1961H67

I’ve made some progress on the RW 753 I’ll try to put some fuel in it and pull it out this week a take a better picture, I just put the tanks on Thursday.

Yes they were originally aluminum,, I would say that the roads in Alaska were pretty rough and probably beat them pretty hard. His nephew told me they made new ones and never drilled the holes for the stainless trim. He said he never did anything with it, keep it under a shed . He sold it to Johnny Extine whom I purchased it from , he saw it setting in the shed and kept asking about it until Mr Millers nephew sold it to him, He replaced the steering tires with tubless because the original ones were rotten. He had the seats recovered, Bought the correct Mack emblems and the stainless trim, they were still in the box, I installed the emblem s and trim after I clear coated it . He only had it for a few years. Unfortunately it sat out in the weather and started rusting some of the chrome. I still have the original tube type wheels for the front.

Thanks for the comments , It was great talking to Wayne Hiatt and him telling me the story himself about riding home from Oakland with his Dad when it was new, I told him I would love to visit there someday,, it’s been fun and interesting researching the history of this LTH ,, and I’m still learning new things, even with this topic.

That’s great! I love those old black and white pictures! I’m sure there were some taken on this truck back in the day, maybe some will turn up but if they don’t I feel fortunate to have the timeline pretty much intact from 1955 to 2025 , there are some unanswered questions,, but still loads of interesting history! She’s had an Adventurous Life for Sure! 2 pictures I always wonder about, when she was about 10 years old hauling equipment in Alaska,, And a picture of her when she turned 18 , when she was all dressed up ! A knock out for sure!

I’m sure a V12 would fit! You were also commenting on the color, I think FarNorth helped on the color origination , and hopefully I’ve given some insight on John C Miller and Alaska .and why out of all the equipment he had he picked the LTH to make a show truck for his horses. When I first bought it I thought it would look great Black ! Because the paint was old, faded and chipped, it didn’t really look Yellow, kinda brown. If you notice it had the wrong Mack emblem on the hood and no stainless trim, because when they customized it they made new hood sides, when I removed the Mack emblem it was bright yellow, so I sanded the whole truck with scotch bright to bring out the yellow, a friend of mine at the paint store matched it with base coat the best we could, because the fenders and lower door panels were terrible. I sanded and sprayed them then taped the complete truck and sprayed it with a semi gloss clear to seal it and preserve the original paint, I couldn’t bring myself to strip it and kill all that history. The doors originally said 10Tucky Stables, Lewisburg TN . I found a fellow who still does hand painting like it was originally,, we added a little extra! I think Tennessee Miller would approve of my addition .

It’s heavy flat stock, cut , welded, finished smooth. All the fabrication is smooth and professional.

I just saw this, my cousin was a Big Detroit guy,, he bought a 3 cylinder, aluminum engine from one of those, he put it in a C30 Chevy truck, he took it out and I bought it from him, hopefully one day I can install it in something else.

According to Joe Jaines, Mr Millers nephew they had a top notch maintenance facility I think in Anchorage ( maybe Fairbanks also) . Some of the engine mounts, fan shroud, firewall modifications for the air compressor looks amazing being it was done in the middle 60s , and Joe also worked for the company on the North Slope ( that’s where he said he got frostbite) . He said they kept new Detroit engines waiting for retrofitting in the shop. And also liked Terex equipment because of the 2 stroke. Thanks for the information. Here’s a few pictures of the Detroit retrofit.

I looked up a old picture of Frontier Transportation in Alaska, this is from the 80s and does sort of have the same paint scheme as the LTH , I know one of those articles says John C Miller was founder of the “ Frontier Companies of Alaska “ so I don’t know what that includes,, if I get a chance in the next few days I’ll try to call Alan Abee who’s Dad worked for him, I haven’t talked to his nephew in a couple years but I’ll do some more research, clues like FarNorth posted is how I found a lot of history on this truck. I’ll dig up some pictures of how I decided to try to persevere the paint scheme.

Have you got the old bearings out ? They should have a part number on them and should be marked, Standard, or .010,.020 or something like that and like Joey mentioned if the crank has been turned down it should be stamped with the amount it was turned down to. There’s a bunch of them still running . There are a lot of variables when your asking for bearings, you will have to get those numbers .

I’m unsure if Frontier Transportation was one of his companies or perhaps it was the company he sold his business to, I think he sold out in the late 70s . But that may have been where he got the idea to paint it Yellow with a Red stripe, frame was also painted Red . I’ve found a lot of interesting information about this truck, but I’m sure there is some more information and hopefully pictures out there. I’ll continue to ask questions about it. Thank you for your help.

I’m sure there are a lot of us out here that are thinking the same thing,, that’s a beautiful truck and I guarantee it has a lot of life left in it! I’ve been down this same road with our Superliners , Mack will discontinue the simple things and I’m sure it’s because they just don’t sell enough to justify making it. Personally I’d rather keep running the old reliable ones because the flip side of that is if you had a new truck I promise it would be setting at a dealer waiting for some sort of sensor with in the first year you have it ,, No matter what make truck it is . There are a BUNCH of great people on this site that can help if you need parts in the future.

I found out a few more things about the Millers , mostly from his nephew and some from the Abees that worked for them. Evidently 10Tucky Stables & Farms was one of the most successful in the Walking Horse community in the 70s and early 80s . John C “ Tennessee “ Miller passed away in 1984 , His wife in the early 90s , they had no children. They left most of their fortune to Middle Tennessee University, Over 20 Million Dollars. The 154 acre complex was built with the money . They had an auction at 10Tucky Stables, Joe Jaines said he didn’t inherit the LTH , he was the highest bidder ( he never told me what he paid) . He brought it to White Pine , Tennessee . A few pictures, some staff at 10Tucky in 1978, The John C “ Tennessee “ Miller Colosseum. And a write up on his induction into the Walking Horse Hall of Fame.And 10Tucky as it looks today, privately owned.

I would like to thank everyone on here for your support! It was a fun journey.

After we took the LJ to Mack’s 125th birthday celebration I was contacted by Mack’s Bulldog Magazine for a interview, this came out in this months issue, it can be accessed online to read the article, I was grateful for the opportunity to share the journey.

Yes you can, It’s big Money also! The way I understood John C Millers nephew, Joe Jaines continued to work in Alaska for a while and Mr Miller eventually sold his company ( Frontier Companies of Alaska Inc) in the late 70s . I think they relocated to Lewisburg Tennessee. Alan Abe’s father worked for 10Tucky as their Farrier and Blacksmith, and also hauled the horses. There was a Lady, famous in the Walking Horse World named Billie Nipper, she was a artist, she did this painting of John C “ Tennessee “ Miller , if you look closely there’s horses, mules , some construction images. Miller gave Mr Abee a copy, his son Alan sent me this picture of it .

Great idea, I have often thought about finding someone that attends the Walking Horse championships regularly over in Tennessee,,, I’ll keep looking for more information, there are a few people locally who have Tennessee Walkers, they have been to the National events, I mentioned 10Tucky and the Millers to them and they knew exactly who I was talking about, so they were a big deal back in the day, Kinda like Mentioning Petty Enterprise and Richard Petty around here , A big deal back in the day .

I need to interject this story before I get ahead of myself, it’s one of the most coincidental stories that I’ve ever heard ( I couldn’t even make this one up) . Finding out that My LTH and Dan Thomas’s was consecutive numbers were 200 to 1 , because that’s how many LTHs were built. This Coincidence is 18 Million to 1 ,, the population of North Carolina and Tennessee ! Here we go, My best friend in High School, Brian has been a manager of a hydraulic hose business for 35 years and knows NOTHING about a truck. He stopped by my shop about a week after I brought the LTH , I was showing him the engine change, we talked a bit and he left. About a week later he stopped at a older fellows shop near Hickory NC that had been a customer of his ( about a mile off I40 ) years ago, the shop was locked up, he saw a man across the road working on a truck, he walked over and asked if he had seen the older gentleman lately and was told he had retired but came by from time to time. Brain said the guy was setting on the tire and the hood was up on the truck, he noticed it was a Mack Superliner with a Detroit,( RW770 8v92 ) He told the guy that his friend (me) had purchased a old Mack with a Detroit a few weeks ago,, the guy asked him what color it was, Brian told him faded Yellow with 10Tucky on the door, He said the fellow looked at him as he had seen a ghost, and about fell off the truck! He said he had ridden in that truck when he was a kid his Dad drove it some for the Millers , His Dad also was the Blacksmith for 10Tucky Stables !! Brain had me on the phone with him ( Alan Abee ) within 10 minutes, I talked to Alan for about a hour. He has given me a lot of information, some pictures from his old magazines, I stay in touch with him often, him and his brother use the Superliner hauling their equipment, he also is a Blacksmith for the Tennessee Walking Horses. I had a better chance winning a lottery than meeting Alan this way! It’s over 400 miles from Hickory NC to Lewisburg , TN !

I really knew nothing of the Tennessee Walking Horse until I started researching this truck but it looks like they have a pretty big following. But that’s what the LTH was transformed from a work truck to a show truck to haul the Millers Show Horses , they had a trailer all dolled up that the LTH pulled. Unfortunately I haven’t found any pictures of them hooked together the only picture of the trailer is in a Walking Horse magazine from back in the 70s, and haven’t found any clue about it’s whereabouts. Here’s a picture of a flyer from the early 70s , it even has the Millers names still listed from Fairbanks Alaska , Later it was listed they were from Lewisburg Tennessee. In the picture of the magazine you can only see the rear tire of the truck hooked to the trailer. I would love to find a picture of it all together, and that annual Celebration in Shelbyville TN is a very big event,, I’m sure it was there many times throughout the 70s . Maybe one day a picture will pop up.

10Tucky name, according to Joe Jaines his nephew, the Millers had a Walking horse farm in Tennessee and a Mule farm in Kentucky, Therefore a play on words 10 For Tennessee and Tucky for Kentucky! Anyone remember the old Western “ Tales of Wells Fargo “ with Dale Robertson ? I’ve never been able to find out if they were business partners or just friends but they hung around together, her is Dale Robertson with them at the 1973 Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville Tennessee.

Tube type is getting harder to get here,, I’ll get more on this when I finish the LTH story

This old Mack has been around way more than its younger Sister,, but I love that one also, it’s like a time capsule because it was never modified. Watergate was raging I was 14 years old, Reading back on 1973 the Nation needed a hero, And it got one! In the spring Secretariat one the Triple Crown, with records that still haven’t been broken ( I’m not really a Horse person, but I love the Secretariat story, ) I have a picture hanging in my office signed by jockey Ron Turcotte , the famous “ Looking Back “ Shot to see what 22 lengths looked like! We have all heard that story,, But not many of us in the truck world have heard of the other famous Horse in the fall of 1973 ,,,The World Grand Champion “ Delight Bumin Around “ Tennessee Walking Horse,, Owned by John C & Mary Miller of 10 Tucky Stables, I got most of these photos from a magazine I got while researching the truck and a few that people posted on facebook,,, there’s still more!

I’ve got some more interesting things,( the most important as the history of the truck as it looks today) I’ll try to get some more pictures to go with it before the weekend is over. For those of us who were around in 1973 ,,, think of some famous things that happened. If you weren’t you have probably heard about them.

I’m about halfway through this story so I will continue before I forget something, The last time I talked with Joe Janes , John C Millers nephew he told me all he knew about the truck and some of the details. John & Mary Miller were big into Tennessee Walking Horses, sometime around 1970 he sent the LTH back down to middle Tennessee where he had a farm, Joe said he was unsure who did the restoration & custom painting and chrome work . He said there were once some pictures of it when it was finished but he had no clue where they ended up. The old Mack had helped make John C Miller millions of dollars , and for a truck in the early 70s he wanted it to look like a million bucks. It was painted yellow, added roof a/c , lots of Chrome! Axles , glove box, heater cover, dash, twin exhaust and aluminum tanks ( personally i like the box/steps on a LTH , but this is the way he did it ) . It has a clock in the glove box cover, and a 8 track tape player ( I found a Jonny Horton “ North to Alaska “ tape that I keep in it ) . All the tires were branded with their names on them. A long way from working hard logging in Northern California & hauling equipment in Alaska. This Sister started wearing a lot of “ BLING” !

Good thoughts, I’m not sure when that became law, My 61 H Model had a driveline brake when I got it in 1995 , and they used it to move a 175 IHC loader for years before I got it ,,,but here in NC they were just state inspections , the federal inspection did not have to be done until about 1990 because I let my NC certificate go dead after that . Our 65 C Mack has a setup like the LTH but uses long rods instead of cables,,, Probably like you said,when they passed the law in the 60s there were several aftermarket companies making spring brake conversions.