Gradall began producing its famous excavator during the 1940's, during a time in which World War II had created a shortage of workers. This decline in the labor force brought a huge need for the delicate work of finishing and grading highway projects.
Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda was a Cleveland, Ohio based construction company that experienced this specific dilemma first hand. Ray and Koop Ferwerda were brothers who had relocated from the Netherlands. They were partners in the company which had become one of the leading highway contractors in the state of Ohio. The Ferwerdas' set out to build an equipment that would save both their livelihoods and their business by inventing a model which would carry out what had before been physical slope work. This invention was to offset the gap left in the workplace when lots of men had joined the army.
The initial apparatus these brothers created had 2 beams set on a rotating platform and was attached directly onto the top of a truck. They used a telescopic cylinder in order 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 first design by making a triangular boom to create more power. After that, they added a tilt cylinder which allowed the boom to rotate forty-five degrees in either direction. This new unit could be outfitted with either a blade or a bucket and the attachment movement was made possible by placing a cylinder at the back of the boom. This design powered a long push rod and allowed much work to be done.
Not a long time later, numerous digging buckets were introduced on the market. These buckets came in 15 inch, 24 inch, 36 inch and 60 inch sizes. There was additionally a 47 inch heavy-duty pavement removal bucket that was available too.