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Euclid Trucks At Bingham

This page last updated on September 17, 2026.

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Euclid Overview

1907-1933 — Euclid's roots date to 1907 in Wickliffe, Ohio, when George A. Armington founded the Armington Electric Hoist Company, later renamed the Euclid Crane & Hoist Company upon moving to Euclid, Ohio. In 1924, George's eldest son, Arthur, developed the Euclid Automatic Rotary Scraper, guiding the business into earthmoving equipment. The company formed the Road Machinery Division in 1926 and formally incorporated as the independent **Euclid Road Machinery Company** on July 11, 1931.

1934-1953 — In January 1934, Euclid introduced the Model 1Z, widely considered the first purpose-built, heavy-duty off-highway end-dump truck. Unlike competitors who modified standard highway trucks, Euclid engineered its haulers specifically for mining and heavy construction. Following rapid expansion during World War II, Euclid built a major assembly plant on St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland in 1946 and established its first international factory in Motherwell, Scotland, in 1950.

1953-1968 — Seeking an entry into the off-highway construction equipment market, General Motors purchased Euclid on September 30, 1953, making it a GM division on January 1, 1954. GM built a new plant in Hudson, Ohio, and re-purposed its former EMD Cleveland Plant No. 3 in Brooklyn, Ohio, for Euclid manufacturing.

On October 15, 1959, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against GM, alleging it threatened to monopolize the off-highway truck market. The long legal battle ended in a 1967 settlement requiring GM to divest the Euclid brand name and its mechanical-drive off-road truck line.

GM created the Terex Division in 1968 for its remaining earthmover lines, while selling the Euclid truck business to White Motor Corporation for $24 million on February 15, 1968 (effective July 1, 1968).

1968-1984 — White Motor Corporation operated the business as a subsidiary named Euclid, Inc. White Motor sold Euclid to German automotive giant Daimler-Benz AG in August 1977. Under Daimler-Benz, although never profitable, Euclid continued producing haulers, but shifting market dynamics led Daimler-Benz to sell Euclid, Inc., to the Clark-Michigan, a subsidiary of Clark Equipment Company in 1984.

1985-1993 — In 1985, Clark combined its equipment operations, including Euclid, with Sweden's Volvo AB to create a 50/50 joint venture named VME Group (Volvo Michigan Euclid). Under VME, Euclid functioned as the dedicated rigid-frame haul truck division, producing classic R-series rear-dump trucks alongside Michigan wheel loaders and Volvo articulated haulers. In 1995, Volvo bought out Clark's 50 percent stake, absorbing VME fully into Volvo Construction Equipment.

1993-1998 — To expand its global mining hauler footprint, Hitachi Construction Machinery, in December 1993 acquired a 19.5 percent stake in VME's Euclid operations, establishing the joint venture Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment, Inc.

Over the next five years, Hitachi steadily increased its equity and operational control, to 40 percent in 1996, and 80 percent in 1998, gaining full operational and management control at the same time.

2001-2004 — Under an agreement finalized during the 1998 restructuring, in 2001 Hitachi agreed to purchase Volvo's remaining 20 percent interest; completed in October 2001. On January 1, 2004, Hitachi officially phased out the historic Euclid name, renaming the entity Hitachi Construction Truck Manufacturing, Ltd., concluding nearly a century of independent Euclid brand identity.

Euclid History

(from "A Study of the Antitrust Laws" published as part of the 1955 Senate hearings, page 60-61)

"In August 1953, a notice appeared in Standard Corporation Records announcing the proposed acquisition of Euclid by General Motors. It was in this manner that the Department of Justice learned of the proposed purchase of the company by General Motors. Shortly thereafter the Department of Justice invited General Motors to Washington to discuss the proposed acquisition. In the following month, counsel for General Motors and Euclid appeared at the Department of Justice and discussed the proposed acquisition. By this time steps had already been taken to accomplish the merger. The board of directors of General Motors Corp. approved the acquisition of Euclid on August 7, 1953, and on August 28, 1953, the shareholders of Euclid approved the exchange of stock by which ownership of all outstanding stock of Euclid was acquired by General Motors. Listing of the newly issued General Motors stock was approved by the New York Stock Exchange on September 1, 1953. Formal transfer of stock completing the acquisition occurred in October 1953. The proposed acquisition was explored at some length by the Department of Justice. The Subcommittee has investigated this entry of General Motors into the off-the-road earth-moving machinery industry and studied the circumstances under which this acquisition occurred.

"The Euclid Road Machinery Co. was founded in 1931. Formerly its business had been carried on as a department of the Euclid Crane & Hoist Co. Euclid specialized in the manufacture of heavy-duty, earth-moving, off-highway equipment. Its products included extra heavy-duty motor vehicles, self-loading motorized scrapers, and loaders. In addition, it made aircraft tractors designed to tow large bombers. Its products were used in mining operations, construction of dams, airports, and in roadbuilding operations. Prior to its acquisition by General Motors, Euclid was the leading company in the field of off-the-highway, heavy-duty motor vehicles, its principal line. In its major product, the dump truck, Euclid was one of the major producers, with more than 50 percent of the market. In the market for all products connected with the earth-moving industry, Euclid’s share was between 5 and 6 percent. In this larger field, Euclid was a relatively small producer. Other producers were invading the dump-truck market, and Euclid concluded it did not have the capital resources to invade the larger market dominated by the producers of crawler tractors.

"At the end of World War II the net worth of the Euclid Co. was $3 million. Utilizing borrowed funds, the company embarked on a large expansion program. Sale of the company’s product increased significantly. Net worth of the company in 1952 was $16 million. Raymond Q. Armington, general manager of the Euclid division of General Motors, formerly president of Euclid, testified that to undertake the complicated manufacturing and technological problems involved in producing the crawler tractor would have required additional capital of $30 million, almost double Euclid's assets. It was also necessary to support product research and to develop a more complete sales organization.

"Distribution was a major problem for a small company with this type of product. When the Euclid Co. was formed, it relied upon the dealership network of a manufacturer of tractors, the Caterpillar Tractor Co. When the Euclid Co. developed self-powered hauling units, it became competitive with crawler tractors of the latter company and had to organize its own dealership network. To some extent it relied upon direct sales to users. In 1953, the average number of machines sold per dealer was 23. Mr. Armington felt that the company had a real problem in getting first-class dealers since it was only competing in a small sector of the market.

"In 1952 one of the major crawler tractor manufacturers, International Harvester, approached Euclid to discuss the possibility of a merger. At least one other company had also expressed an interest in obtaining Euclid. Upon the withdrawal of International Harvester from merger discussions, Euclid approached another crawler tractor manufacturer, Allis-Chalmers, and also General Motors, through its Detroit Diesel Division. Six months later as the result of renewed discussions, General Motors acquired Euclid.

"Two markets were affected by this acquisition: first, the market for earth-moving machinery; and, second, the market for a major component, diesel engines. As noted, Euclid was a major factor in one sector of the earth-moving industry. In this specialized market, Euclid produced in excess of 50 percent of industry output. Other products in the earth-moving industry include crawler tractors, motor graders, bulldozers, tractor-mounted shovels, scrapers, and loaders. Scrapers and loaders were potentially large-volume Euclid products. The roadbuilding program in this country for the next decade would provide a tremendously expanded market for the products of this company. Expenditures of $100 billion over the next 10 years have been mentioned, a program which will increase the demand for roadbuilding machinery significantly. The export market is also, potentially, an expanding market area.

"It is obvious that General Motors intends to be a major producer in the earth-moving-machinery field. In the past year the corporation staged an advertising program labeled "Powerama" for the purpose of publicizing its earth-moving equipment. The extent of this program was such that its cost was not allocated to the Euclid division but was borne by the parent corporation and allocated as overhead expense to all divisions of the company.

"The second market affected by this merger was the market for diesel engines, which were used by Euclid in its self-propelled products. Euclid, as had other producers in this field, offered its customers a choice of engines. One engine was produced by General Motors’ Detroit diesel division. The other was produced by the Cummins Engine Co., Columbus, Ind.

"Cummins was an early developer of diesel power and is today the largest specialized manufacturer of diesel engines in the United States with sales of almost $60 million in 1954. Euclid's purchases represented as much as 9 percent of Cummins sales in recent years. Since the acquisition by General Motors, Euclid’s purchases from Cummins have dropped about 75 percent. New products of the Euclid division are now designed around the General Motors engine. This standardization, according to Mr. Armington, was for competitive reasons. The cost of producing for a single engine is lower—design is less complicated than if optional engines are offered."

Euclid Timeline

Euclid Before GM (1907-1953)

1907
The company that became Euclid was founded in 1907 in Wickliffe, Ohio, by George A. Armington as the Armington Electric Hoist Company. It was renamed Euclid Crane & Hoist Company when the plant was relocated to Euclid, Ohio. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

In 1909 Armington Electric Hoist Company was renamed Euclid Crane & Hoist Company after its move to Euclid, Ohio. The company's products included pull-type scrapers, rollers, wagons (crawler and wheeled), and tractor equipment such as dozer blades.

During the 1920s Euclid built experimental tractors (one crawler model and several wheeled models) and entered the construction equipment industry when it introduced the Automatic Rotary Scraper in 1924.

Increased sales of the scrapers resulted in the creation of the Road Machinery Division in 1926, and the Division was incorporated as the Euclid Road Machinery Company, a subsidiary of the Euclid Armington Corporation, on July 11, 1931.

The Euclid Road Machinery Company became independent of Euclid Armington on Jan 1, 1933, and no record is known to exist of Euclid Crane & Hoist after this.

1924
Euclid introduced the Automatic Rotary Scraper in 1924. Acceptance of the scrapers led to the creation of the Road Machinery Division in 1926, and the Division was incorporated as the Euclid Road Machinery Company, a subsidiary of the Euclid Armington Corporation, on July 11, 1931. The Euclid Road Machinery Company became independent of Euclid Armington on Jan 1, 1933. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

1931
Euclid began as part of the Euclid Crane and Hoist Company. In 1931, Euclid split from its parent company to become Euclid Road Machinery. Then, in 1953, the Euclid Road Machinery Company was acquired by General Motors Corporation. (Construction Equipment magazine, April 1, 1997)

1934
Euclid built its first off-highway truck, a rear-dump type of 7-cubic yard capacity, christened the "Trac-Truk," based on the towed 5-yard bottom-dumping version from the year before. The success of this truck established Euclid as the first company to specialize solely in off-highway haulers. In 1936, the first version of Euclid's famous FD-series trucks hit the market with its 15-ton capacity.

1936
Euclid offered the first successful off-highway, rear-dump haulage truck, its model 1FD. The combination of diesel engine, modern drive line, leaf-spring suspension, and pneumatic tires made it the new industry baseline, making obsolete the earlier gasoline-powered, chain-drive heavy Mack trucks that had dominated the industry up to that time. (William Haycraft, Yellow Steel, page 81)

1949
The Model FFD, with 34 tons capacity, was introduced to overcome the limitations of the available engine and transmission combinations by using two 190-horsepower engines to obtain a total of 380 horsepower. The FFD pioneered the twin-drive "Twin-Power" concept in its rear-dump trucks, and used two Detroit 6-71 190-horsepower engines mounted side-by-side, each driving one of its tandem axles through separate transmissions.

1951
The introduction of the 1LLD 50-ton tandem-axle off-highway rear-dump truck followed in 1951. Billed as the largest production truck in the world, the 1LLD was powered by two 300-horsepower Cummins NHRS engines.

The Model 1LLD was designed specifically for heavy-duty earthmoving, open-pit mining, and massive civil engineering contracts where standard single-engine trucks lacked the power to haul extreme loads.

Twin-Engine ("Twin-Power"): To achieve 600 horsepower, a massive figure for the early 1950s, Euclid mounted two side-by-side Cummins NHRS-600 diesel engines under a wide front hood. Each engine functioned independently, driving its own Allison 3-speed automatic transmission and dedicated rear drive axle. This setup ensured that if one engine or transmission failed, the truck could still limp back to the maintenance shop under its own power.

The most famous user of the 1LLD was Western Contracting Corporation, which purchased 34 of the 46 units built. Western Contracting modified several of these trucks for large dam and canal projects, most famously customizing some into ultra-heavy haulers fitted with dual 12V-71 Detroit Diesel engines, which earned legendary status among heavy equipment operators as the "Western 80" variants.

By 1953 Euclid was a $33 million business that had 1,600 employees building 170 off-highway vehicles per month.

Euclid Sold To General Motors (1953-1968)

September 1953
General Motors acquired Euclid on September 30, 1953 and made it a division of GMC on January 1, 1954. In the mid-1950s, GMC built a new factory for Euclid at Hudson, Ohio. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

1953
"In a move that shook the earthmoving equipment industry, General Motors acquired the Euclid Road Machinery Company from the Armington family in 1953 for stock in a transaction valued at $20 million. Euclid president Raymond Q. Armington became general manager of the new Euclid Division of GM. Although a very small company by GM standards, Euclid brought with it a well-known name, valuable know-how in its field, and a dealer organization; it was also the market leader in off-highway trucks and bottom-dumps. Without an engine of its own, Euclid had offered both GM Detroit Diesel and Cummins engines as options in its products." (William Haycraft, "Yellow Steel")

January 10, 1954
"The Euclid Road Machinery Co., acquired by General Motors Corp. last Sept. 20, will continue under the firm name of Euclid Division, General Motors Corp., President R. Q. Armington announced yesterday." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 10, 1954)

September 16, 1954
General Motors announced its new Euclid Model TC-12 crawler tractor, and also announced that it was transferring its Electro-Motive Division plant at 8500 Clinton Road, Brooklyn, to the Euclid Division for manufacturing of the new tractors. The transfer of the plant in Brooklyn would double Euclid's manufacturing capability and give Euclid three production sites in the Cleveland area: 8500 Clinton Road in Brooklyn; St. Clair Avenue N. E. near downtown Cleveland; and next door in Euclid on Chardon Road. The new TC-12 crawler tractor was planned to go on the market in late 1955. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 16, 1954, "today")

(TC-12 became the Euclid 82-80 in 1966)

March 4, 1955
"The former Electro-Motive plant at 8500 Clinton Road, Brooklyn, has produced its first piece of earth-moving equipment as part of the General Motors Corp. Euclid Division. It is a new-type scraper smaller than most in use and designed for sale in the light construction field. A completely mobile unit, the 25,000-pound scraper can move over highways at nearly 30 miles an hour." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 4, 1955)

November 17, 1955
From The Cleveland Press, November 17, 1955.

In 1957, Euclid superseded the 50-ton 1LLD design with the 3LLD (later designated under the R-50 series).

November 1958
In its first use of large, off-highway haulage trucks in its Bingham Canyon open-pit copper mine, in November 1958, Kennecott Copper Corporation contracted with Western Contracting Corporation of Sioux City, Iowa to begin stripping waste material from the uppermost levels on the east side of the Bingham mine, on the 'V' Level and above. The contractor used a single Marion Model 191-M electric shovel at work filling a fleet of Euclid 50-ton rigid-frame rear-dump diesel trucks. A second Marion 191-M shovel was due to arrive by December 1958. (Kennescope, November 1958, page 19)

By 1961 Euclid production had been separated, with scraper manufacture being at 8500 Clinton Road in Brooklyn, Ohio, and manufacture of tractor, trucks, scrapers and off-highway equipment being at 22800 St. Clair Street in Euclid, Ohio. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 11, 1961; September 6, 1961)

November 7, 1961
GM announced that Euclid scraper production at the plant at 8500 Clinton Road in Brooklyn, Ohio, would end, with production being moved to Euclid's new plant in Hudson, Ohio, which had opened in 1958. The closure and move of operations began immediately and continued through March 1962. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 7, 1961)

(At the same time, November 1961, GM announced the move of its Cleveland Diesel Engine Division from Cleveland, to the EMD plant at LaGrange, Illinois.)

(The plant on Clinton Road in Brooklyn remained idle and mostly vacant after March 1962. Then in January 1964, GM announced that production of instrument panels, radiator grills, wheel covers and other automobile hardware would begin at the Clinton Road plant on July 1, 1964. - Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 22, 1964)

(The Clinton Road plant transitioned to making body parts for GM's Fisher Division, then in April 1970, GM announced that the Clinton Road plant would become home to GM's Terex Division, and would be known as Terex-West. The production of Terex scraper and large loaders was to begin during summer 1970. - Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 26, 1970)

The Euclid Antitrust Case (1959-1967)

October 1959
The U. S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust action against GMC on October 15, 1959 on the allegation that GMC threatened to control the off-highway hauler market. To settle, GMC negotiated with White Motor Corporation during 1967 for the sale of certain parts of the Euclid Division. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

Up to 1959, many at General Motors thought Euclid was riding a wave of success. Then reality hit and the bubble burst. In a bombshell, the Justice Department announced in October 1959 that it would sue General Motors to force divestiture of Euclid. The government contended that the acquisition tended to create a monopoly and was in restraint of trade. The argument was that GM had taken control of a non-dominant company in a non-GM line of business and was bringing that company to a position of dominance. Euclid was a tiny fraction of GM's 1958 sales of $9.5 billion profit and 520,000 employees. GM held that the Euclid Division held only a 5 percent market, but its defense fell on deaf ears that were that were more anti-GM than anti-Euclid and its off-highway truck products.

"At the time, General Motors, the largest U.S. corporation, was a perennial target of the U.S. Department of Justice and a favorite whipping boy of Congress because of its dominant position in the automotive, locomotive, and coach businesses. The 1953 acquisition of Euclid brought a storm of criticism. In hearings before the Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee in 1955, GM was accused of "swallowing up" a small, family-owned company. Armington, the principal witness, told the senators that his company had not had the capital to compete with others in the industry in development of new products, and he had no choice but to merge with a larger company. But a Cummins official testified that Euclid's purchases of engines from that company had dropped to about 25 percent of their former level in the two years following the GM takeover, the difference going to Detroit Diesel. The fact was not lost on the Justice Department." (William Haycraft, "Yellow Steel")

By the early 1960s, with the anti-trust lawsuit in full swing, the spark for GM began to fade. Caterpillar's entrance into the off-highway truck market saw an outpouring of new products between 1959 and 1963 that put an end to any dreams General Motors may have had of dominating the earthmoving equipment business.

After more than eight years of litigation with the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, General Motors, in a consent decree, agreed to divest the portion of its earthmoving product line acquired in 1953 from the Euclid Road Machinery Company: off-highway trucks and bottom-dumps. Paying $24 million cash, the White Motor Company took over on July 1, 1968. It acquired the Euclid name, the old Euclid plant in Cleveland, and the rights to sell the products through the fifty dealers composing the North American GM/Euclid dealer organization. Dealers would continue to sell the GM earthmoving products not affected by the decree: scrapers, wheel loaders, and track-type tractors. For a time, GM continued to build Euclid products from its Motherwell, Scotland, plant. (William Haycraft, Yellow Steel, page 225)

In 1965 Euclid offered the Model R-X, a rear-dump hauler with four-wheel-drive and an articulated frame. The R-X was steered by use of hydraulic cylinders acting between the front and rear frames. Changed to the Model R-105 in 1969, the truck came with engines ranging from 700 to 1,000 horsepower, and capacities from 85 to 105 tons.

The government's antitrust lawsuit challenging General Motors' 1953 acquisition of the Euclid Road Machinery Company (United States v. General Motors Corporation) was finally resolved through a settlement and divestiture agreement reached in 1967.

Following the initial ruling in March 1960 (183 F. Supp. 858) which transferred the case to the Northern District of Ohio, the litigation continued through 1967 under Section 7 of the Clayton Act. In 1967, GM agreed to settle the government's antitrust suit by divesting the Euclid earth-moving equipment operations. The final transition was completed when White Motor Co. officially acquired the division in 1968.

January 16, 1967
From Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 16, 1967.

The draft version of the consent decree was signed in August 1967. General Motors and White Motors entered into an agreement on August 2, 1967 for White to purchase the Euclid line of off-highway rear-dump trucks, which would satisfy the Justice Department's antitrust claim about a monopoly.

• October 16, 1959 — The U.S. Department of Justice originally filed an antitrust suit against General Motors under Section 7 of the Clayton Act to force GM to divest itself of Euclid Road Machinery Co.
• October 25, 1960 — After the case entered into its discovery phase, the antitrust trial was moved from New York to Northern Ohio at the request of GM because that was where all the records were located and the cost of transportation of any records from Ohio to New York would be unreasonable. After the transfer to Ohio, the case never went to trial prior to the August 1967 settlement and consent decree.
• January 1967 — GM and White Motor Corp. opened negotiations for the sale of the Euclid Division to White, but the talks broke down when GM, White and the Justice Department could not agree on the terms.
• August 2, 1967 — GM announced an agreement in principle on settlement terms with the Justice Department (a draft consent decree), allowing them to reopen negotiations to sell certain assets.
• January 31, 1968 — A formal purchase and sale agreement was executed between GM and White Motor Corporation.
• July 1, 1968 — The consent judgment was formally entered by the court, and the transfer of two Euclid plants in Ohio to White Motor Corp. took effect. (Read the Final Judgment, dated July 1, 1968)

Under the terms of the decree, GM was agreed to sell its off-highway haul truck assets and the Euclid brand name to White Motor Corp. GM retained its crawler, front-end loader, and scraper lines, as well as its Hudson, Ohio manufacturing plant for those machines, and subsequently rebranded its remaining earthmoving business as Terex. The name change took effect on October 15, 1968.

After the sale of Euclid to White Motor Corporation, General Motors formed the Terex brand. Under the sale agreement with White, GM was not allowed to produce trucks in competition with White for four years – from July 1, 1968, to July 1, 1972. GM could produce off-highway haul trucks but could not sell them in the US, and continued its international sales of the former Euclid designs.

This 1968 sale of Euclid to White Motor Corp. was the result of the government's anti-trust suit against General Motors. GM retained some of the equipment built by Euclid and the manufacturing capability, but gave up the Euclid brand name for U. S. sales. GM also gave up the designs for mechanical drive off-highway trucks, but retained the designs for off-highway electric drive trucks. These electric trucks were marketed under the Terex brand.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/183/858/1973615/

(Read more about GM-Terex)

Euclid Sold To White (1968-1977)

February 1968
On February 15, 1968 White Motor Corporation purchased the line of Euclid off-highway trucks. GMC retained the right to build and market haulers from Canadian plants and the former Euclid factories in Hudson and Scotland, but was barred from re-entering the US market until July 1, 1972. The former Euclid tractor, scraper and loader lines were also retained by GM and were produced by its Earthmoving Equipment Division, which became Terex. The British operation retained the Euclid (Great Britain), Ltd. name until December 1968, when it was renamed General Motors Scotland, Ltd. Euclid lost its international manufacturing and marketing in the deal. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

White Motor Corporation operated Euclid as a subsidiary under the name of Euclid, Inc.

In 1971 Euclid experimented with its Model R-210, a 210-ton capacity truck with a gas turbine power plant and electric wheel drive. Power came from an Avco-Lycoming 1,850-horsepower gas turbine. Although only one was built, the R-210 made headlines around the world. Like the R-105, the R-210 had equal weight distribution and electric drive to its four wheels.

Euclid Sold To Daimler-Benz (1977-1984)

August 1977
White Motor Corporation sold Euclid, Inc., to Daimler-Benz AG as a subsidiary in August 1977. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

From 1977 to 1984, Euclid was a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG of Germany. During this time the worldwide surface mining industry standardized on 170-tons capacity as a proven and reliable truck size. Euclid's offering in this class was its diesel-electric R-170. Actually developed during the White Motor ownership and announced in 1975, the R-170 would be Euclid's flagship hauler for more than a decade. It could be fitted with Detroit or Cummins 16-cylinder engines of 1,492 and 1,519 flywheel-horsepower respectively and, from 1982, the truck was available with the MTU 12-cylinder 1,492-flywheel-horsepower engine. (The Earthmover Encyclopedia, page 180)

Euclid-Clark/Volvo Joint Venture (1984-1993)

January 1984
Daimler-Benz sold Euclid to the Clark Michigan Company, the construction machinery subsidiary to Clark Equipment Company in January 1984. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

Clark Michigan was in financial trouble after losing market share to the Japanese company Komatsu, and its new CEO was looking for a solution to save the company. The sale of Euclid by Daimler-Benz to Clark Michigan was actually a trade of company stocks as a joint venture, since Euclid had never been profitable for D-B. The head of Clark Michigan proposed a combination Clark-Michigan with Euclid (a German company) and Volvo (a Swedish company), and a Japanese company. The Japanese company dropped out, but the three-way combination resulted in the Volvo-Michigan-Euclid joint venture, or VME.

1985
Clark formed a 50/50 joint venture company with Volvo AB in 1985. In 1986 the joint venture became VME, an acronym for Volvo Michigan Euclid, and operated in separate units, Volvo BM Company in Europe and VME Americas in North America. The European unit became simply VME in 1989. In 1991, VME Americas was divided into VME Industries North America to handle Euclid products and VME Sales North America to handle wheel loaders and articulated trucks. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

In April of 1986, the VME Corporation was organized. After a bit more than a year, the VME joint venture became profitable. Then, with the support of Clark Equipment Corporation's senior management, Volvo increasingly sought and gained control. It gradually converted Clark Michigan into what was largely a sales organization with only one manufacturing facility. Subsequently, Volvo bought out Clark's share of VME at a price very favorable to Clark. Clark Michigan had avoided bankruptcy, had survived until it was sold at a profit.

Euclid-VME/Hitachi Joint Venture (1993-1998)

December 1993
VME Industries North America formed a joint venture with Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Ltd. of Japan in December 1993. Hitachi acquired a 19.5 percent share of the Euclid US operations, and the venture was called Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment Ltd. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

In 1993 VME and Hitachi formed Euclid-Hitachi, a joint venture dedicated to the production of rigid haulers from 36 to 260 tons used in construction and mining applications. At the beginning, VME held an 80 percent share of the venture. (Diesel Progress, North American Division, March 1, 1999)

May 1995
The VME name was eliminated in May 1995 when Volvo's parent company purchased Clark's share of the VME venture, and the former VME was renamed Volvo Construction Equipment Corporation. By 1996, Hitachi had increased its shares of Euclid to 40 percent. (Historical Construction Equipment Association archives)

In 1995, Clark opted out of the VME joint venture, selling its 50 percent of the company to Volvo for $573 million. The company was re-christened Volvo Construction Equipment, and established as a wholly owned subsidiary of AB Volvo. (Diesel Progress, North American Division, March 1, 1999)

1996
By 1996, AB Volvo was the sole parent of Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) North America, the organization that replaced VME North America, which formerly built and sold Euclid haulers. Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment Inc., a joint-venture owned 80 percent by Volvo and 20 percent by Hitachi Construction Machinery Ltd., became the manufacturing arm for Euclid trucks, which in North America were marketed by VCE. (Construction Equipment, January 1, 1996)

By 1998 Euclid offered 12 rear-dump haul trucks from 32 to 262 tons in capacity. The largest, the R-260, was introduced at the MinExpo mining show in Las Vegas in 1996. The diesel-electric truck was powered by a Detroit S-4000 diesel of 2,500 horse-power and had a gross vehicle weight of 850,800 pounds. With the exception of the two smallest trucks in the line (R-32 and R-36), all Euclid trucks are now built in the Ontario, Canada, plant, which the company acquired in 1972 from Bucyrus-Erie Company. The two smallest trucks are Volvo-designed, were built in Poland. A line of articulated dump trucks with capacity of up to 40 tons is also sold under the Volvo name.

Hitachi Takes Control (1998)

In 1998, AB Volvo reduced its ownership share in Euclid Hitachi Heavy Equipment Inc., from 60 percent to 20 percent. Hitachi's share is now 80 percent and it agreed to purchase the remaining 20 percent in October of 2001, making the company a wholly owned Hitachi subsidiary. In addition, Volvo agreed to sell its rigid hauler business in Australia to Marubeni Construction & Mining Equipment Ply. Ltd., Australia. (Diesel Progress, North American Division, March 1, 1999)

October 9, 1998
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd., Purchases Majority Share of Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment, Inc.

Midway through 1998, Volvo Construction Equipment acquired 90 percent of Samsung Heavy Industries' construction equipment business for $572 million. Samsung's primary products are 10 different types of hydraulic excavators, most ranging from 5 to 45 tons. (Diesel Progress, North American Division, March 1, 1999)

October 1, 2001
Hitachi purchased the remaining 20 percent of Euclid-Hitachi from Volvo Construction Equipment on October 1, 2001, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary. (Euclid-Hitachi news release dated October 9, 1998)

October 2003
Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment, Inc. closed its manufacturing facility in Euclid, Ohio, moving all truck production to Guelph, Ontario. The task of engineering research and development was contracted to a group of former engineers who remained in Euclid, operating as Pioneer Solutions LLC. (Crain's Cleveland Business, August 22, 2005)

2004
On January 1, 2004 Hitachi renamed its Euclid-Hitachi Heavy Equipment Ltd. of Guelph, Ontario to Hitachi Construction Truck Manufacturing Ltd., abolishing the Euclid name.

August 2004
Hitachi first offers its new EH5000 rigid frame haul truck, with a stated capacity of 320 tons, AC electric drive, and a 2700 horsepower Detroit Diesel engine.

(As of December 2010, the Euclid name is still displayed on trucks manufactured by Hitachi, as seen in their sales brochures.)

Sources include:

• online newspapers
• Keith Haddock's book "Giant Earthmovers, An Illustrated History," pages 109-112
• William Haycraft's book, "Yellow Steel," pages 129-132, 173-176
• Russell L. Ackoff's book, "Re-Creating The Corporation, A Design of Corporations for the 21st Century"

Euclid Links

• Euclid Trucks article at Wikipedia
• Euclid archives at Historical Construction Equipment Association archives

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