SAURER

International Motor Co. (1911-1918)
Plainfield, New Jersey

This is a Saurer truck radiator script (c1915-1918)     mjs
Size: 255mm wide

Saurer trucks were imported from Switzerland into America from 1908 and assembly of Saurer parts in America began in 1909. In 1911 the 4-ton Saurer began to be manufactured in Plainfield, New Jersey and later that year the International Motor Company was established to produce and sell Mack and Saurer trucks in the United States, to be joined by Hewitt in 1912. From 1912, Saurer also offered 5-ton and 6-1/2-ton capacity trucks alongside their 4-ton model.

In 1911, a Saurer was the first truck to make a cross-country journey in America and was driven from Denver to Los Angeles and then to San Francisco. The same truck was then shipped by rail to Pueblo, Colorado from where it was driven back across-country to New York City, see original photo shown below displaying the Saurer logo on the side of the canopy:

Saurer truck making the first continental crossing (1911)  ms

The Saurer, sometimes called American Saurer, was discontinued in 1918.

Emblems

The Saurer truck displayed a "Saurer" script attached to the radiator core, see surviving example shown below:

Saurer truck with radiator script (1917)   bonhams

This script is similar to the "Saurer" radiator script shown above at the top of this post. Original Saurer radiator scripts are rare.

The following blue enamel Saurer radiator emblem was used on Saurer models in Europe and may have been carried by some Saurer trucks built in Plainfield, but I cannot confirm this. This Saurer radiator emblem is rare.

This is a Saurer radiator emblem (c1915)     mjs
Size: 56mm diameter    MM: None

The following is a hubcap used on a Saurer truck built in Plainfield:

This is a Saurer hubcap (1911-1918)     dkc