Some people believe that Jeep invented four-wheel drive. Not so, not by a long shot! According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, English inventor Bramah Joseph Diplock patented a four-wheel drive steam-powered traction engine in 1893. Diplock’s patent also featured four-wheel steering and front, back and center differentials. It was subsequently built and proved functional.
The world’s first four-wheel drive vehicle directly powered by an internal-combustion engine was the Dutch-built Spyker of 1903. The 60hp two-seat sports car featured permanent four-wheel drive and was also the first car with four-wheel brakes.
American designs for four-wheel drive first came from Twyford Motor Car Co., producer of a one-seat Twyford roadster beginning in 1904. Because Twyford Roadsters sold for about $1,000, compared to Henry Ford’s Model T, which was priced at $250, only five or six were produced and the company soon folded. The four-wheel drive Michigan was built in Kalamazoo, Michigan, by Michigan Automobile Co., Ltd., from 1903-’07.
Innovation and mass production of four-wheel drive vehicles
The first four-wheel drive vehicle to go into mass production was built by Four Wheel Drive Auto Co. (known alternately as Four Wheel Drive or FWD). The company was founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, as Badger Four-Wheel Drive Auto Co. by machinist Otto Zachow and his brother-in-law, William Besserdich.
Zachow and Besserdich developed and built their first successful four-wheel drive car, known as The Battleship, in 1908. The unique feature of their system was a “constant velocity” universal joint used in both ends of the front (steering) axle, invented and patented by Zachow and Besserdich.
In the simple type of universal joint, the output shaft’s velocity oscillates depending on the amount of angle between the shafts. Constant velocity (CV) U-joints, of which there are now several types, have internal motion compensators that absorb the fluctuations. CV joints are essential for “full-time” four-wheel drive (and front-wheel drive). For “part-time” systems that do not employ a center differential, and where the front wheels are engaged only when needed, this type of universal joint is not essential. When Zachow and Besserdich demonstrated their four-wheel drive car, they caught the attention of the British Defense Ministry, then engaged in World War I. The British ordered hundreds of trucks, and the rest as they say, is history.
FWD’s truck, developed in 1916 in response to the success of The Battleship, employed a center differential with a manual locking mechanism. At that point, Besserdich left FWD. Working with Bernhard A. Mosling, he patented an automatic self-locking center differential in 1917. They two men also received a patent on a variation of the CV U-joint front axle, and incorporated Wisconsin Duplex Auto Co., which morphed into the highly successful Oshkosh Truck Co., of Oshkosh, Wisconsin (about 30 miles south of Clintonville).
Early tractors test four-wheel drive
The early farm tractor industry recognized the benefits (and challenges) of four-wheel drive. By 1920, there had been five unsuccessful attempts. The first was the Heer of 1910, featuring four-wheel pivot-axle steering, four-wheel brakes and log-chain drive, cleverly avoiding the need for universal joints of any kind. The articulated tractor, common today, first saw light in 1912 as the Olmstead Four-Wheel Drive. This type can get by with double Cardan U-joints across the pivot.
Several types of four-wheel drive farm tractors came and went over the early years of internal-combustion powered tractors. The Nelson, produced in 1912, was much like the Heer in layout. The three-wheel drive Michigan of 1915 also employed log-chain power transmission.
In 1919, two unique approaches to improved four-wheel drive farm tractors were unveiled. The first, the Post, was not actually a four-wheel drive. Instead, it featured two centrally-placed drive and steering wheels with outrigger wheels, like a bicycle with training wheels. The other was the Samson Iron Horse, which was possibly the first skid-steer. It was followed by the Wilson skid-steer. The year 1919 also saw the launch of the ill-fated John Deere Dain, which actually was a three-wheel drive.
The industry then turned to crawlers in a search for more traction. The Fitch Four Drive of 1926 was a notable exception. Fitch produced several models of four-wheel drive machines before going out of business in 1929. No records are known to exist detailing the company’s methods of power transmission and steering.
During World War II, the Jeep – originally developed by American Bantam, but mass-produced by Willys and Ford – became the best-known four-wheel drive vehicle in the world. The Dodge WC (Weapons Carrier) and Chevrolet G506 4×4 trucks were also produced by the thousands. GMC, Studebaker and others produced the famous “Deuce-and-a-half” 2-1/2-ton, six-wheel drive trucks. All told, North America manufacturers built about 1.5 million 4×4 and 6×6 vehicles during the war.
Evolution of the jeep
Speaking of jeeps, tractor manufacturer Minneapolis-Moline claims to have first attached the moniker “Jeep” to its four-wheel drive military vehicle prior to anyone extending the Bantam/Willys GP (General Purpose) into Jeep.
Minneapolis-Moline built the UTX, a four-wheel drive vehicle for the U.S. Military, based on its failed Model UDLX highway-capable farm tractor. It was slow and heavy, but in 1939, an Army sergeant at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, recognizing its potential for usefulness, made a Jeep sign for it, naming it after Eugene the Jeep, a character in the Popeye comic strip, a mysterious animal with supernatural abilities. The creature didn’t speak, except to say “Jeep-Jeep” and communicated by sign language. Eugene the Jeep first appeared in the March 16, 1936, Thimble Theatre Popeye comic strip.
The M-M UTX morphed into the NTX, based on the company’s Model Z tractor. The NTX served the Army Air Force’s need for an aircraft towing tractor from 1942-’44. Minneapolis-Moline designed the low-slung body to allow the NTX to slip under aircraft wings. It was powered by a 44hp, 4-cylinder engine.
Following World War II, the tractor industry produced several skid-steer, articulated and steerable four-wheel drive vehicles. CV universal joints of various designs became commonplace. Through the 1960s, mechanical and hydraulic front-wheel assists were also widely available.
Setting a new standard
In the 1950s, several companies produced kits that provided mechanical front-wheel drive for tractors. These were much like the kits made during World War II to convert standard trucks to four-wheel drive for the military. The category also included, among others, NAPCO four-wheel drive assemblies for GMC, Chevrolet, Ford and Studebaker vehicles; Elenco Products, producing front-wheel assist kits for several models of Ford tractors; and Elwood Mfg. Company’s EmCo kits for Minneapolis-Moline, International Harvester, Massey Ferguson, John Deere and Case tractors.
With hydraulic Front Wheel Assist (FWA), an engine-driven hydraulic pump provides power to hydraulic motors in each front wheel. FWA offered improved pulling power, especially with a weight-transferring hitch, and adjustable wheel spacing for varying row widths. But most FWA systems didn’t work in reverse.
By the 1970s, four-wheel drive was becoming commonplace as midwestern and western farmers put more and more land into production, accelerating the demand for faster tillage. The combination of increased production and advancements in both mechanization and manufacturing created a strong market for four-wheel drive farm tractors.
Today, on at least the four American brands of farm tractors (Case IH, John Deere, Massey Ferguson and New Holland), mechanical four-wheel drive is virtually standard equipment. The largest operations, of course, still use the big articulated four-wheel drives, and most farms use the small skid-steer four-wheel drive loaders. FC
Won the Battle, Lost the War
American Bantam cranked out design for four-wheel drive military vehicle in record time, but still couldn’t win production contract.
The origins of the Word War II military jeep make for an interesting aside. In 1940, when it became obvious that the U.S. would soon be drawn into the war then raging in several parts of the world, the U.S. Army contacted 135 companies asking them to create working prototypes of a four-wheel drive reconnaissance car. Only two companies, American Bantam Car Co. and Willys-Overland, responded. The Army set a seemingly impossible deadline of 49 days to supply a working prototype. Willys asked for more time but was refused. American Bantam had only a small staff, so chief engineer Harold Crist hired Karl Probst, a freelance designer, to tackle the assignment.
Probst began work on July 17, 1940, initially without salary, and drew a full set of plans in just two days. On his third day on the job, he worked up a cost estimate. Bantam’s bid was submitted on July 22, 1940. Much of the vehicle would be assembled from off-the-shelf Bantam car parts. Four-wheel drive components were to be supplied by Spicer.
The hand-built prototype was completed and driven to Camp Holabird, Maryland, on Sept. 23 for Army testing. The vehicle met all of the Army’s criteria. Bantam surely expected to garner a sole-source and lucrative production contract, but that was not to be. Recognizing the inadequacy of Bantam’s production facilities, contracts were awarded to Willys and Ford to build the majority of World War II jeeps, while Bantam built fewer than 3,000.
After 36 years in the aircraft industry, Bob Pripps returned to his first love and began writing about tractors. He has authored some 30 books on the subject and several magazine articles. Pripps has a maple syrup farm near Park Falls, Wisconsin. In harvesting the maple sap, he relies on a Ford Jubilee and a Massey Ferguson 85.
Originally published as “A Brief History of Four-Wheel Drive” in the August 2023 issue of Farm Collector magazine.