The Federal commercial range of vehicles was developed from a prototype of the Bailey Motor Truck Company embracing bonneted chain driven vehicles with 1 and 2 ton capacities and powered by a 4 cylinder Continental petrol engine with a 3 speed transmission. By 1913 The Federal Motor Truck Company had built its 100th truck and in 1916 the chain drive system was replaced by Timken worm drive. A 5ton model was announced in 1917 and this was followed by a 7 ton model in 1918 by which time both light and heavy duty articulated tractor units were available. Some models were sold in Britain as Whiting.
1920´s Federal
By the early 1920´s some seven models were available and by 1923 18 and 25 seat passenger vehicles were added to the range. Apart from the Federal-Knight range all vehicles had Continental engines until 1927 when the Waukesha engined Scout 4 cylinder model made its debut, by 1929 the company was offering sleeper cabs on its largest tractor units and all models had brakes on the front wheels.
In 1930 50bhp 4 cylinder and 72bhp 6 cylinder petrol engines were offered in the company´s 4 and 6 wheelers. Considerable re-styling took place in 1935 and double reduction gearing was introduced to be followed two years later in 1937 by numerous cabover models.
During World War 2 the company received four citations for its military vehicle production figures and several different models were produced for the American Armed Forces. Post war production continued with the pre-war models until 1951 when the bonneted Styleliner with a 145bhp Federal engine was introduced as was a selection of different models of all weight categories with both petrol and diesel engines. At this time Federal also began building special vehicles such as aircraft towing tractors.
In 1952 the company became the Federal Motor Truck Division of the Federal Fawick Corporation but this only lasted until 1955 when the business was acquired by Napco Industries and production was moved to Minneapolis. The company was now relying upon special orders to keep it going and the end of vehicle production came about when an order was gained to produce military truck axles. The last commercial vehicles produced by Federal were bus chassis.
Federal Knight USA 1924- 1928
The Federal Motor Company introduced a light commercial chassis powered by a 4 cylinder Willys Knight petrol engine and this model was produced and sold as the Federal Knight for 4 years until production ended.
1940´s Federal Artic
1946 Federal Drawbar
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