Who Invented Four-Wheel Drive?

Slow but steady evolution of technology delivered benefits to mechanized agriculture.

By Robert N. Pripps
Updated on July 9, 2023
article image
courtesy of Robert N. Pripps
A World War I British Army truck powers its way through battlefield mud in an artist’s conception of the first mass-produced four-wheel drive vehicle. Orders for hundreds of these trucks put the fledgling FWD company into the truck business, rather than pursuing passenger car sales, as it had been doing.

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.

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-624-9388