and durability. This was the birth of the FD206, and was developed specifically for lettuce truck conversions of commercial chassis (and later for the infamous Cochrane Fabco 6×6 custom chassis).
Interestingly, Ainsworth’s project was a collaboration with Mr. Harleigh Holmes of Coleman Motors. Holmes being arguably the US inventor of HD AWD steer drive axles. Holmes actually passed away during this project.
Of further axle trivia, at one time, Fabco paid a royalty to Coleman for certain axle technology, while at the same time, Coleman’s parent, Ottawa Steel, paid Fabco a royalty of sorts related to Yard Hustler IP disputes (these royalties ended with the KH acquisition). Fabco axles had for years one of Holmes patents imprinted on the serial plate. To axle geek out even more, the Coleman axle was dealt its (overdue) death blow when Ottawa was acquired by Sisu Truck of Finland. Sisu had a large suite of modern planetary axles for it’s yard hustler products, which replaced the aging Coleman. Fabco, of course, was the exclusive NAFTA distributor for Sisu Sxles from 2001 to 2011, after which Sisu was acquired by longtime competitor Marmon Highway Technology and folded into the Marmon Herrignton division.
Also worth noting is that Fabco AWD and WT axles up to the late 1970’s were made from standard rigid Rockwell Timken axles. Rockwell cut off Fabco as they were becoming serious competitors. This is what led to the Fabco-Eaton relationship.
Back to the lettuce fields, Peterbilt got into the lettuce truck act in the early 1980 building WT model 310 LCF’s with Fabco drivetrain. Most sold to Dole Fresh Vegetable and Budd Antle.
Some still running today (CARB killing off this fleet). Fabco in 2000’s made brief reentries into the Lettuce Truck space, doing specialized WT 6X6 conversion of Peterbilt model 320 LCF and AT conventional Peterbilt 348 factory built 6X6. At least one of the 320 6X6 is still working on a Canby, Oregon tomato farm.
This is a 20k front driver, not 16k. FSD-23 model.
https://i1.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/workstar2.jpg
Dear Oakland,
That is indeed fascinating stuff!
I had become aware of the Marmon-SISU link. Marmon-Herrington is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway/Warren Buffet, they having bought the entire Pritzker group. Previously Marmon-Herrington had a relationship with RABA axles out of Hungary – what happened to them? What is the genesis of the various planetary and rear-drive axles Fabco now markets – are they from GMH Transmission, or from some other source?
What was infamous about the Fabco Cochrane 6×6 custom chassis? I had not heard about that at all.
In terms of the 20K front driver, do you mean FSD-20A?
Thanks for reading!
Someday, someone is going to have to get back into the lettuce truck business. Those trucks won’t last forever.
Jerome
Jerome:
The original Fabco WT was, I am fairly certain, a project with Cochran Equipment of Salinas (as an aside, Cochran is the pioneer in belt loader airport baggage handlers, now long dissolved and part of GSE giant TLD). Fabco had the powertrain, used for WT truck conversions. And Cochran had belt transfer expertise and chassis mfg experience (as did Fabco). So they jointly developed the WT. Cochran may have assembled WT units on contract locally at one time.
Modern Lettuce trucks are just too expensive compared to mudder tractor concept nowadays. Unimog went after the Salinas market in early 2000s with a 6×6 conversions but never caught on due to cost and it being a dog with fleas running loaded on 101. It’s funny that CARB a few years ago made a special exemption allowing the old Fabcos to keep running before repower with current emission engine. I forget when it expired, but I would think that would finally put them out to pasture in Cali, knowing first hand what a repower costs.
Fabco also developed an all wheel steer 4×4 system for the Cochran Boothe 747 loader (check Google patents on this – Stanley Thomas has a couple for Steering that are still referenced today). As another aside, Ainsworth and one of the Cochrans had a road building company in the East Bay. Think about this – the yard hustler and airport baggage loaders, both so common today, were largely invented in the greater Bay Area.
Marmon still distributes Raba Axles and ZF gearboxes under the MH brand it appears.
Hey I found an interesting history about Cochrane. It’s now the Cochrane-Lantis division of TLD:
https://www.tld-group.com/the-group/history/cochran-lantis/
” agricultural industry played an important part in Cochran-Lantis’ history: fresh produce was loaded onto trucks using conveyor belt machines manufactured by our former factory in Salinas.
Rumor has it that on a sunny Californian weekend, an employee of a very famous airline located in San Francisco at that time, was cruising over the countryside of Salinas and got the idea to use these conveyor belt machines to load baggage into airplanes. The history of the ‘Belt Loader’ had begun.
Joe Cochrane created Cochran Equipment in 1956 to build the first belt loaders specifically designed for airport use. Cochran Equipment also manufactured catering trucks. In 1966, Cochran designed its first loader for the new B-747. Facing an increase in business due to the Jumbo aircraft revolution, Joe Cochrane decided to look for financial support to help develop his company.”
I found an interesting article about Harleigh Holmes:
https://www.littletongov.org/my-littleton/littleton-history/other-topics/harleigh-holmes-coleman-motors
Here is an interesting quote:
“The president of the company, Alfred E. Coleman, found that the reputation of the trucks was enough marketing. However, he did continue a standing wager begun by Holmes:
We will give to the owner of any truck $5000 in cash, providing his truck will equal the performance of the Holmes Truck, and to the owner of any rear-driven truck we will give $5000 in cash providing his truck, with no load, will equal the performance of the Holmes Truck with a load of three tons.
The Littleton Independent wrote several articles about the contests, even including photographs at times. On one occasion, a Holmes truck out-pulled a bulldozer. No truck ever won the bet.”
Jerome and Oakland, thanks for writing!
Sounds like y’all may be “plugged-in” to FABCO, great details.
Sounds like at times FABCO was somewhat “hostage” to axle makers. So did FABCO ever delve into manufacturing their own carrier, or whatever it’s called regionally, center-section/pig/chunk?
How about the typical “backwards” rotation of a front gear-set? In the beginning were the carriers simply allowed to run backwards? Were they flipped? Were the extremes ever gone to of manufacturing a “mirror” gear cut?
Interesting, that with the takeover FABCO axles are now under the same “umbrella” as another unique axle design that seems beloved at CC, namely, the Yellow Coach angle-drive.
JimDandy:
My understanding is Fabco used both reverse and standard cut spiral bevel CWP in addition to running hypoid sets on both the drive and coast side (for forward movement) depending on gearbox rotation (anti-engine or with engine output rotations). The counter intuitive benefits of running hypoid on coast side in a front driver is another discussion.
My name is Michael S. Williams. I operated the big lathe close to the front of the shop for 8 years after management decided to make us specialize. I had such friends in the machine shop ( we were rather distant from the assemblers) We played basketball every week.
I started in 1978 and left in 1986. From 1982-1986 I attended law school at night and after 26 years was appointed judge in Napa. I do recall that FABCO was a fair place to work especially because the was a union shop (I was a steward for a few years). I have good recollections of these years, and astonishingly I still get a small ($250/mo) pension!
Write back you guys!
Thanks for this astonishing history of Fabco. I was a young manufacturing engineer in the Fabco machine shop in Emeryville in 1989 programming lathes and horizontal machine centers. I liked working there. I recall that new carbide cutting tools were just becoming known. I started specifying them for high speed machine process. But the old machinist were skeptical and we clashed over technology. I moved on to US Windpower in Livermore where we really made chips.
Coincidentally Fabco had an opportunity in 1992 to machine components for US Windpower and enter the wind energy business but passed on the chance.
Please find the serial no. for Fabco t/c. Plate is attached
Only output shaft was modified in the Factory after delivery.
model 504
serial 111
SUMATRA – FABCO INQUIRY 4-Mar-19
ITEM PART NO. DESCRIPTION QTY
1 397-10-2 HOUSING 1
2 397-40-1 SHAFT 1
3 397-85-2 FORK, FRONT ASSY 1
4 306-35-2 SHIFT COLLAR 1
5 306-85-5 CYLINDER 1
6 306-85-23 PISTON 1
7 711080 SEAL 2
8 NL8G WASHER 1
9 5/16-18X1.00LG SCREW 1
10 306-85-21 CAP 1
11 1/4-20X1.50LG SCREW 3
12 LC-105L-9M SPRING 1
13 20DU20 BUSHING 1
14 504-20-7 COVER,INLET,OIL 2
15 504-65-1 SLEEVE,INLET,OIL 2
16 756-0377 RING,PISTON,HOOK 5
17 675C-10111 O-RING 4
18 675C-10151 O-RING 4
19 732-0475 SEAL 2
20 352-0584 FLANGE 2
21 504-85-6 WASHER 3
22 504-45-1 SHAFT&PINION 2
23 504-45-2 SHAFT&PINION 2
Please quote all the items in the list to our email ynajem@sumatratrdg.com
Good morning…my Dad, Russ Freshour, passed away last week. He was a member of the FABCO family in the 80s and 90s. He worked with Mark and Terry until the late 90s. He was in sales and traveled as far away as Australia for FABCO. I was looking up the pension plan to notify them of his passing and ran across this history article. It was a great read and shed light on part of my Dad’s career. I enjoyed reading the posts.
Thank you, Judy. It is always gratifying to us when family members let us know that they enjoyed something we have done here. Please accept our condolences for your loss.
Hi Judy I knew your dad and he was a great guy. I worked as a welder built axels and transfer cases and the trucks. Sorry to hear of Russ passing. I also trained his son.
Judy sorry to hear about Russ. I worked at FABCO for 27 years. Russ was one of the best.
Absolutely fun reading.
I remember well when I was 6 years old, holding my grandfather’s hand (Howard Ainsworth), walking through the FABCO plant on the weekends to change the clocks. FABCO was a big part of the Ainsworth family for many decades.
This Freitag is Knud and it is my Father’s older brother as Kai and Erik.all from Dennark
I have a 1942 ford fabco dual drive 2 ton truck,very low miles great condition,model TC A
serial # 53359 on the fabco plate.I would love any lit.or info,pictures etc.It looks to be the same as the 48-50 shovel truck vidio less the shovel.Thank You Darrell
How are you doing Darrell .My name is John Ortiz I’m interested in sharing some information with you in regards to a fabco that I own . If you have the time feel free to contact me johnnywalltech@yahoo.com
Jerome Solberg,
Great History, Products and People created the FABCO name. I worked for FABCO from 1970 to1974, 1982 to 1987 and 1989 to 2017. Retired in 2019 after 2 years with Meritor. When I started in 1970 Laine Ainsworth was running the company. I worked on just about every product in this history from Lettuce Trucks and Utility Vehicles, FD-206/306, TC-38/170/270/142 and to FABCO Front Steer Drive Axles from 9K to 23K.
Judy Freshour,
Sorry to hear Russ passed away. Traveled with Russ to Tulsa OK, Fort Wayne IN and Universal Studios Hollywood Ca a few times.
Hi Sam just want to say hi. It was always good to work with you.
Hi Judy I knew your dad and he was a great guy. I worked as a welder built axels and transfer cases and the trucks. Sorry to hear of Russ passing. I also trained his son.
Hi Mike, Good to hear from you. Yes, I lasted until Fabco was taken over by Meritor in 2017. Worked 2 more years for Meritor in Livermore Ca until 2019. Now the Livermore CA plant was closed the past year 2021 and all the machines and axle line was moved to Meritor in So Carolina.
Sam Ruffino,
I had reached out to Fabco several years ago related to Fabco Model 80 and 100 log trailers from the 40’s/50’s. I was told you were the person who would know anything related to those. Do you know if there are any surviving drawings of any of these and where they might be? Is there any historical archive related to the company?
Thanks, Joe Piazza, Livermore, CA.
Joe,
Sorry I can not help you. In the many years I worked at FABCO, I do not recall seeing any drawings/pictures related to Log Trailers built in the 40’s/50’s.
Sam,
Hi Joe,
Another resource might be my brother Laine R Ainsworth. Email: laineainsworth@beaconpointe.com Phone: 949-786-3837.
Another resource might also be the patent office. I know my dad had a number of patents on their work at FABCO.
Peggy
Yes I am in bad need of ether a full replacement or left side driver side spindle for this 86 s1900 international
Model # f 1954 6×6 hub spindle the whole nine yard on left side
Dj, My best guess is that you have a Fabco SDA 12 steer drive axle that is 35 plus yeas old and no longer in production. For service or parts contact your local International
Truck Dealer or Meritor at 1-888-725-9355 or General Truck Parts at 1-800-621-3914. The spindle PN is 774 272 or 774-0272 if this axle has 15 x 5 air brakes.
Sam,
Yes I am in bad need of ether a full replacement or left side driver side spindle for this 86 s1900 international
Model # f 1954 6×6 hub spindle the whole nine yard on left side my number is +19402564334 name is Dj
I found this 1970 Fabco Tunnel Washer for sale on Craiglist in the Bay Area for $5000 in August of 2023.
It has cabs on both ends, so you can drive it from either end.
“ford powered 534 ci v8 (gas) alison 7spd auto air brakes and air seat ps pb 40k gvw 4 axle steering one drive axle ( can be driven from either end ) less than 15k miles ( the state of calif built this one of one to wash tunnels ) $5000”
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/d/san-jose-ford-powered-trucks/7655125592.html
Hi Jerome,
Another one of a kind special 1970 Fabco chassis built in Emeryville CA for the state of California to wash tunnels. Last time I saw this chassis working/washing tunnel was many years ago at the Caldecott tunnel in the Berkeley CA hills. It had 4 cabs at one time. I do not know who supplied the middle washing unit. The vehicle I.D. tag says it was a model 022 000, Serial # 1 with axles P/N 296 077, 296 078, 296 079 and 296 080.Way back in 1970 I did some cab and axle design work on this chassis.
Hi Sam, I read this article and saw that you commented! It’s been a while since I left Fabco in 2012 but I hope you are doing well. It’s pity the site closed.
Hi Sebastien, Good to hear from you, hope you are doing well. Yes, I lasted until Fabco was taken over by Meritor in 2017. Worked 2 more years for Meritor in Livermore Ca until 2019. Now the Livermore CA plant was closed in 2021, and all the machines and axle line were moved to Meritor in So Carolina. Meritor is now owned by Cummins Engines.
We had several pieces of equipment equipped with Fabco transfer cases and front axles. Well built equipment.
Unfortunately there are many investment groups that buy up companies, squeeze the money out of them and then sell them to the next investment group.
Thanks for the article. Really good research and well written!
Very interesting article. Thank you! I worked at Fabco in Livermore from 2007 to 2012. I remember my time there very fondly.