RoadwayR

This rumor has been more-or-less confirmed, but still no word on what the engine is going in to.

Who is going to offer it? I heard Freightliner in the M2 for one.

I like Isuzu's. A lot of them here are Chevy gasoline V-8 powered. Now the FTR's and FVR's are available with Cummins diesels.

There was a point in time during the mid-80's that Detroit Diesel was talking to Deere about forming a joint venture. Deere was involved with the development of the 60 Series and Detroit was looking to market the mid-range Deere diesels as highway engines. From what I understood at the time things were going well between Detroit and Deere until Roger Penske made GM an offer for Detroit Diesel that GM couldn't refuse. And that was that. BTW, Paul, were Chevy medium duties common in Australia in the 70's and 80's?

Speaking of diesels, they built a few with Toroflows in '73 and '74. I have NEVER seen one, but I have seen a few with the GMC gas V-6. Around 1986 they built a few with Deere diesels and even some with 6 cylinder air cooled Duetz diesels.

There was a lumber yard near my that had a couple of C-60's with 4-53T power. You could hear them coming a long ways off! The 8.2L V-8 diesel replaced the 4-53T sometime around 1980 in those trucks.

I don't think the 292's ever had the integrated head/manifold. I only saw 250's with that, both 1 bbl. and 2 bbl. with split exhaust manifolds. The 2 bbl. versions ran pretty good and didn't seem to crack as bad as the earlier 1 bbl.'s. The 4 bbl. 4.3L V-6 was much better though.

I sent a lot of time driving those things. Had good power with a 366 or 427 gas engine, great turning radius if the wheelbase wasn't too long. Didn't like changing the spark plugs if the truck had air brakes.

Back in the early 60's the Los Angeles MTA bought a bunch of GM and Flxible transit buses. Naturally the GM's had sideways 6V-71's with V-drive automatics, but the Flxibles had 6V-71's mounted straight in with Spicer 2 speed automatics. I was told they were nothing but trouble!

I think the Loadstar cab has a different roof, firewall, and floor than the A series, but a lot of the rest of it is the same.

Kind of, the GMC V-6 was engineed from the start to be gasoline or diesel.

That is a strange Loadstar, seldom seen any that 'heavy'. Did see a few with 6V-53 Detroits, but most Loadstars were medium duty. Looks like that truck has an Allison MT-40, some of those transmissions did have a retard pedal.

Yes, that's the one. The bumper and grill were one piece of steel. The 1500 eventually evolved into the Expeditor, which is still with us as an Autocar. And still mostly used for refuse service....

I can't say I have ever seen a 5000 in person. I was told the fiberglass cab didn't hold up well. Saw a few 3000's though, the school district and MGM studios had them up until the late 70's. The 3000 was replaced by the 1500 'Compact', even though White built 3000's up until 1967 if someone wanted to order them. The biggest problem with the 3000 was that stylish cab was expensive to produce. That sure wasn't an issue with the 1500!

I would love to have that rusting away in my backyard! I might even try to fix it up, but where do you find Reo V-8 parts these days?