The famous Gradall excavator traces its roots back to the beginning of the 1940s. During this time, World War II had created a scarcity of workers because the majority of the young men went away to war. This decline in the work 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 which experienced this specific dilemma first hand. Koop and Ray Ferwerda were brothers who had moved from the Netherlands. They were partners in the firm which had become amongst the leading highway contractors within Ohio. The Ferwerdas' started to make an equipment that would save both their business and their livelihoods by making a unit that will carry out what had previously been manual slope work. This creation was to offset the gap left in the workplace when so many men had joined the army.
The brothers initially invented an apparatus which had 2 beams set on a rotating platform, which was connected on top of a used truck. They used a telescopic cylinder to move the beams in and out. This allowed the attached 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 produce more strength. Next, they added a tilt cylinder which enabled the boom to turn forty-five degrees in either direction. This new model 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 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 also a 47 inch heavy-duty pavement removal bucket that was available too.