BillyT

The first big truck I ever rode in was a 361 Brockway with a 220 Cummins and an Eaton " bogie" a five speed main and a three speed differential.It was in 68, a year before I learned to drive semi. The only other truck I saw with this setup was a crackerbox "Jimmy" with a 671 Detroit.

Right after NAFTA passed the American DOT officers were kept busy with those "impeccably maintained" Mexican trucks! Lol!

The LTL is a piece of art! Haven't seen one of those turn signals with the arrows and the little visors in 60 yrs! Let alone chromed! Speaking of "Off the wall tranny combos" I used to know a guy with a F 350 hotshot tractor that he swapped in a 5.9 Cummins with a ten speed road ranger! First time I've ever seen a Ford pickup with a ten speed "ranger" he had a little electric air compressor to run the range selector!

Thanks for the reply!

OD, nuthin' like fresh green beans! That one photo makes me wish I was a cell phone!

Reminded me of something I've been harping about for years,when is a truck not a truck? When it is a pickup! In many of the articles in the newspaper involving an accident where someone in a pickup is at fault (drunk driving,speeding etc) the article reads "truck accident, charges pending" when the perpetrator was driving a pickup! I'm thinking the average motorist pictures a thundering eighteen wheeler! My favorite is the Suburu ad "a truck failed to stop, and that's why we drive a Suburu!" The "truck" is not pictured, I can only assume that the Suburu protected its owner from the truck with its automatic emergency braking!

Is the quad box T shirt available or are you guys just goofing around?

I believe an automatic in a trash truck or similar "vocational truck" would be easier on the drive line.

My dad had a white dump truck like the conventional, had a two stick, I was a little kid at the time, I remember how solid the fenders were, might have been 16 gauge! Both pickups look high quality!The 3000 looks factory, but I'd have preferred stainless mirrors.

Swishy, perhaps someone should educate the signmaker on the difference between engine brakes and service brakes!

FWD, Mike Parkhurst, the editor of the original "overdrive" was a North American Van Lines contractor,did he write a book?

Fellas, has to be out of print, but decades ago I bought a book at a library sale called Dennisons Ice Road, apparently this guy Dennison was the first to have a regular route long before "Ice Road truckers" that served all the little communities near the artic circle. There are said to be hundreds of pieces of mostly heavy equipment that fell through the ice as the drivers had no scientific way to determine the ice thickness early or late in the " season"!

Might save 100 lbs, but high maintenance?

Terry and  Freightrain, I drove a B model with a 711 and a 13 speed triplex,it was converted from a single axle road tractor to a dump with a rear tag.You split into 4th and went from 4th hi straight to 5th hi, no split therefore considered a 13 not a 15. Would do 80 or at least that's what the Speedo read!

3mpg at least!

L mack,isn't Oshawa Neil youngs home town object of his song "helpless?"

Gray hair, we used to live in Lauderdale Lakes, remember pier 66! There was another tourist trap in Ft Lauderdale That I can't remember, paid 2.00  for a beer in 1970! Big money!  Got it! The Castaways! Ever been there? My favorite bar is Quaker Steak and Ale in Sharon Pa is on the Cuyahoga River in an old gas station.They have a race car hanging on the wall! The bar rail is made of driveshafts welded together I'll bet Freightrain has been there,right over the Ohio line, good wings!

COMMON SENSE! Freightrain you're an optimist!

You guys are cracking me up!The first time I delivered in the S Bronx I bought one of those 12.00 NYC maps(an inch thick) best 12.00 I ever spent! They even have the name of each business on the buildings! Having some knowledge of Miami,I get a set of directions on the qualcom,"that sounds like it's in the ocean I think" It was! I get a set of directions to a customer in Ohio and I follow it to the letter.I get to the receiver and he's standing in front of his building and there is a set of RR tracks three feet above grade with no crossing between me and him! Had to go five miles around the block to get to his location! I carried a truckers atlas(for the scales) and a cheapo road atlas for everyday use. 

You guys are cracking me up!The first time I delivered in the S Bronx I bought one of those 12.00 NYC maps(an inch thick) best 12.00 I ever spent! They even have the name of each business on the buildings! Having some knowledge of Miami,I get a set of directions on the qualcom,"that sounds like it's in the ocean I think" It was! I get a set of directions to a customer in Ohio and I follow it to the letter.I get to the receiver and he's standing in front of his building and there is a set of RR tracks three feet above grade with no crossing between me and him! Had to go five miles around the block to get to his location! I carried a truckers atlas(for the scales) and a cheapo road atlas for everyday use. 

Sure would hate to pay for steering tires on any of those bizarre trucks!

Keith, I also would like to see the directionals outboard but I love the old fashioned arrow type signal lights!Didn't know they were still sold! One thing about the location of the lights they are protected from damage and stones etc by the frame rails!

Pa Lawman,I just recalled a situation from the distant past that kinda relates to this whole debacle! I grew up in Mcmurray Pa (a suburb of Pittsburgh)when it was primarily a rural farming community which rapidly became a high dollar yuppiefied area where all the Steelers, Penguins players lived! My dad owned the local auto salvage yard.He built a state of the art concrete block building which included a modern apartment where we lived and two offices which he rented out.Almost from the day he opened the city council would come around and f..k with him over all sorts of minor b.s., I guess his 8th grade education didn't fit in with their plans for the community! Anyway he was grandfathered in before they could zone the community against auto salvage yards! He kept a clean operation, all the cars were in neat rows and when Ladybird Johnson initiated her beautification of America campaign he even planted flowers in front of the garage!, But every time the council members came around when they left he would stack up a bunch of junk tires and pour gasoline on them and light it!  All of you know how much smoke 50 burning tires create! LOL! He was a tough old bird! When he retired and sold the place nobody could ever have a salvage yard there again!

As some have mentioned we can all understand the reason for zoning, but the majority of this is anti truck bias! There is a clause in Hernando county Florida where I live that no commercial vehicle over 5000 gvw can be parked in a residentially zoned area! That's a half ton pickup! It's ok here to park a 300000 dollar camper the size of a greyhound bus! I have it on reasonable authority that you can have a road tractor hobby truck licensed as a camper as long as it isn't used for paid hauling in Florida,similar to 68 Fs situation in Michigan.

Summit is not the company they used to be either! My late son in law bought a summit branded four barrel manifold for a small block Chevy.Made in China stamped on the bottom! I've been told all Summit branded parts are made in China!