Sorry OT....Old Semis

Good thread, OT or not. I'm an "Old Truck Nut", myself, and can remember times from the mid forties when I first started to notice them. My dad was a part time truck driver, and would take me on runs with him once in a while. Back in those days, you didn't need any fancy license to drive one, just a "Cheauffers" license; in fact, that is what my first drivers license was, in 1958, so I could drive the truck where I worked. Over the years, it became a class one commercial, then it got a multi-axle endorsement and an air brake endorsement, and a doubles endorsement, ad nauseum. Nowadays, you can't even look at a truck without some kind of endorsement. The trucks my dad drove were Macks, GMCs, and Peterbilts and Kenworths; hard machines, no heaters or A/C, or power steering, two or three shifters in the floor, and the seat for a rider was just a simple bench, or a wooden box in one old Mack. The first truck I drove was a '53 Ford cabover single rear with a 30 foot lowbed semi for hauling around a tractor; had a four speed main trans, a two speed "Brownie", and a two speed axle - three sticks - plus the "emergency brake" (hah), and what they called oil-over-air brakes. I married the daughter of a truck driver, and the heritage carries on in my youngest son, who is a driver, driving mostly fuel tankers for the past twelve years. From time to time, we have a tractor in the yard, but he can't bring his trailers home because of the nature of his cargo, so he has to leave them in an approved facility.I'd love to be able to own and restore an old truck, but my pockets ain't anywhere near deep enough, and I'm so broken now, that it would be almost a physical improbability. My favorite old model, among many, would be an early fifties GMC, one of the big ones. There was one oufitted with a water tank setup sitting in a vacant lot in Auburn, CA when I lived in the area some years back, and it was for sale; but, alas, I hadn't enough gold to buy it - story of my life.

 

Here's a few I have on my puter.. The last two trucks are not really older but are some of the nicer ones I have unloaded at work.

 

I'm lucky, this collection is just 45 minutes up the road. http://www.goldenagetruckmuseum.com/history.shtml

 

Red Sovine is good,,,,,,,,but that video is from Europe,, no "hoods",,,,,

 

Not old by any means, but this is how I got my Model A home!!! I have great friends.

 

i figured that out, but still some great footage

 

Well, we gotta have an AutoCar if we gonna talk trucks here.

 

Here's a couple of pics of stuff I use to have .COE is a 64 IHC ,other pic from the left 64 KW, 50 Brockway and 47 A/car

 

there is a large truck show every july in iowa at the Iowa80 tuck stop http://www.iowa80truckstop.com/
here is a link to some pics
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/js_iowa80_show.htm

 

It's not totally O/T. One just got posted in the Friday art show.
Here is a link to more of it.
http://www.streetrodderweb.com/features/0907sr_custom_1956_peterbilt_truck/index.html

 

here's the FWD I drove in '72....

 

I love the look of old semi's. Whats sad though is how many got cut up for scrap. We still have a couple of them sitting out back. Really neat looking old rigs. The blue one had a Mack Flathead 6 in it.

 

I retired after selling semi tractors for 40-years in 2001.

This truck was always known in the business as "The Two-Story Falcon"

;o)

JG

 

Love that movie!

 

Uh-oh!! ^^^^^^^^ I can see Dennis Weaver breaking into a sweat all over again!!

 

This one lives down the road from me... I love old big rigs... my grandpa drove over the road for 52 years before his death 6 months after he retired in 1995.... Keep 'em coming guys...

 

This one was at a local car show a few months a go...

 

Lets try this again
Nevermind it wont work

 

This is going to be a good thread...... Thanks!

 

Awsome thread! The one from Duel has always been a favorite of mine, I used to have nightmares of that thing as a kid. Its too bad there arent as many people restoring these old rigs, I rarely ever see any on the road! Let me see if I can find some old pics I could post later..

 

One for Kenny

 

There used to be a mid-50's GMC semi with a KILLER old 6 car trailer parked in a backyard along I-80.
I used to get impure thoughts every time I saw it, despite "Not for Sale" sign on it.

 

Good thread, I started wrenching on trucks in 1965, lots of purpose built stuff. Most of the old truck got run into the ground and either parted out or scrapped, hats off to the guys that restore them.

 

I often walk past a ship breaking yard. They use old trucks to haul pieces of steel hull around. The trucks never leave the yard, they've got no plates, often no glass or lights, sometimes barely bits of cab. They run them until the frames break. Mostly it's recent Japanese these days, but only a year or two ago they had a few Bedford TKs that might have been restorable when the yard got them.

It's a pity: I'd done a design concept for a TK-based COE sled thing a few years ago, called it the Baby Whale because that's what it looked like. One would have to go to England, I'd expect, to see restored TKs in any number, among the Fodens, Guys, Dennises, and other cool stuff.

 

I posted these on another thread yesterday, but they should be appropriate here also.

I don't have any details on this vehicle as I just received the pictures in an email from a friend.

I read the post about trucks being too big and hard to store, etc. which is all very true. I'm just thinking that this one would be a ton of fun, and certainly 'different' at the car shows and cruise-ins.

The sound of that V-12 2-stroke Detroit Diesel would have to be awesome with those zoomies.

JG

Even without the extensive chrome plating, this thing would be just as fun!

 

Here are some old British trucks:











Old British trucks had a look of their own.

 

Love those old "two-story Falcons"

My dad used to move houses for a living when I was a kid and they had a huge FWD to move them. I just remember the tires being way taller than me.

Autocar made a fine truck too, you see one every once in awhile fully restored and that is a truck!

 

Hell that thing would do a backflip if you blipped the throttle.