The trucks were now called A-traktors, registered as farm equipments. The thing was, in the meantime people had discovered how handy these vehicles could be, and public demand made the government change the regulations in favor of the builders. Seen as a wartime necessity, the thought was that the demand could now be provided for by “real” tractors and trucks. In the middle seventies, the government wanted to phase out the Epa-traktors entirely, but public uproar made the phenomena stay. Virtually every flavor of every Volvo model ever made, someone somewhere has made into an Epa. As most of the Epa’s were Volvo based, Volvo are an almost mandatory brand in these circles. That’s also the usual tell-tale between old school Epa’s and the newer A-traktors, the shortened wheelbase. And even for the Volvo, that meant the frame had to be shortened accordingly. As a side note, the Epa brand of stores gained a notorious reputation for cheap and bad products, and the brand name fell out of fashion so fast the entire chain had to rebrand itself in the early sixties.Īfter the war, the government almost regulated the Epa out of existence, because god forbid, we can’t let people have too much fun now, can we? The rules called for a body on frame, a maximal wheelbase of 225 cm or about 7 feet, an unsprung rear axle, and a 10:1 gear ratio.Īlmost the only car suitable for those conditions during post war society and available in any kind of large quantity was the Volvo PV445, the “Duett”. Figuratively translated to something like the Sears & Roebuck of tractors. The trucks were colloquially called Epa-traktors, named after a chain of low-priced commodities. In modern times, the truck has evolved into something not that different from the Australian “Ute”. The trucks were used in a similar fashion to the original Jeep and the English Land Rover, working on fields or hauling stuff around the farm. ![]() ![]() Tractors were made out of anything resembling a vehicle, most of them had Ford A or AA origin. So, what did the farmers do? They had to make with what they had, and what they had was trucks. In Sweden before and during the second world war, there was a shortage of tractors and farm equipment. And the history of this peculiar kind of truck was born during wartime shortage. The project was exhibited at Värmland’s Museum, Karlstad in Sweden from the 2nd of June till the 29th of September 2019.(first posted ) Necessity really is the mother of all invention. Photo: Benjamin Nørskov Oszkar Melkersson and Leo Janberger. ![]() Photo: Benjamin Nørskov Kevin Greek and Mikael Magnusson. Photo: Benjamin Nørskov Albin Englund and Philip Heribertsson. The documentation works both as a way of portraying the physical manifestation of the EPA life as it looks like today, but it is also a way of preserving this unique part of Swedish culture for the future generations to come. The cars reflect the personality and interests of the owner – changing colors, scent, and sound as the teenage year’s pass. In many ways, the EPA tractor itself becomes a window into a unique kind of teenage life, that has never been documented as extensively as in this project. The cars themselves symbolize the stage between childhood and adulthood where you try everything for the first time – they are a way of experimenting with what adulthood feels like, without quite being there yet. This created a whole new way of being young, that is somewhat unique for Sweden. ![]() The EPA tractors create a special kind of freedom for the young boys and girls, that suddenly find themselves able to live a more parent-independent life. In this way, the car is limited to only two seats and a maximum speed of 30km/h. In the rural parts of Sweden, teenage boys and girls, age 15 to 17 take advantage of a loophole in the Swedish law, that makes it legal to drive a car, if it can be registered as a tractor. By Benjamin Nørskov – made during his 7th and 8th term in 2018.
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