what where & who / the origin of the tractor trailer?

Answer 1

Brief History of the Semi-trailer
Fruehauf
August Charles Fruehauf (1868-1930), was a blacksmith and carriage builder in the Detroit area. In 1914, he built a trailer to carry a merchant's pleasure boat, which was to be hauled by a Ford automobile. The trailer was a success. The merchant asked Fruehauf to build additional trailers to haul lumber. These trailers, which Fruehauf called "semi-trailers", became very popular. In 1918, Fruehauf incorporated his semi-trailer manufacturing company, and the Fruehauf Trailer Company was was formed.

Trailmobile
John C. Endebrock began work at the Sechler Company, a carriage maker, in 1889 as an office boy, working his way through the ranks to the position of foreign sales representative. It was Endebrock who, around 1910, saw that the future lay in building "truck trailers," and that the days of the horse-drawn wagon were coming to an end. No one had yet developed a satisfactory device for coupling a truck-trailer to a truck. Endebrock decided to concentrate on a vehicle that could be pulled by a Ford Model "T" passenger car.

A totally new trailer had to be designed using the principles of automobile dynamics. This new unit featured an angle iron chassis frame with crossmembers, horn-type front spring hangers, a knuckle-type front axle, automobile springs, artillery wheels, roller bearings, and a draw bar with housed spring sections. In 1915, after months of rigorous road testing, the new trailer was introduced to the world. The name "Trailmobile" was chosen since the unit would "trail" an automobile. The wide acceptance of these first automotive trailers prompted the Sechler organization to change its name to the Trailmobile Company.

Endebrock pondered the possibility of easing the task of coupling and uncoupling semi-trailers, which required three men with jacks to lift the trailer. He wondered if a coupler similar to those used on railroad cars could be devised for the semi-trailer, eliminating the need for two extra men. During 1918-1919, he developed a jaw coupled with a spring-plunger locking device, mounted on a "lower fifth wheel" plate attached to the tractor frame. The fifth wheel mechanism locked into a "king pin" on the bottom of the front end of the semi-trailers. Only one man, the driver of the tractor, was needed to couple and uncouple the automatic trailer. Endebrock's handmade prototype fifth wheel, patented in 1919, differed very little from present semi-trailer fifth wheels
Originally, a fifth wheel was a steering bearing that enabled the front axle of a horse-drawn wagon to rotate. Today, a fifth wheel is a wheel or portion of a wheel placed horizontally over the rear axle or axles of a tractor or pickup truck, serving as a coupling for a semitrailer that allows it to rotate for turns and better stability.

Answer 2

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Call csx or norfolk southern. Don't know if they can assist you in just a one time deal. If you have to do it by truck, i think trailer transit inc. can assist you. They do power only ( tractor only ) jobs. Good luck