The famous Gradall excavator traces its roots back to the beginning of the 1940s. During this time, World War II had caused a scarcity of laborers since nearly all of the young men went away to fight the war. This decrease in the labor force brought a huge demand for the delicate work of grading and finishing highway projects.
Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda was a Cleveland, Ohio based construction business which faced this specific problem first hand. Ray and Koop Ferwerda were brothers who had moved from the Netherlands. They were partners in the firm that had become amongst the leading highway contractors within Ohio. The Ferwerdas' set out to make an equipment that will save their company and their livelihoods by inventing a model that would do what had previously been manual slope work. This invention 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 attached on top of a second-hand 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 produce more strength. Then, they added a tilt cylinder which allowed the boom to turn 45 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 a lot of work to be finished.
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.