1927 Graham Truck Bodie California Ghost Town un-edited

1918 to 1928 Dodge Brother Pickups & Graham Brothers Company - History.
During the eleven years the original Dodge Brothers Company built trucks they offered only one pickup - a 3-4 ton from 1924 through 1927. This era of Dodge truck history in reality is the story of two companies - the Dodge Brothers Company and the Graham Brothers Company.
Dodge Brothers Company entered into an agreement with the Graham Brothers Company in 1921 whereby the Grahams would manufacture 1 and 1 1-2-ton trucks from mechanical parts supplied by Dodge and with cabs and bodies manufactured in the Graham's plants. The Grahams were able to offer an extensive range of wheelbases, cabs, and bodies to exactly suit the buyer's specifications. These trucks were sold exclusively through Dodge Brothers dealers.
The following is a more complete history of Graham Brothers Company “Truck Builder” activities, excerpt from an article written by Mike McNessor. Farm products and equipment was undoubtedly one of the many tasks the Graham brothers envisioned when they set out to build a better truck. The Evansville, Indiana, company rolled out its fledgling rigs in 1919, under the banner, "Truck Builder."
Graham's Truck Builder was essentially a truck conversion that began with a passenger car. In some cases, Graham might simply cut off the car chassis aft of the engine and graft on heavy-duty frame rails and a rear axle. Then they'd top the new "truck" with a Graham cab and body, typically made out of wood.
According to the book Dodge Trucks by Don Bunn, Graham marketed its "Truck Builder "...to car dealers as a method of increasing their business and at the same time ridding themselves of used car inventories." The Truck Builder worked this way: The new-car dealer would sell a new car to a customer, then suggest to the buyer that his old car could be converted into a truck. The owner could drive his old car into a Graham Truck Builder Distributing and Assembling Depot and drive out with a complete 1-, 1 1-2- or 2 1-2-ton truck. Any car could be converted.
During the process, the body was stripped off the chassis and thrown away, then the chassis was beefed up. Typically, a Torbensen heavy-duty rear end was installed, a wooden cab without doors was put in, and a body of the buyer's choice was mounted. The distributing and assembling depot carried the complete line of available Graham bodies in stock and performed all of the work. The new-car dealer would receive a commission for bringing the customer to Graham and not have to do any work for the money. This isn't altogether unlike today's "glider kit," which is a new but partially assembled truck sold by a commercial truck manufacturer that the buyer can outfit with his own engine, transmission, axles, etc.
In 1920, Graham started building its own trucks using vendor-supplied drivetrains and components, the way many heavy commercial trucks are built now. Graham supplied the cab, bodies and frame rails, then purchased running gear from outside companies--Torbensen for the front and rear axles and four-cylinder engines from Continental, for instance. The new Graham truck was dubbed "Speed Truck" and had a 1 1-2-ton payload capacity. One of the variants was the 18-passenger "Speed Bus"--a wood-paneled passenger bus body (from the firewall back) built on a 1 1-2-ton Graham Speed Truck Chassis.
In 1921, a new president at Dodge saw an opportunity to partner with Graham in order to expand Dodge's limited commercial offerings. The Graham brothers signed on with Dodge to use Dodge drivetrains, chassis and even sheet metal, adding their unique cabs and bodies. The chassis and some of the unique parts for these trucks were designed by Graham, but built by Dodge's factories; the trucks were then assembled at Graham's plants. The finished 1- and 1 1-2-ton trucks were then sold as Grahams through Dodge's dealer network, alongside Dodge's own "commercial cars."
The lines defining Dodge and Graham began to blur in late 1924 when Graham became a division of Dodge and Robert Graham was named director of the company's Commercial Car and Truck Division. Graham's 1- and 1 1-2-ton trucks and buses were a sales success, and in 1926, it expanded the lineup to include a two-ton truck with dual wheels. Apparently, hoping to capitalize further on Graham's name as a serious commercial truck, in 1927, all Dodge trucks were built in Graham plants and sold as Grahams. This added a Dodge ¾-ton hauler to the Graham stable, which already included a pair of one-ton models, as well as 1 1-2-ton and 2-ton trucks and buses.
In 1928, a half-ton truck based on a Dodge car with a 108-inch wheelbase was tossed into the mix, giving Graham a repertoire of more than a dozen models ranging from light-duty all the way up to a three-ton carrying capacity.
But, as things go in Detroit, the Graham name would disappear from trucks as quickly as it had appeared. On July 30, 1928, Walter P. Chrysler bought Dodge for $170 million. In January of 1929, all of the trucks and buses that had formerly been Grahams were built with Dodge badges. Meanwhile the Graham brothers, who hadn't been involved in the company that bore their name since 1927, had acquired Paige Detroit and were building Graham-Paige automobiles.

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