Gradall began making its famous excavator in the 1940's, during a time in which WWII had caused a shortage of laborers. This decrease in the work force brought a huge demand for the delicate work of finishing and grading highway projects.
Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda was a Cleveland, Ohio based construction business that faced this particular dilemma first hand. Koop and Ray Ferwerda were brothers who had relocated from the Netherlands. They were partners in the firm that had become one of the leading highway contractors in the state of Ohio. The Ferwerdas' started to build an equipment that will save their livelihoods and their company by inventing a unit that would carry out what had before been manual slope work. This creation was to offset the gap left in the worksite when so many men had joined the military.
The brothers initially invented an apparatus which had 2 beams set on a rotating platform, which was fixed on top of a second-hand truck. They used a telescopic cylinder to move the beams in and out. This allowed the fixed blade at the end of the beams to pull or push dirt.
The Ferwerda brothers improved on their initial design by making a triangular boom to produce more strength. After that, they added a tilt cylinder that allowed the boom to turn 45 degrees in either direction. This new unit can be outfitted with either a blade or a bucket 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 much work to be completed.
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 which was offered too.