The famous Gradall excavator traces its roots back to the beginning of the 1940s. During this time, the second World War had created a scarcity of workers because the majority of the young men went away to fight the war. This decline in the labor force brought a huge demand for the delicate work of finishing and grading highway projects.
Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda was a Cleveland, Ohio based construction business that faced this particular problem first hand. Koop and Ray Ferwerda were brothers who had moved from the Netherlands. They were partners in the firm that had become among the major highway contractors in Ohio. The Ferwerdas' set out to build an equipment which will save their livelihoods and their business by inventing a model which would carry out what had before been physical slope work. This creation was to offset the gap left in the worksite when lots of men had joined the army.
The first apparatus these brothers created had 2 beams set on a rotating platform and was fixed directly onto the top of a truck. They utilized a telescopic cylinder to move the beams out and in. This enabled the fixed blade at the end of the beams to push or pull dirt.
The Ferwerda brothers improved on their initial design by creating a triangular boom to create more power. Then, they added a tilt cylinder that enabled the boom to turn 45 degrees in either direction. This new unit could be outfitted with either a blade or a bucket and the attachment movement was made possible by placing a cylinder at the rear of the boom. This design powered a long push rod and allowed a lot of work to be completed.
Not a long time later, numerous 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 offered as well.