DAF Trucks

DAF Trucks is a Dutch truck manufacturing company and a division of Paccar. DAF originally stood for van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek. Its headquarters and main plant are in Eindhoven. Cabs and axle assemblies are produced at its Westerlo plant in Belgium. Some of the truck models sold with the DAF brand are designed and built by Leyland Trucks at its Leyland plant in the United Kingdom. In 1928, Hubert "Hub" van Doorne founded the company as Commanditaire Vennootschap Hub van Doorne's Machinefabriek. His co-founder and investor was A. H. Huenges, managing director of a brewery. Van Doorne had repaired Huenges' car several times, and Huenges, pleased with his work, offered to finance him in business. Hub started to work in a small workshop on the grounds of the brewery. In 1932, the company, by then run by Hub and his brother, Wim van Doorne, changed its name to Van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory), abbreviated to DAF. Huenges left the company in 1936 and the DAF company was then completely in the hands of the van Doorne brothers. DAF developed the Trado conversions to convert 4×2 Ford trucks to an off-road 6×4 drive. One of DAF's few armoured vehicles, the M39 Pantserwagen, used developments of this Trado drivetrain. M39 production came too late for World War II – in the invasion of the Netherlands (1940) only three saw combat. After World War II luxury cars and trucks were very scarce. This meant a big opportunity for DAF. In 1949, the company started making trucks, trailers and buses, changing its name to Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (Van Doorne's Automobile Factory). The first lorry model was the DAF A30. Through the 1950s, DAF was a major supplier to the re-equipping of the Dutch Army's softskin vehicles, with models such as the DAF YA-126 and DAF YA-328 'Dikke Daf'. These used the all-wheel drive H-drive developed from the Trado conversions. In late 1954, Hub van Doorne had the idea to use belt driven continuously variable transmissions, like so many belt-driven machines in factories, to drive road vehicles.