Geoff Weeks

My size 15's would have trouble with that! Thank's for the picture. How hard is it to drive with the stick there?

I have to remember your rules are different, here a ratio change is not something anybody but you have to know about, If grade ability is a problem, the 2 spd axles can extend both ends, but that will rule out lockers. One or the other but not both.

I think with a 18, that will not be a problem, they have a fair spread, but as I say, do the math, look at total reduction as well. The disadvantage of the 18 is all the reduction is done up front, so the driveline has to handle it.

The British buses had taper pins also, they took a large Kin Pin press to get them out, sometime with heat to the knuckle. Look out when they finely release! Shot one down into a brick floor and punched the brick down a bit! Sounded like a rifle shot.

My advice is don't guess or take someone else's guess. Get the graph of the power torque and BSFC curves for the EXACT engine you have, then do the math to find what ratio will put you at the lowest point in the BSFC curve at the speed you want to cruise at. My experience is slightly different than yours, as I didn't have all the gear choices that 18 does. However after hours of pawing though the math, and plotting on graph paper, I selected the ratio that got me as close to my ideal as possible. I have never regretted the ratio choice and left me with a much more comfortable truck to drive, and upped my mileage between .75 and one full mile per gal. You'll need the rev's/mile of the tires you are running as well. Once you have it centered in the low spot on the BSFC curve, with all those splits on the top end, if the torque rise is a problem you can drop a ratio or two when you need to pull a small rise, and go all the way down to direct when pulling a steeper rise. The factory did the hard work of plotting all this stuff, the info you can't easily get from the driver seat, so ask them for a copy.

May be it is the angle of the picture, but it looks like stick placement is in the way of the pedals! My Marmon has a Eaton 15/OD (12 useable) coupled to a set of tandem 2 spds. More gears then necessary but nice, esp when moving big loads. Some of the 12 front ratios can be duplicated with the 2 spd, so I didn't use all 24 possible. Generally started with the rears in low range (normal reduction) and once I hit 45 or so hit high range, climbing hills I would drop 2 gears in high then switch to low. Deep reduction was only used to start on soft ground or for maneuvering heavy loads in tight spaces.

The one pictured is in the scrap pile. I am just interested in finding the info, Truck is a 45-50 mph truck, will do 60 but I don't run it there. I my lifetime of trucking I have lost 4 steers, two at 70 mph, and never found them hard to control. Granted they were loaded to 12K not 20K floats, but still. Bang! mash the throttle, make sure you have a firm grip on the wheel, guide to the shoulder, while slowing. Don't jerk the wheel or mash the brakes. Never left my lane because of the blow out. Two were tube type, two were tubeless. If you wait to react until you feel it, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. It may be the truck next to you that blew a tire, but I react 1st and then assess the situation. I imagine a 20K float would be more a handful, but I never found a steer blow-out to be a death-ride.

Thanks to all. To be clear, I am not looking for tires, but for spec's on that size. Once mine are no longer useable, I will replace with 8.25 x 20 s like I did on the rear. So far my search has not found anyone with the spec's including someone who claimed to search through older tire/rim mfg spec books. I just have never come across a tire I couldn't find a spec somewhere. So far I have just guessed at the pressure for the load they are carrying. At the rate I put miles on the truck, they may outlast my lifetime. I have yet to see another tire with that size, so if Mowerman does have one, that will mark the 1st time I have seen them other than the set I had. 8.25 x 20's are getting harder to find, back when I 1st got this truck you could still get domestic radials in that size, now import bias is all there are, and those have jumped in price considerably.

Otherwise you could just use the 6306 bearing!

They were weird, that is for sure. I flew into Tulsa to build up a pressure plate and install a clutch in one, then drive it to Chicago. It was a bad idea from the start, and I told them so. The bus had been a "static display" in a field for years, I got the clutch in and fixed a bunch of other stuff, got it running OK, but after running it around Tulsa for a day or so, trying to shake the bugs out of it, I made it just out of the city limits before the rings seized in the piston and it started knocking real bad. You can't take an engine like that, that had been sitting and expect it to run fine. I flew back to Chicago and the bus came in on a hook. New piston and ring on one hole and it was fine.

Yeah I could, but I am really more interested in the other spec's. I have no load info on it other than the 12 ply rating, no pressure chart to know how much to put in for a given load. I am running them on the front of the K-7, I have 8.25 x 20's in the rear. That gives me a top end of close to 60 MPH which is all I need. I doubt I'll overload them, but would be nice to know the spec's No one has ever been able to come up with any, which is odd in itself. Add to that, the size that doesn't follow the normal sizing. 8.5 x 20 "should" be bigger than an 8.25 x 20".

Years ago, when working on the British buses, I was looking for a clutch, They had weird single disk 17" or 17"+ something (17 3/4"?) that the lining was 11/16" thick. I remember we came on a Mack clutch that was similar in size but was a pull clutch and thinner lining. I don't remember what it was off of now. I just remember it wasn't going to work. It was a weird clutch those buses used, once it wore to where there was no more adjustment, you changed the position on the release finger pivot and got another "life" out of it. IIRC there were three setting on the finger pivots. The flywheel had a replaceable wear surface, so if it got badly scored, you could just replace the wear surface like you would the center plate on multi disk clutches. Never understood why they went that way (big single disk) over smaller multi plate.

I can't find anyone who has any info on loading or rev/mile. Not even recommended rim width. no info what so ever. Like they never existed.

I've run organic 14" double disk (pot type flywheel, is that what your calling "dog dish"?) on my stuff, up to 170,000 lb loads, and never a problem. Most all pilots are the same. I never had a reason to go with 15.5" flywheel/clutches, and the 14's are easier to load.

Anybody have any spec's on these? I have some and can find no info on them at all. They are post WW2 (nylon cord) and I would guess early 60's B.F. Goodrich "Silvertown" Highway express Smaller in dia and narrower than a 8.25 x20" tire so goes against the normal size nomenclature of tire sizes

Near as I can determine, it should take the very common starter that Mack and Cummins used. So a replacement Delco 39 for a Cummins six should bolt right in, may have to re-clock the nose. That is if the shop can't look up by the Mack spec's for some reason.

Looking on Goggle maps: Looks like it was at the east end of Pedigo Dr beyond "heavy metal recyling" If you zoom in on satellite view, you can still see some old semi trailers, there was a few old cattle trailers and I am trying to remember if there was a 50's car trailer as well. It is beyond where the hardtop ended. Doesn't look like anything other than the trailers are left.

You went north of US 54 on US 281 then cut east and south back toward the RR tracks. There was a grain elevator which may or may not have been in service and you headed east toward 61 until the street ended at the tracks, The yard was at the dead end. There are a few yards Southwest truck parts had on both side of 61, but they are south/east of the tracks from Hutch.

Detroit 2 strokes had the oil control rings below the ports at all times, so it wouldn't effect slobber or engine oiling. Ranger inverted 6 had all the pistons facing down, most radials have several pistons below the centerline.

1991 or 1992 is when shoulder belts in trucks were required. My '92 has them my '89 doesn't . Drove a 90 or 91 that didn't. Green book should have the reg in writing.

Work ed M.A.N.'s that were Propane fired, looked just like that.

They sold a fair number of medium trucks, but Class 8 road tractors they had a much smaller market share. I had a '73 Dart Sport (Duster clone) with a '65 225 and an Aspen O/D 4 speed and 3.23 rear. Would get high 20's @55 and low 20's at 80, Topped out at 103 in O/D 105 in direct.

Dodge Heavy or slanted engine? Dodge bowed out of the heavy market in I think '73 or 75 but were never a big player in heavy trucks.

I was in my sleeper in Boomtown (back in the 90's) waiting for Truckee to be open to O/D loads. Late in the evening I heard a oldtime sound, A 6-71 jake'n down from the Calif side, pulled into Boomtown next to me, 60's Freightliner Cabover. Heard the 6-71 "hunting" at idle. They finely got Truckee opened up the next day and I took off for Lodi.

When I get the barn and yard cleaned up I have another cab in better shape to go on it.