1907 Hybrid 4WD 4WS electric wheel can you ID it

[Frank DeWitt]

Hi: New guy here. I am usually over on the tractor forum.

The links are pix of a special truck used to deliver equipment to the Mt Wilson Observatory in 1907. Any idea who made it, or is it hand made. If you look closely under the driver / hood you can see the engine and generator. Records say it was 4WD and wheel steering and had a motor in each wheel.

Thanks for looking

Frank

http://lbpinc.com/truck-b.jpg
http://lbpinc.com/truck-a.jpg

[Bud Tierney]

Talk about coincidence!! Yesterday got "Trucking In America, Moving The Goods", a pictorial truck history book by Ron Kowalkwe, out of the library, and looked thru it last night...one of the rigs that caught my eye was a hybrid gas-electric with FWD and 4whl steering, an elec motor in each wheel. Quite poor pic shows stake body, obscured by kids and goats (dogs?) alongside (sorry, no scanner), but drivers position looks very similar. Builder was Couple Gear Freight Wheel Co, later the Couple Gear Electric Truck Co., of Grand Rapids, MI, which AQtly sez produced from 1906 to 1922. Can't say for sure it's the one, but it looks close.

[Frank DeWitt]

Wow, That's great. I dod a Search and found some mor pix. Just what I needed. Thanks

Frank