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Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
The first truck design from Pierce-Arrow, who were already established as
one of America's leading makers of high-quality cars, was a forward-control
chain-drive 5tonner which was quickly rejected in favor of a
normal-control worm-drive truck. Known as the Model R, this owed a number
of features to British Dennis and Hallford designs, as the engineers in
charge of Pierce-Arrow's truck division, John Younger and H. Kerr Thomas,
had previously been with Dennis and Hallford respectively. In particular the
worm drive was a Dennis feature, and rare on heavy trucks as early as 1911.
The 5-ton Model R was joined in 1914 by the 2-ton Model X, and both types
were widely used during World War I by the armies of the United States,
Britain and France. In addition to their own designs, Pierce-Arrow built
about 1,000 of the standardized Class B Liberty trucks for the U.S. Army.
During the 1920s the Pierce-Arrow truck range was extended to six models,
from 2 ˝ to 7 ˝ tons, all using 4cylinder engines and 4-speed gearboxes. In
1924 they introduced a purpose-built bus chassis, the Model Z powered by the
6-cylinder T-head engine used in Pierce-Arrow passenger cars. Two
wheelbases were offered, 16ft 4in and 18ft 4in. Although intended for
passenger work, the Model Z chassis was also fitted with goods bodies. In
1927 a smaller line of trucks was introduced, the Fleet Arrow series which
used engines and other components from the Series 80 passenger car. The
following year came the merger with Studebaker, but truck production
continued, and in 1929 there were three models in the Fleet Arrow range, and
six in the larger truck range. Some of the latter were little changed in
appearance from the World War I era, with solid tires and open sided cabs.
The 1931 range ran from 2- to 8-tons, with dual ignition on the larger
models and dual rear axles on the 8 tonner. The last new model was the 1932
2-tonner which had a dual ignition straight-8 engine and was capable of
55mph. Production at Buffalo ended in November 1932 when the truck side of
the business was transferred to White at Cleveland. Built buses in 1924 on the Z-chassis - also see Henney for Arrowline
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