Graham Brothers - Lost in History

In-depth

15 June

1. Heaser 1925 Graham Bros. owned by Arthur Sharp..JPG

Arthur Sharp - that's Sharp without an 'e'. (“We're poor Sharps – couldn't afford the e”) - is a fountain of information when it comes to Graham Brothers, a name lost in the annals of history.

Graham’s were originally manufacturers of vehicle components. In the early days people converted their cars into light trucks or Utes and Graham Brothers built an extension to go on the back.

"Between 1921 and 1929, Graham Brothers manufactured all the trucks for Dodge. Dodge made cars but not trucks. The engines were of course, Dodge. The gearbox I believe was a Spicer and the differential was a Clarke. (I'm not sure if it was a poor Clark, or a wealthy Clarke.)

"In 1925 a Graham Brothers truck was a fairly big thing. A good horse could pull a tonne on the tray behind it. But a good horse could only do about 25 miles in a day, carrying that sort of weight. Now, a little truck like the Graham - it did 25 miles an hour and it carried a ton and a half. So moneywise, you'd buy a truck and you'd make a lot more money with it. That truck new was about £265.”

**Arthur Sharp and his 1925, one and a half ton Graham.**

"In about 1929 (Dodge was owned by Chrysler then) the Chrysler company bought Graham Brothers and took them out of the company altogether. So then the Graham's bought the Paige Motor Co. which became Graham Paige cars. They built V8 and six cylinder, supercharged cars back in the early 30s. There are a number of Graham Paige cars in Australia and in fact there is a Graham Paige car club here.

Arthur's truck is a 1925 1 1/2 ton Graham Brothers, which he bought in 2002 from a farmer in Cowra, his hometown. The motor is a four-cylinder side valve, Dodge engine – 212 in.³ with 25 rated horsepower. Top speed is about 25 miles an hour.

"I'd never heard of a Graham until I bought one. The farmer told me he had an old truck. I said I'd go and look at it but didn't get around to it. 12 months later he ran into me and said, 'You never came to have looked at the truck. Are you still interested?' I thought I'd better go and have a look. It was in a shed with 6 inches to spare on either side. The windows had gone. Rats had been all over it and eaten the wiring, upholstery - everything. I said I'd like to see it out of the shed. He hopped in, kicked it over and she started, albeit on two cylinders. I had a car trailer with me and I took it there and then."

**Graham Brothers 1 tonner. Wooden spokes instead of steel**

The truck started life as an oil truck for the Texaco Oil Company in Canberra. It carried oil drums for 10 years. Every driver that drove it wrote his name up in the corner of the cab together with the years that they drove it. Unfortunately, when Arthur rebuilt the cab, he had to put a board over the top, where they had signed it. He did have the foresight to photograph all the information, which is still there.

“We bought it in 2002 for $3,200. I've probably spent just over $20,000 on it, which is not a lot of money for what it is, and its rarity.

"I don't know how many are in the country but I saw the most number of Graham Brothers trucks at an ATHS meet at Lancefield - two Graham Fire engines, a 6 tonner and another 1925 1 tonner. The one tonners had wooden spoke wheels. The one and a half ton had iron spoke wheels. There are no brakes on the front wheels only the rear. I think the brakes were put there because the motor traffic act at the time said they had to have brakes. The only thing the motor traffic act didn't say was that they had to work – because these don't!”

"Finding parts is hard. Everywhere I go I look to see if I can find more bits. Take the wheels: if it's a Graham truck it's got GB on the wheels, if it's a Dodge they have DB on the wheels. I found the hubcaps on eBay out of America. I bid $230 and I didn't get them. A couple of weeks go by and I get an e-mail from a bloke in America and he said, 'You bid on a set of hubcaps that I had'.

"I sent him photos of my truck and he said he had another set, the equal to those he'd just sold. He wasn't going to part with them, but when he saw the photographs of my truck he said, 'You need hubcaps', and I could have them for $199. It turned out that he was a great, great-grandson of the Grahams.

"This truck has as much original wood in it as I could keep. The roof I had to replace and that was hard work as it curves fore and aft as well as from side to side – tongue and groove doesn't like to do that."

**Arthur did most of the work himself, aided by his cabinet maker son.**

Arthur was a fireman, working for the New South Wales rural Fire service. He owned trucks years ago but sold them.

"That was back in the ‘80s. Blokes came into the game who were willing to work for half the money that I was earning. In the end I thought I can't hack this. It never stopped my love of trucks though."

Arthur Sharp - without the 'e' - is yet another who keeps the history of trucks and trucking alive, for us all to enjoy.

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