The Savannah Blowpipe Company was established in 1900 in Savannah, Georgia. At the time, sheet metal blowpipe systems were common at sawmills, planning mills, and furniture plants throughout the Southeast. The company began to fabricate light structural steel and steel plate products by 1912.
The Savannah Blowpipe company became the Steel Products Company in 1931. The new company began to design and manufacture truck trailers for over-the-road freight hauling. Economic pressures and highway weight laws soon crated a market for lighter weight trailers. The company began to produce lightweight tank trailers and van trailers made of high tensile steel in 1938.
In the early 1940's, the Steel Products Company pioneered the refrigerated trailer with the first produce van with a wet ice bunker and a gas engine and blower system. The name of the company was changed to Great Dane Trailers, Inc in 1958. Today the company has three locations in Charlotte, NC; Lancaster/Mt. Joy, PA; and Dallas, TX. Great Dane produces dry freight vans, reefers, and platform trailers.
