44-599: The Marmon-Herrington Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of axles and transfer cases for trucks and other vehicles. Earlier, the company built military vehicles and some tanks during World War II , and until the late 1950s or early 1960s was a manufacturer of trucks and trolley buses . Marmon-Herrington had a partnership with Ford Motor Company , producing trucks and other commercial vehicles, such as buses. The company may be best known for its all-wheel-drive conversions to other truck maker's units, especially to Ford truck models. Founded in 1931, Marmon-Herrington
88-401: A propeller shaft or tailshaft ) which transmits the rotational force to a drive axle at the rear of the vehicle. The drive axle may be a live axle , but modern rear-wheel drive automobiles generally use a split axle with a differential. In this case, one half-axle or half-shaft connects the differential with the left rear wheel, a second half-shaft does the same with the right rear wheel; thus
132-413: A converter of commercial trucks to all-wheel-drive (AWD) vehicles, as well as a manufacturer of transmissions , transfer cases , and axles for heavy vehicles. Marmon-Herrington axles can still be found on even the newest military vehicles and commercial trucks. In addition to building installation kits for all-wheel-drive, the company has also become a front-drive-axle and transfer case manufacturer to
176-429: A differential (kart racing). However, other go-karts have two rear drive wheels too. Some dump trucks and trailers may be configured with a lift axle (also known as an airlift axle or drop axle ), which may be mechanically raised or lowered. The axle is lowered to increase the weight capacity, or to distribute the weight of the cargo over more wheels, for example, to cross a weight-restricted bridge. When not needed,
220-403: A one-piece rear beam axle. In other types of suspension systems, the axles serve only to transmit driving torque to the wheels: the position and angle of the wheel hubs is made independent from the axles by the function of the suspension system. This is typical of the independent suspensions found on most newer cars, and even SUVs, and on the front of many light trucks. An exception to this rule
264-413: A protruding hub to which the axle shaft flange is bolted. The semi-floating axle setup is commonly used on half-ton and lighter 4×4 trucks in the rear. This setup allows the axle shaft to be the means of propulsion, and also support the weight of the vehicle. The main difference between the full- and semi-floating axle setups is the number of bearings. The semi-floating axle features only one bearing, while
308-608: A severe downturn, and with the onset of the Great Depression, the market for prestigious luxury cars mostly collapsed. To keep his business going, Marmon joined forces with an ex-military engineer in the person of Arthur Herrington in 1931, with a new idea to focus on building all-wheel-drive trucks. And so the company became Marmon-Herrington, initially as the truck production division of the Marmon Motor Car Company, developing military trucks. Marmon-Herrington got off to
352-400: A single unit called a transaxle . The drive axle is a split axle with a differential and universal joints between the two half axles. Each half axle connects to the wheel by use of a constant velocity (CV) joint which allows the wheel assembly to move freely vertically as well as to pivot when making turns. In rear-wheel drive cars and trucks, the engine turns a driveshaft (also called
396-484: A steep drop in the need for military vehicles, so Marmon-Herrington looked for another area of vehicle manufacturing in which it might find new business. Its first "trolley coaches", the more common term for trolley buses at that time, introduced innovative features such as lightweight monocoque bodies and strong, double-girder sidewalls, which made the Marmon–Herrington trolley coach the best-selling trolley coach of
440-519: A successful start in March 1931, when the company procured contracts for 33 T-1 4x4 aircraft refueling trucks, powered by 6-cylinder Hercules engines, followed by a variety of 4x4 and 6x6 vehicles for the U.S. and Persian armies, for use as general load carriers, towing light weaponry, mobile machine shops, and wreckers. Reconnaissance, scout and armored cars were also made, some with four-wheel steering as well as four-wheel drive. In 1932 Marmon-Herrington built
484-427: A turn at all. Several manufacturers offer computer-controlled airlifts so that the dead axles are automatically lowered when the main axle reaches its weight limit. The dead axles can still be lifted by the press of a button if needed, for better maneuverability. Lift axles were in use in the early 1940s. Initially, the axle was lifted by a mechanical device. Soon hydraulics replaced the mechanical lift system. One of
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#1732869434172528-403: Is a group of two or more axles situated close together. Truck designs use such a configuration to provide a greater weight capacity than a single axle. Semi-trailers usually have a tandem axle at the rear. Axles are typically made from SAE grade 41xx steel or SAE grade 10xx steel. SAE grade 41xx steel is commonly known as " chrome-molybdenum steel " (or "chrome-moly") while SAE grade 10xx steel
572-500: Is a single bearing at the end of the axle housing that carries the load from the axle and that the axle rotates through. To be "semi-floating" the axle shafts must be able to "float" in the housing, bearings and seals, and not subject to axial "thrust" and/or bearing preload. Needle bearings and separate lip seals are used in semi-floating axles with axle retained in the housing at their inner ends typically with circlips which are 3¾-round hardened washers that slide into grooves machined at
616-441: Is attached to a separate shaft. Modern passenger cars have split-drive axles. In some designs, this allows independent suspension of the left and right wheels, and therefore a smoother ride. Even when the suspension is not independent, split axles permit the use of a differential, allowing the left and right drive wheels to be driven at different speeds as the automobile turns, improving traction and extending tire life. A tandem axle
660-445: Is known as " carbon steel ". The primary differences between the two are that chrome-moly steel is significantly more resistant to bending or breaking, and is very difficult to weld with tools normally found outside a professional welding shop. An axle that is driven by the engine or prime mover is called a drive axle . Modern front-wheel drive cars typically combine the transmission (gearbox and differential) and front axle into
704-423: Is the independent (rear) swing axle suspension, wherein the half-axles are also load-bearing suspension arms. Independent drive-trains still need differentials (or diffs), but without fixed axle-housing tubes attached. The diff may be attached to the vehicle frame or body, and/or be integrated with the transmission (or gearbox) in a combined transaxle unit. The axle (half-)shafts then transmit driving torque to
748-739: The Cleveland Railway , with 125; vehicles were also sold to two cities in Brazil . The principal models were the TC44, TC48, and TC49, with the number denoting the number of seats. A single order of the 40-seat TC40 model was produced for San Francisco, and likewise, the TC46 was produced for only one customer, Philadelphia , before Marmon-Herrington replaced it with the TC48 model. Trolley bus production lasted from 1946 until 1959; in total, 1,624 vehicles were produced, all at
792-686: The Marmon brand. Marmon-Herrington's longtime main plant and headquarters in Indianapolis was closed in 1963. The remaining production became part of an association of companies which in 1964 adopted the name Marmon Group . During the Cold war era , Marmon diversified its production line by adding aircraft, missiles and rockets ground support equipment , manufactured by its subsidiary, Cardair , based in Chicago, Illinois . The Marmon-Harrington Company continues today as
836-456: The 1980s, and several remained in service until 2001. The Illinois Railway Museum has preserved two ex- Chicago Transit Authority Marmon-Herrington trolley coaches and one ex- Milwaukee unit. In the early 1960s, the Pritzker family bought the company, and soon the focus on full vehicle manufacturing ended, the truck designs being sold to a new company, Marmon Motor Company that traded under
880-709: The American government was approached with a request that it produce a replacement for the Tetrarch. This request was made by the British Air Commission in Washington, D.C. , with a proposal calling for a tank of between 9 t (8.9 long tons) and 10 t (9.8 long tons) to be developed, this being the maximum weight the War Office had decided could be carried by current glider technology. The United States Ordnance Department
924-906: The Marmon-Herrington design and requested that the company produce a prototype tank, which was completed in late 1941; it was designated the Light Tank T9 (Airborne) by the company and the Ordnance Department and later designated M22 . The company also manufactured airport fire trucks, like the Marmon-Herrington MB-1 and Marmon-Herrington MB-5. They were mainly used by the military, like the U.S Army Air Force and U.S. Navy . Post-War civilian adaptations, known as " Brush Breakers ", were also produced. The company's foray into transit buses began in 1946, when it produced its first electric trolley bus . The end of World War II had brought
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#1732869434172968-483: The T9 Ford–Marmon-Herrington unarmored half-track was produced for the U.S. Army and featured the tracks, the powered front axle and a front ditch roller that would be used on the armored half-tracks of World War II . Marmon-Herrington also made multi-stop delivery vans and passenger vehicles. The company designed a military armored vehicle which could be constructed on a commercial truck chassis. The design
1012-400: The axle is lifted off the ground to save wear on the tires and axle, and to increase traction in the remaining wheels, and to decrease fuel consumption. Lifting an axle also alleviates lateral scrubbing of the additional axle in very tight turns, allowing the vehicle to turn more readily. In some situations, the removal of pressure from the additional axle is necessary for the vehicle to complete
1056-422: The axle, and controls the angle of the axle and wheels assembly to the vehicle body. The solid axles (housings) in this system must also bear the weight of the vehicle plus any cargo. A non-driving axle, such as the front beam axle in heavy-duty trucks and some two-wheel drive light trucks and vans, will have no shaft, and serves only as a suspension and steering component. Conversely, many front-wheel drive cars have
1100-441: The axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle is supported. In the latter case, a bearing or bushing sits inside a central hole in the wheel to allow the wheel or gear to rotate around the axle. Sometimes, especially on bicycles, the latter type of axle is referred to as a spindle . On cars and trucks, several senses of the word axle occur in casual usage, referring to
1144-426: The bearings, housings, and only a short section of the shaft itself, that also carries all radial loads. The full-floating design is typically used in most ¾- and 1-ton light trucks, medium-duty trucks, and heavy-duty trucks. The overall assembly can carry more weight than a semi-floating or non-floating axle assembly because the hubs have two bearings riding on a fixed spindle. A full-floating axle can be identified by
1188-510: The company's Indianapolis factory. The last of San Francisco's 260 Marmon-Herrington trolley buses were retired in 1976 and Philadelphia's last units in 1981. Some Marmon-Herrington trolley buses withdrawn from service in the United States were sold secondhand to Mexico City 's Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos (STE) between the late 1960s and late 1970s and continued in service for many more years on that city's trolley bus network. Although
1232-456: The early manufacturers was Zetterbergs, located in Östervåla, Sweden. Their brand was Zeta-lyften. The liftable tandem drive axle was invented in 1957 by the Finnish truck manufacturer Vanajan Autotehdas , a company sharing history with Sisu Auto . A full-floating axle carries the vehicle's weight on the axle casing, not the half-shafts; they serve only to transmit torque from the differential to
1276-479: The first all-wheel-drive truck and trailer combination, and the largest trucks ever built at the time, for oil pipe construction in Iraq. Construction of all-wheel-drive (AWD) vehicles and conversion of existing vehicles to AWD were among the company's products. Marmon-Herrington's all-wheel-drive conversions of Ford light trucks were successfully sold to the military of both the U.S. and several foreign governments. In 1936,
1320-504: The full-floating assembly has bearings on both the inside and outside of the wheel hub. The other difference is axle removal. To remove the semi-floating axle, the wheel must be removed first; if such an axle breaks, the wheel is most likely to come off the vehicle. The semi-floating design is found under most ½-ton and lighter trucks, as well as in SUVs and rear-wheel-drive passenger cars, usually being smaller or less expensive models. A benefit of
1364-461: The inner end of the shafts and retained in/by recesses in the differential carrier side gears which are themselves retained by the differential pinion gear (or "spider gear") shaft. A true semi-floating axle assembly places no side loads on the axle housing tubes or axle shafts. Axles that are pressed into ball or tapered roller bearings, which are in turn retained in the axle housings with flanges, bolts, and nuts do not "float" and place axial loads on
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1408-864: The last Marmon-Herrington trolley buses in original form were retired by STE in 1988, many underwent a rebuilding of their bodies in the 1980s by the Mexican company Moyada and continued working; the last five of these Moyada-remodeled Marmon-Herrington trolley buses of STE survived in service until 2002. By the late 1950s, the market for new trolley buses in North America had dried up, as some trolley bus systems were being abandoned while others had re-equipped with new Marmon-Herrington vehicles. The company's last orders for transit vehicles were also its only export orders for trolley buses, to Recife and Belo Horizonte in Brazil , comprising 65 and 50 TC49s, respectively, delivered in 1958–59. Recife overhauled some of its TC49s in
1452-538: The medium- and heavy-duty truck market. In 2008, the holding company Berkshire Hathaway purchased a majority stake in Marmon Holdings, which includes the Marmon Group and Marmon-Herrington. Axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear . On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around
1496-429: The overall weight-bearing capacity of a vehicle, and its potential for causing wear or damage to roadway surfaces. Axles are an integral component of most practical wheeled vehicles. In a solid, "live-axle" suspension system, the rotating inner axle cores (or half-shafts) serve to transmit driving torque to the wheels at each end, while the rigid outer tube maintains the position of the wheels at fixed angles relative to
1540-516: The postwar era. Its trolley buses were successful in the fleets of many North American cities, most notably Chicago and San Francisco , which purchased large numbers; Chicago bought 349 in a single order (delivered in 1951–52), a record for Marmon-Herrington. Marmon-Herrington supplied trolley buses to 16 different cities in the United States, among the buyers being the Cincinnati Street Railway Company , which purchased 214, and
1584-407: The shaft itself, its housing, or simply any transverse pair of wheels. Strictly speaking, a shaft that rotates with the wheel, being either bolted or splined in fixed relation to it, is called an axle or axle shaft . However, in looser usage, an entire assembly including the surrounding axle housing (typically a casting ) is also called an axle . An even broader (somewhat figurative) sense of
1628-458: The two half-axles and the differential constitute the rear axle. The front drive axle is providing the force to drive the truck. In fact, only one wheel of that axle is actually moving the truck and trailer down the road. Some simple vehicle designs, such as leisure go-karts, may have a single driven wheel where the drive axle is a split axle with only one of the two shafts driven by the engine, or else have both wheels connected to one shaft without
1672-400: The wheel positions steady under heavy stress, and can therefore support heavy loads. Straight axles are used on trains (that is, locomotives and railway wagons), for the rear axles of commercial trucks, and on heavy-duty off-road vehicles. The axle can optionally be protected and further reinforced by enclosing the length of the axle in a housing. In split-axle designs, the wheel on each side
1716-403: The wheels, usually via constant-velocity joints . Like a full floating axle system, the drive shafts in a front-wheel-drive independent suspension system do not support any vehicle weight. A straight axle is a single rigid shaft connecting a wheel on the left side of the vehicle to a wheel on the right side. The axis of rotation fixed by the axle is common to both wheels. Such a design can keep
1760-400: The wheels. They "float" inside an assembly that carries the vehicle's weight. Thus the only stress it must endure is torque (not lateral bending force). Full-floating axle shafts are retained by a flange bolted to the hub , while the hub and bearings are retained on the spindle by a large nut. In contrast, a semi-floating design carries the weight of the vehicle on the axle shaft itself; there
1804-411: The word refers to every pair of parallel wheels on opposite sides of a vehicle, regardless of their mechanical connection to each other and to the vehicle frame or body. Thus, transverse pairs of wheels in an independent suspension may be called an axle in some contexts. This very loose definition of "axle" is often used in assessing toll roads or vehicle taxes , and is taken as a rough proxy for
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1848-622: Was based in Indianapolis, Indiana , with a plant in Windsor, Ontario , and remained in Indianapolis until 1963. It is now based in Louisville, Kentucky . Founded in 1931 by Walter C. Marmon and Arthur W. Herrington , the company was the successor to the Marmon Motor Car Company , a maker of high quality, costly automobiles from 1902 to 1933. By the early 1930s, the U.S. economy had taken
1892-500: Was given the task of developing the proposed tank, and in turn, requested designs from three American companies: General Motors , J. Walter Christie and Marmon-Herrington. The design offered by Christie in mid-1941 was rejected as it failed to meet the specified size requirements, as was a modified design the company produced in November. At a conference in May 1941, the Ordnance Department chose
1936-687: Was taken up by South Africa in 1938, the result of which became known as the Marmon-Herrington armoured car , which was used by British and Commonwealth armies in the North Africa Campaign . During World War II the British were looking for a purpose-built airborne light tank to replace the Tetrarch light tank but decided not to produce the tank in Britain due to a lack of production capacity. Instead,
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