Anyone have pics of old big trucks that were taken when they were new? Busses also welcome. This one was my Grandfathers in 1954
I have more old truck pics I will find... this one is of MY grandfathers "brand new" Ford logging truck .....the kid on the hood is my Father!
Nobody????? There must be someone else besides me and fairlane! By the way, does anyone know of a tractor like the one in my pic sitting around anywhere? I've only seen one. Problem was they ran them to death and junked them. A little history if anyone's interested, if not, here it is anyway. My father told me this was one of the faster trucks on the road at the time. It ran a Continental L-head 6 cyl. with 2 carbs, dual exhaust which exited under the front bumper in case of sparks. My father had the mufflers gutted, and to this day, I still remember what a beautiful, powerful sound it had. My grandfather had a lot of "catch"(part time) drivers, many of them from other trucking companies who, admittedly, came there to have a chance to drive this truck and see how it performed for themselves, having seen it on the highway. This is the truth. Because of the highway gears, it was a little hill-shy, but, on the flat, it would pass everyone with ease, even with a load (5500 gals). There was also another man who had his own tractor who would borrow it if his was down since my grandfather had two tractors. He always asked for the Dodge. With all that use (Clifton to Bayonne for us and who knows where for the other guy) and all those miles, my grandfather sold it to a company who used it for hauling Mail. It was replaced with a B-70 Mack. The other tractor was a 1951 White. I was sorry to see it go even though I was just a kid. It was a pretty looking thing.
OK I'm in. My dad had toyed around with the idea of putting a Buda(I think) diesel(bulldozer) engine in a gas tractor when GMC came out with their first diesels. The purchase contract spec'd that it would pull a loaded trailer 75mph on a level road and something about there would be no warranty on the engine. How's that for traditional hot rodding? There is also a story about the 2 or 3 day bender that the driver and striper went on in Chicago that resulted in the beautiful job you see on the front truck(and the less than stellar stencil job on the other tractor) because dad was so pissed about the days lost on the first one... Not exactly sure on the years of these two but although they are both 5 window cabs there are significant differences between them. Also note that the oil changes were done in the parking lots to keep the dust down... Truckers have always been hot rodders at heart. Sorry for the quality as these are scans of pics converted from 35mm slides and have lost some detail of the original slides.
I'd say those Jimmy's are about '53 or '54. I may be wrong , but real close. My old man had a love affair w/Jimmy's. I gotta say, they rode a whole lot better than his '53 Ford snub-nose. Thanx for the memories, guys.....
I just posted an article about old trucks here http://www.hotrodsonline.com/articles/08_ATHS/slides/0001.html Click through the green arrows. Not original pictures but restored and very cool.
Cool pics. I've had a chance to check out the R L Best collection in Ohio but didn't have a camera with me. Large collection of trucks and wreckers including Mack Jr. prewar pick-ups that I'd never heard of before.Someday I'll get pics of that collection.
Here's an International my Grandfather had and later my father had it. It was a 1960. This photo was taken in 1965
Ramblur, my father had a GMC similar to those, a straight job, 1951, model 620. It was specially ordered with the military 6 cylinder gas engine and trans. so 5th gear was up against the dash board. My father put a muffler on it called a Hollywood, basically a glass packed flow through muffler which gave it a nice sound. The truck was never picked up by the guy that ordered it so my grandfarther bought it off the lot. Served him and later my father for 20 years running every day. Looking for pics. My father used alot of part time drivers, mostly off duty policemen trying to make some extra money. The man who drove this truck was a cop and I remember the truck was never dirty because he would always be waxing it. He would let the truck idle so the pump ran slow and while the customers tank was filling, he would wax a small section of the truck at each stop. I witnessed this as he would often go to a stop by the school I was going to at the time and I could see the truck from the classroom. The truck originally had the tank the above International had, which was really too big and heavy. A smaller tank was put on the GMC when the international was purchased.
I think this is pretty cool... No pics, sorry. But there's a link to a thread about the big gasoline engines that powered these rigs: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283473&highlight=gmc+500 Until the late '50s there were still plenty of big trucks hauling goods to market without the benefit of a diesel engine.
I don't post often, but I'm one lurkin' SOB. This topic hits home for me. It's coming up on a year since my grandfather passed away. One of the items left to me was an album of truck photos. I'll post up a few. Let me know if you want to see some more. This is his first truck that he made for the farm out of what I believe is an old Buick touring car. He claimed that this doodlebug was the dumbest thing he ever did. The radiator for it is still in the attic of the garage where my sister lives. This is his first factory made truck. KB series IH. I have the name plate of this one. Thunderstorms rolling through right now. I'll post more in a bit. Thanks for looking. Matt
Was the Continental 6 cylinder in a Dodge? Most early Brockways (pre-60) used Continental gas engines. I have a '55 155W Brockway with the Continental 427 flathead 6 cylinder in it. I am currently running it with a single carb but did score an Ellis dual carb aluminum intake for it. Do you know if the manifold was stock? Brockway did make a 154TS model that came factory with dual updraft Zenith carbs... Super rare & cool... Tom
Never heard/saw a Continental in a Dodge . In the early 50's they had a 413 six with 2 carbs ,100% Mopar.
I've heard it's not the size that matters, but you know how it goes. That's big enough for me. I like it. Sharp truck for sure.
The way it was explained to me, which may not be 100% accurate, was that Dodge used Continental engines in their big trucks. If this is right, it may have had something to do with saving tooling costs or some other way to conserve, but, Continentals were said to be good engines. I'll have to look it up. The White tractor we had ran a Continental also. My father said the White engine went bad and they put a Continental in its place. According to him, they had to lengthen the hood so the engine would fit.
It's me again. I dove into a book I found about Dodge. John, cool pic of your Dad. You may be 100% correct except for the 413 part. The only other tractor I saw like this one had a V-8 emblem on the side. This may have been the 413. The book I looked at said the truck ran a 331.35(.35?, what's up with that?) flathead 6 with dual carbs and exhaust. You might still be right, since the book doesn't go into alot of detail about other engine options or whether or not they used an outside company for larger engines. Keep posting and enjoy. I'm not here to step on anyones toes. I want to have some fun. If I'm wrong, I tip my hat and stand corrected. Really good pics Rusty and everyone. Zerk, where have you been hiding?
I knew I had it somewhere - here's a link to another thread from some time ago. Love the trucks.................. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98449
Mooseand---- I'm sure about the 413 six holer. Untill I went back to playing with Rods a couple of years ago I was collecting/playing with big toys. KW,Peterbilt,Autocar ,Brockway and even a IHC Emeryville COE. I spent quite a few years in the heavy truck parts biz also. Love to drive stuff with 2 sticks.
John, twin sticks were cool. In the '80s I drove two different types of trans in Macks. One was called a "low hole" which had high, low and reverse on one stick and 5 speeds on the other, giving you 5 speeds in reverse, which was great if you had to back a long distance, like when paving. The other was called an "extended range, which you only used the second stick in high gear, like an overdrive, but the truck would still only do 55. It was a '69 Mack DM-600. I was going down Rt 195 with it one day and said to the truck "come on, can't you do any better than this?" I swear i saw the dog on the radiator turn his head and shake it "no". The low-hole was in an '85 Mack DM-800. For awhile, I also drove a '67 Diamond-T with a 5 and 4 and a 6-71. All the guys at the pit called it the Stanley Steamer. As far as your engine knowledge, you're most likely right. I'll have to look further into these things. Would love to have a tractor like that one though. Keep postin' you guys. This is great.
I'll throw in some more. . . This is my grandfather's next rig. Apparently the straight job got too small. That's my dad on the fuel tank. He's going on 63 years old now. Thanks for looking, Matt
Another of the International KB tractor. In this picture is my grandfather's first L-model Mack. It was a gas job that didn't stick around too long. My grandfather, Ray Arnold is on the right.
This is a photo of my grandfather picking up a new stainless steel Fruehauf reefer. The tractor is less than a year old in this photo as well. My dad still has the bill of sale for the tractor indicating $11,000 and change. I asked my grandfather once what he hauled and where back in the day. He would load eggs in our hometown of Spencer, NY and head to NYC on old Route 17. Offload at a grocery warehouse and head over to the docks in Jersey to pick up whatever fruit was coming and take it where it had to go. He also had somewhat common run that included loading general freight in Rochester, NY hauling it to Iowa to haul eggs back East again. My favorite story that he told involved the night he hauled the only load of bananas in to a Montreal receiver one night that wasn't damaged from the cold. All of this of course was done without a sleeper, power steering, air conditioning, CB radios or four lane highways. Thanks for looking, Matt
I'm a truck slut from way back. Here's my 1957 COE Commer - 2 stroke with Rootes blower (yep, that's where they come from). Oil leaks come standard. The B&W one is my Dad's truck taken in 1955. These are both English and were very poular in Australia.
Here's a few more. . . At this point, my grandparents had four kids so it was important to be home more often. He bought the dump trailer to do more local work. I'm not sure when he bought this trailer. Between this aluminum dump and the stainless reefer, he had some classy, high dollar equipment for being in the boonies of upstate NY. Matt
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