EUCLID’s Move the Earth (#FlashbackFriday)

In response to the recent posts on archive JCB footage, one follower posed the question, “Did other firms do these promotional films?”. The answer is yes absolutely, so I have been on the lookout for similar material to share here on the Digger Man Blog.

Photo: Courtesy of Equipment Journal

EUCLID Inc was once a massive manufacturer of earthmoving equipment and off-highway trucks and was often competing fiercely with the mighty Caterpillar for a share of the market. The company had early beginnings, as far back as 1909 when they were known as the Euclid Crane & Hoist Company, producing such items as pull-type scrapers, rollers wagons, and dozers blades for fitting to wheeled and tracked tractors.

Over the coming decades the company had numerous different owners, in 1953 it became a division of General Motors (GM). In 1968 the business became a subsidiary of White Motor Corporation. Legal complications followed with GM having to discontinue manufacturing and sales of off-highway trucks in the US and to stop using the Euclid name.

Photo: Courtesy of the Leigh Creek Old Town Project website.

It was at this time that the GM plant in Scotland started manufacturing the products, although a change of name was required, hence the birth of the Terex brand. German brand Daimler-Benz then acquired Euclid in 1977, and was subsequently sold to Clark-Michigan in 1984!

The Clark business entered a joint-venture with Volvo AB in 1985, with the formation of the VME group, (Volvo-Michigan-Euclid). The next twist in the tale took place in 1992 when VME teamed up with Hitachi to form Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment Inc.

This film from the You Tube channel ‘Earthmovers of the Past’ depicts grainy period footage from the earlier days of the Euclid business, and it’s a great historical watch.