The edge of the platform resting on the ground was then elevated and attached to the top of the trunk of the pulling vehicle.

Before the cart was mounted onto the pulling car, the automobile to be delivered was wheeled onto the ramp of the cart and fastened to the platform. The platform could only hold one automobile. This may be a bit confusing as most cars and trucks have engines in the front this car had an engine in the rear. The platform sat on the top of the engine portion and rested on a pair of wheels on the other end. The first semi trailer used a modified short-wheeled touring automobile (the tractor) with a cart (the trailer) attached to the rear of it. Semi Tractor Trailer Invention Description In 1899, Winton Motor Carriage started manufacturing the hauler for its own use as well as other car manufacturers. He addressed this issue with a new concept that he called an automobile hauler that could carry the new vehicle on a trailer. This led him to inventing the concept of the semi-truck to handle the delivery of his manufactured vehicles. This presented a major problem if the cars were driven to their customers, miles and wear and tear would be placed on the car and also the actual delivery would be expensive. As the buyers lived all over the country the cars had to be delivered to places hundreds of miles away from Cleveland. The Winton Motor Carriage Company of Cleveland sold their first twenty-two manufactured cars in 1898, and this created the need for the cars to be delivered to their buyers. Winton went into the business of “horseless carriages” in 1896, so today he would be known as a carmaker. These tractors consist of three axles with the front axles being used to steer the tractor and the rear axle and the double wheels, or dualies, propel or transfer power for the tractor, this is the drive axle.Īlexander Winton, in Cleveland, Ohio invented the semi-truck in 1898 and sold his first manufactured semi-truck in 1899. Today’s semi truck is typically an 18-wheeled articulated truck that includes the truck, commonly referred to as the tractor, and the trailer. Using a semi truck only became possible with the development of paved roadways in the second decade of the 20th century and later massively expanding with the interstate highway system that we have today. Semi trucks, also known as semi-trailer trucks, tractor-trailer rigs or 18 wheelers, transport over 70 percent of the goods and commodities in the United States. Semi Trailer: a freight trailer that when attached is supported at its forward end by the fifth wheel device of the truck tractor.

Semi truck and trailers