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 because most of the young men went away to fight the war. This decline in the labor force brought a huge need for the delicate work of grading and finishing highway projects.
A Cleveland, Ohio construction company referred to as Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda faced this specific problem first hand. Two brothers, Ray and Koop Ferwerda had relocated to the USA from the Netherlands. They were partners in the business which had become one of the leading highway contractors in the state of Ohio. The Ferwerdas' started to build an equipment that would save both their livelihoods and their business by making a unit which would carry out what had previously been manual slope work. This invention was to offset the gap left in the workplace when lots of men had joined the army.
The first apparatus these brothers invented had 2 beams set on a rotating platform and was fixed directly onto the top of a truck. They used a telescopic cylinder to be able to move the beams out and in. This enabled the fixed blade at the end of the beams to pull or push dirt.
After a short time, the Ferwerda brothers improved on their first design. They created a triangular boom to create more strength. Then, they added a tilt cylinder that enabled the boom to turn forty-five degrees in either direction. This new unit can be equipped with either a bucket or a blade 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 much work to be done.
Not a long time later, numerous digging buckets became available 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 available as well.