Historic Car Brands
Chandler-Cleveland
The Chandler Motor Car Company was formed in January 1913 and a subsidiary company, Cleveland Automobile Company, was established in 1919. The two officially merged in 1926 and Chandler-Cleveland was then sold to Hupmobile, months before the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
In 1913, the Chandler brand was established by a group of ex-Lozier employees, who departed this low-volume, luxury brand to produce higher-volume cars.
The brand was named after its president Frederick Chandler, who had been principal designer at Lozier.
The initial release was a five-passenger touring car, powered by an in-house, 30bhp six-cylinder engine and was priced under US$2000.
1917 Chandler Type 17 engine – R M Sothebys
The engine featured two separately cast, iron block and head, three-cylinder modules and an aluminium crankcase. This casting had a wide bottom flange that allowed the engine to be mounted directly onto the frame rails allowing the flange to act as a splash guard, to keep mud and dirt out of the engine bay.
1917 Chandler Type 17 engine – R M Sothebys
A three-speed transmission and prop shaft took torque to a three-quarter-floating, bevel-gear differential, and a longitudinal torque arm absorbed axle rotational forces. Rear axle mechanical brakes featured internal expanding and external contracting brake shoes.
The advertising slogan reflected the experience of the Chandler team: ‘Built by Men Who Know’. Success was immediate.
1917 Chandler Type 17 seven-passenger tourer – R M Sothebys
For 1914, an electric starter was added and, for 1915, three new body styles debuted: a runabout, centre-door sedan and a limousine.
Chandler sold more than 6400 cars in 1915; more than Packard and only 1200 units fewer than Oldsmobile. By 1919, Chandler annual sales exceeded 18,000 units.
1919 Chandler Opera Coupe – Michai Marias
Exports had begun almost immediately and as far away as Australia, a local distributor highlighted in its advertising for Chandler, ‘Another Overland Trek’ that described a journey, undertaken shortly after WWI, from Sydney to Adelaide.
Enter the Cleveland
At this point in Chandler’s product plan, a ‘Light Six’ was envisaged, to maintain market volume by competing with lower-priced, medium-segment cars.
The defunct brand name, ‘Cleveland’ was revived for this car in 1919, having previously been used by E J Pennington’s Cleveland Motor Car Company that operated for only five years, after being founded in 1904.
1919 Cleveland Type 40 – Bonhams
The first Chandler-owned Cleveland was the Model 40, five-passenger touring car, priced at US$1385 – around US$500 less than the higher-spec’ Chandler five-seater.
Cleveland six-cylinder OHV engine – Bonhams
The Cleveland engine was an overhead-valve (OHV), in-line, 3.1-litre, six-cylinder unit, with three-bearing crankshaft and Stromberg MB1 carburettor that helped it produce 45bhp at 2200rpm.
It may seem odd that Chandler fitted this more advanced design, cross-flow OHV engine to its budget Cleveland brand, but the perception in the post-WWI period was different from what happened in the post-WWII period, when all US side-valve flatheads – sixes and V8s – were replaced by OHV engines.
Cleveland six-cylinder OHV engine – Bonhams
Back in 1919, large-displacement, low-revving, torquey, side-valve engines were the preferred power plants for many luxury car models. The Cleveland’s smaller, OHV engine revved higher and was better suited to its more nimble, mid-priced cars.
Like Chandlers, the Clevelands had ladder frames, semi-elliptic leaf springs and mechanical, rear-axle drum brakes. Styling was also similar.
1919 Cleveland Model 40 – Bonhams
The paired Chandler-Cleveland initiative was another success for the companies, with 23,800 Chandlers and 15,800 Clevelands sold in 1920. Unfortunately, that’s as good as the sales numbers ever got.
The 1921 economic crisis trimmed Cleveland sales to 12,200 and although that had improved to 14,500 cars by end-1923, that came as poor compensation for a massive 50-percent drop in Chandler sales.
Chandler repower
Chandler Six racing car – Bonhams
With a new six-cylinder engine that was personally tested on Pike’s Peak by Fred Chandler, prior to going into production, Chandler cars had a rebirth in 1923.
Indy driver, Ralph Mulford, drove a Chandler up New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in 17 minutes, setting a new record and the repowered Chandlers were billed as: ‘The Car Built for Mountains’.
Chandler monobloc side-valve six – ClassicCars.com
Although still a side-valve six, the new Chandler engine was good for 55bhp, from a displacement of 4.7-litres (289 cu in). This L-head engine was a monobloc iron casting, with iron head and light-aluminium-alloy pistons, fed by a Stromberg Model 32 OE2 carburettor.
Late 1923 saw the introduction of the ‘Chandler Traffic Transmission’ that made gear-shifting a lot easier than was the case with sliding-mesh transmissions or ‘dog-clutch’ constant-mesh boxes.
It was made by Chandler, under patent licence from the Campbell Transmission Company.
The transmission input shaft from the clutch driven plate was geared to a three-speed cluster shaft that was in turn geared permanently to three gears on the output shaft. However, these gears were free to rotate on this shaft, unless locked onto it by gear-selector operated rocking keys.
This easy-shift constant-mesh gearbox preceded General Motors’ Synchro-Mesh transmission by two years.
Chandler-Cleveland unification
1927 Chandler – Akrasia25
The introduction, in 1925, of Cleveland’s innovative Bowen ‘One Shot’ centralised lubrication system – operated via a dashboard plunger – into the Chandler range presaged rationalisation of the Chandler-Cleveland company structure.
In 1926, Chandler Motor Car Company and Cleveland Automobile Company officially merged, and the Chandler brand was used on all cars. The One Shot chassis lube system was fitted to all of them.
The joint company sold 20,000-plus Chandler cars in 1926, but model variety and complexity – 26 different models on four different chassis – meant costs were high. Additional complexity came with the introduction of the top-shelf Royal Eight in early 1927.
1929 Chandler Royal Eight – R M Sotheby’s
This car competed with the world’s best; came with a choice of five body styles and was powered by an eight-cylinder derived from the side-valve six. It displaced 5.6 litres (340 cu in) and produced 80bhp at 3000rpm.
Despite the fact that Chandler was exporting to more than 100 countries around the world, sales began to slow and the company reported a loss in 1927.
The product offerings were rationalised somewhat – 23 body styles in three series – Royal Eight, Big Six and Royal Six – and retail prices were dropped, but the books looked no better by the end of 1928.
Chandler’s end
Frederick Chandler knew that the time for smaller car makers was up, well ahead of the Wall Street Crash that was still a year away.
When DuBois ‘Pinky’ Young, president of the Hupp Motor Car Corporation, made overtures to purchase Chandler, a deal was done. Hupp mainly wanted Chandler’s factories and dealer network, it turned out.
On Friday, 22nd November, 1928 it was confirmed that Hupp had purchased Chandler, for a reported US$18 million that was well above the company’s on-paper worth.
Although he promised to continue Chandler car production, ‘Pinky’ Young converted factory space to production of his new Hupmobile Model S by mid-1929 and Chandler was no more.
Ironically, Hupmobile was hit hard by the 1930s’ Great Depression and, despite last-ditch mergers with other stressed car makers, closed down in 1939.
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