I never heard of White trucks before!
From Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Motor_Company
Car Model from 1906
White_Model_G_(1906).jpg
It all started when Mr White (not the Meth teacher...), who owned a sewing maching company, bought a newfangled steam powered car and it would break down all the time due to the way the boiler was designed.
His boy said, "There has to be a better way!" and designed a new boiler. Patented it, and offered it to a locomotive company.
Meanwhile, him and his brother started tinkering with the design in the corner of the sewing machine plant. They ended up making 50 cars with the new design and testing them with friends and family for a year.
Four years later they had sold enough to become a nuisance for the sewing machine factory and Dad said, "Take your newfangled au-to-mo beele and get yourself a warehouse of your own, boys!" So they did.
Three years after that one of those boy's cars (they looked like the Beverly Hilbillies truck) made it to the white house stables. It was driven behind Teddy Rosevelt's buggy by his Secret Service team.
Taft bought one too and it was one of his favorite vehicles because he could make it "burst steam" and jet off away from the paparazzi. Haha!
They built almost 10k steam cars in total before moving to gas powered.
It's said that a White steam car was what burned up Jay Leno too, but that was a gas operated vehicle so I don't know how true that is.
The boy that started all this got really interested in tractors after they swapped to gas cars, and left to pursue a tractor company.
During the depression they joined up with Studebaker to make ends meet, then separated later, and started selling other brands along with White trucks. They ceased making cars altogether, and only made light duty through semi trucks.
White Semi Truck
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Sales dropped during the 1960s as cars became cool and trucks were for work, and White tried merging with White Consolidated Industries, the original company that once made sewing machines, however the federal government blocked the deal.
Later the government changed their mind as the company stumbled with the rise of unions, and approved a merger with White Consolidated, which feared being hurt by White's troubles. This is when they reached out to GMC to use the 478. White Trucks didn't offer a light duty truck at this time and suffered from the lack of variety.
Sadly by 1980, White was insolvent, filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Volvo acquired most of the assets of the company in 1981, while two energy-related companies - Bow Valley Resource Services and NovaCorp - purchased the Canadian assets, including the Kelowna, British Columbia plant, and the Western Star nameplate and product range.[40]
Volvo created the Volvo White Truck Corporation which continued making White trucks.
In 1988, Volvo created a new brand called WhiteGMC, which was the result of a merger with General Motors. The WhiteGMC brand would last until 1996. Following the discontinuation of the brand, Volvo would continue making trucks under Volvo and Autocar nameplates.
In 1991 AGCO bought White Farm Equipment from TIC.
In 2001, White Farm Equipment would stop making tractors and only make planters.
In 2021, White Farm Equipment was discontinued by AGCO which would end the White brand entirely.
