1961H67

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.

Yes the transmission and rear ends are original, 10 speed Duplex with a divorced 3 speed Brown Lipe auxiliary transmission, lol , direct and overdrive . When I was talking to Wayne Hyatt about it, he asked if it still had the “ Brownie Box “ the way his Dad ordered it. And it would have had a drive shaft emergency brake, with a lever between the seats and a drum on the back of the transmission. I have no clue if that spring brake system was a aftermarket truck item or something from a off road vehicle,, it’s worked well for probably 60 years,, They had no worries about DOT or weight scales up there,, I think they had my drivers license number memorized at the westbound scale on I85 coming out of Charlotte with my Western Star!

I assume they added that spring brake system when the engine was switched, it’s pretty neat, it works well. It doesn’t have a Jake brake on it, I have one for a 318 but really doesn’t need it now except for fun . I think Dans truck has had a Jake installed. I don’t think they came out with one for a Cummins ( Mr Cummins was the inventor of it ,, Another story) I have a real low serial Model 20 on my LJ ,, According To D.A. Strickland it’s one of the first around 1963 I think,, he has a B73 with the same model. Any way if you look at the dash in mine and read the article on Dans it shows a lot of stuff that has been added to this one ,, Mostly in Anchorage. The 3rd stick behind the fuel pedal is the 3 speed “ Browine “

I’ll look and see what I can find

At this point after talking with Dan Thomas and having the picture I called Joe for more information, he told me that Mr Miller had a lot of equipment, Along with swapping the Cummins out for a Brand New 318 Detroit ( By the way, the younger sister was built pretty much identical when they left the factory) Then they reinforced the frame, you can see where they shortened the frame when it was converted from a log truck to a 5th wheel, the frame reinforcement is very precise for a shop in Alaska in the early 60s . It’s still unclear how it got to Alaska but it was a fairly short period of time between Kay Hyatts trade to Peterbilt and when the Engine was switched and frame modifications,, according to Joe , Millers nephew he thought it was in Alaska for about 8 or 9 years. John C Miller , the guy who hobobed a train with no money, no education,,, but according to his nephew had brilliant mind when it came to road building and moving any kind of equipment had amassed a huge fortune by the 70s .

Thank You! I’ve tried to connect the dots as well as possible, Many of the people I have talked to about it tell me they were more pictures back in the day,, but with people moving and time their probably lost forever. But I’ll try to keep putting the story together as it was told to me by some of the owners of the truck,, I would never got the opportunity to talk to this many people all over the country if it wasn’t for this truck. ,,, It gets better!

Let me look through some of my LJ stuff, i got lucky and found a NOS for mine several years ago, I had taken my original one apart and cleaned it but it still wasn’t perfect, but it might be something to consider having redone if you don’t have one at all, I have seen advertisements of a company that does repairs on vintage speedometers and gauges.

Ever heard of two sisters or brothers that grew up together than went separate ways, one settling down and starting a family and the other taking off to seek fame and fortune? ,, this story takes a lot of twists and turns. About the same time I talked to Wayne Hyatt about his Father’s truck and the missing picture, I remembered reading the great article in Wheels of Time magazine about the LTH log truck that Dan Thomas had purchased from the original owner’s family in Oregon ,I still knew very little about a LTH ( a guy about 20 miles away bought 2 LTLs from out west and would bring one to our show, but I never talked to him about it very much) . I remembered the build sheet showing the next truck after mine was sent to Medford OR. I didn’t know Dan but found a number for his company on the internet, I called and asked to speak with him, the lady asked me what the call was concerning,, I told her “ A Old Mack “ if I remember correctly he called me within a hour, I told him about the truck and was wondering about the truck after it on the build sheet, I gave him my vin number and immediately he said that’s the sister truck to his! I told him about talking to the original owners son , he said he would call me back, I think less than a hour he sent me a picture of my truck ( left ) when it was about a year old and the new 56 that Kay Hyatt had bought,, it was the picture at the Booneville fair in 1956 ! “ MACK DADDY “ is the Perfect nickname for him! So his unmolested LTH spent its whole life in the same area,,, the older sister is just getting started!

Jack, you’re exactly right, I run into that all the time,, and it’s really hard to tell sometimes , but usually if you look closely you can tell. The first is original , the other is a eBay remake. .. Dean

Since you mentioned the previous owner, I asked Joe where Mr Miller got the truck, he had no clue but said Mr Miller had a guy that would go down the west coast and buy equipment and ship them up. He did tell me about the color and the name on the door,, we will get back to that later, the first month or so I had this truck I was trying to get all the information on it I could so I got on the computer, I saw from the copy from the Mack Museum that the truck was delivered new to Kay Hyatt , Booneville CA ,I found a Hyatt logging in Booneville, I thought what the heck so I called and a lady answered and I told her this was probably a strange call but had she heard of Kay Hyatt,She said it was her Grandfather and had passed away years ago. I told her I might have a old truck of his , She gave me her Dad’s cell number, I called and left him a message, later that night he returned my call and I explained the situation. He knew exactly what truck I was talking about, he told me his Mom took Him and his Dad to Oakland in 1955 when he was a kid to pick it up after having the log bed ( Reliant) I think he said I should have been taking notes! He asked if it was still original I told him about the changes and sent him some pictures on his cell, he said his Dad brought another one in 1956 and he thought his cousin had a picture of them ( Red & White) at the Booneville fair in 1956 but hadn’t seen it in years. He said the best he could remember his Dad traded it in on a Peterbilt in the early 60s . This is where the story gets interesting,, I can’t believe no one’s asked me about the name of the topic, Adventurous Sister “

That part is original, the fellow ( Johnny ) I got in from took me inside before I left and gave me some information on the truck, he had a magazine, the information from the Mack Museum with all the information and gave me the name and number of the fellow ( Joe) he had gotten the truck from near Kingsport TN a few years before whom was a family member of the fellow that had it in Alaska , John C “ Tennessee “ Miller . So here is where several questions were answered, I called Joe ,here’s his story of the truck, His Uncle John C Miller had hoboed a train near Newport TN in the 50s and worked his way to California , there he started in the construction business until he started his own, then moved up to Alaska, continuing to build a bigger company in Anchorage, he had a lot of equipment and most of the trucks he brought up there he would change the engines out to 2 cycle Detroit Diesel, because they would start better in the colder climate . He had a top notch shop in Anchorage, and you can tell it by the craftsmanship of the engine swap. He did a lot of road building, and in 1964 he put together a caravan of D7 Cats to take equipment to Prudhoe Bay for Richfield Oil , Joe said he has the missing fingers to prove it from frostbite! They had to go from Fairbanks north in the middle of winter so they could cross the Yukon River when it was frozen, This was not the way the Dalton Hwy runs today, they basically went around the mountains , I have a good article about it from the Anchorage Museum. He said the LTH was used to haul equipment with lowboys to Fairbanks .

That’s a great explanation of the LT Models ! The summer went by and I really didn’t think much more about the truck, I was busy with the LJ , Grandsons baseball and was trucking a lot more than. So October rolled around and we went to the truck show in Cherokee NC I think I took my Dad’s C Model. When I pulled in the LTH was there! A friend of mine said a fellow dropped it off early and left because he had a business about 10 miles away. Well we walked around it all day, he had raised the hood, he had not returned when the show was over, so I left a note in the seat to call me about the truck thinking I would probably never hear from him. About 9pm that Saturday night he called me and said I found your note,, we talked about the truck a bit and I asked him if it was for sale, It belonged to him and his Dad and they had talked about selling it because they didn’t have a good shed for it . I asked him about the price and we agreed on it . I had to haul a big forklift down to the outer banks of NC Sunday and would not be back till Monday evening, he said that was fine. As it turned out my Son was trucking out that way Monday so he stopped and left a deposit with his Dad and actually brought a older bulldozer from him also. So Tuesday afternoon we went back with a Superliner and lowboy and got it and the dozer. This is where I started asking questions and after about a hour I knew some of the history,,, but the interesting part had just begun!

I just started a topic on the LTH ,, hopefully I can make it interesting, I’ll try to answer questions and keep the timeline in order as I know it,, heck hopefully some one else has came across this truck before I got it .

I’ll start with a picture of the first time I saw this truck, and is probably good that I start a topic on it so later on I can read it and remember some of the things I have learned about it, and some of the interesting people I have talked to concerning it, and hopefully someone will have some more information on it. It may take me several days to remember and post what I have learned so far. I saw it parked on the side of the road leading to a truck show we were having in Waynesville NC in May 2022 , it wasn’t up where all the trucks were, just setting with no one around it . My Grandson and Me walked down to see it ,, it’s very rare for a LT of any kind to be seen here in the mountains of NC , we stayed till the show was over and never saw anyone, no one knew who brought it but I did look under it and saw it had a V8 Detroit,, so I took a couple pictures and left scratching my head! With no clue who brought it or what the meaning of the odd name “ 10 Tucky “ was all about.

Great job! I’m glad you got it home. It’s a breath of fresh air seeing a young man excited about an old Mack ! Hopefully you can do better than me,, I started driving my LJ when I was your age , fresh out of High School,,, so don’t let up on it until you get it the way you want it while you’re young.,, paint and parts are much more expensive today then ever,, but they will keep going up so just keep plugging along, try not to put it on the back burner for 20 years like I did, hopefully you can enjoy it for years , and I hope you have it when you’re 66 years old! And YES please put parking brake chambers on at least one drive axle. Reach out anytime for assistance.

I’m like you I like the trucks but there was too much drama. I knew nothing about Alaska before I found this truck, I’ve never been there. I got most of my information from John C Millers nephew, he got the truck after Mr Miller passed away and had worked with him on the North Slope. The road they took in 1964 was not where the Dalton Hwy is today, they circled around the mountains with those dozers dragging all that equipment. Matthew Lindsey’s Father knew John C Miller . Maybe I’ll start with the history of this truck from when it was built and work up to the Alaska history because it’s actually had 4 lives from one extreme to the other.

I’ll put some pictures on my phone and put the history with them,, It was one of the first ICE road trucks. I have also seen videos of some special built Mack’s up there back before the Dalton Highway was built,, I have talked to several people who worked in Prudehoe Bay with Mr Miller it was nothing like ICE road truckers ,, it was brutal.

It definitely has room for a 12V71 , They replaced the original Cummins with the 318 in the early 60s ( as ge did with all the trucks he took to Alaska) They hauled those D7s to Fairbanks in the winter of 64 with it when the Yukon River was frozen hard because there wasn’t a bridge until later . I’ll have to post the history on it and a few pictures when I get a cold rainy day. It’s an interesting old truck.

We got the last truck show of the year in today,, great weather and show in Cherokee NC , good to talk to everyone. Its going to be time to put them away for the winter,, My Grandson and Me have had fun with the LJ this summer, hopefully we can do some next year, we took the LTH along today , it was a all day trip,, Rolling in at Sunset.

Yes you are correct! That would make life hard without power steering.

I found it and took a screenshot,,, I love that look!