1933 Essex-Terraplane Pickup

53jetman

We have had from time to time discussions about whether or not Hudson actually produced a pickup or commercial vehicle during the 1933 model year - I have stated that I believe they did and used the 1933 Flower car on display at Hostetler's Museum as an example. Just today I discovered at the bottom of a 1933 Essex-Terraplane ad in the Country Gentleman magazine this little tag indicating at least a desire on the part of Hudson to produce such a vehicle

Jerry

hudsontech

There's a listing of commercial vehicles in my Gemeral Information Handbook that shows 4 commercial offerings for 1933 listed as Commercial Model K.
Sedan Delivery, Panel Delivery, Cab Express (Pickup) and for the do-it-yourself crowd you could buy a cab chassis to add your own body.
This list comes for the 1930-1939 Master Body Group Parts book - or maybe it's the 1930-1939 Master Chassis Group Parts book. (Both of these are in the online library under 1930-1939 Manuals)

There is a picture of the 1933 panel truck - which apparently is also in Butlers book - in the Terraplane section of the Handbook.

Further, in the Weight Sheet section in the back of the Handbook in 1933 there was listed a Cab Pickup with a shipping weight of 2,375 lbs and Sedan Delivery with a shipping weight of 2,455 lbs.

Going back a year to 1932 there is shown an "L" cab pickup which was made up of an Model L frame rear end and a Model E frame front end. But there has been, so far, no record of any 1932 commercial vehicles, which is interesting. If anybody has any info on 1932 commercial offerings I'd like to know about it - been looking for more than a few years.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

StillOutThere

From the ad text: "It is built on the Terraplane principle and..."

What do we take that to mean? I have my own idea but would be interested in others.

[Deleted User]

At the time right after the crash of the economy. And the current model Hudsons like 1929-30 cars were huge. The Terraplane was marketed as an economy car. Could this possibly be the meaning? ?

oldhudsons

it may have been a reference to the '32-33 E-T having a much lighter weight chassis + the 1st Hudson products with downdraft carb. & fuel pump.

Uncle Josh

Hostetler's is the only 33 registered with the HET Club. SN370629

StillOutThere

I have seen "the Terraplane principle of unit-body construction" talked about in early Terra factory press releases /ads. What that is of course is the all steel body and floor pan being bolted to the frame at 20+ mounting points. Way back when I first purchased the '34 Terraplane pickup Press Kale has, I was flabbergasted getting under it the first time to look up and see the truck maintains the total full floor pan of (presumably) a sedan and it is under the wood bed floor of the pickup all the way to the rearmost frame crossmember. Since '34 had this, I presume the '33 truck advertised also was built this way.
Anyone been under the Hostetler '33 truck that could comment on this?

commodorecollector

First of all apologies for bringing an old topic back to life.

In the "History of Hudson" it clearly states that no commercial vehicles were produced in 1932. However in 1933 Hudson was able to produce a mere 430 commercial vehicles. The matter if any are still around is a whole another question entirely.