Jump to content

St. Johnsbury Trucking Company Old Macks


Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

St Johnsbury had a lot of tandem U models with Cummins 903's

Yup they did James. Also there were quite a few (here at least) that had air starters. I recall standing by one on main street one day when the driver started one up. Almost filled my britches right then and there!!!  You can still see one or two of their old trailers around the country if you look hard enough.

Dave

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

That's a good question R Horse.   I don't believe they were U700's The ones I remember seeing were low hoods (600's)

The Cummins 903 was a 90 degree V-8. The Detroits were 60 degree v-8's plus they had the supercharger up top Thus the Cummins was lower profile I believe

OK Maybe I'm thinking of Detroit powered U's.  I'm thinking Roadway had some-I just remember the jacked up hoods.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

The 903 was a wide engine, and a lot of manufacturers used various tricks to make it fit. IIRC, Ford used a drop front frame section on the Louisvilles to make room for the 903, and some other manufacturers shaved off the top flange of the frame and even some of the web.

To my knowledge, the U700's indeed were built to accommodate vendor engines. I do believe that St. J did have some, yes, but Lord knows how many. The hoods were bigger (taller) to do this. See attached photos. The extra hood is visible in both the fenders and the narrow part of the hood top. I've been told that the Cummins 903 could not fit in a U700 because it was too wide. A Cat 3208 was the biggest V8 (other than a Mack V8) that could fit in there.

Dave

1966 Mack U700-1.jpg

1973 Mack U700-1.JPG

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you look at the David Faust pictures of the Transcon U-models (ex Wilson Freight U's with 903's) they clearly are U-600's. After the founding brothers of St.Johnsbury sold out to Sun Oil the frieghtliners from a west coast buyout showed up in the St J fleet. Sun Oil also bought out Jones motor lines from South Carolina. I believe this is where the IH 2500 and Ford L9000 influence in the fleet came from. There last big purchase was Ford 9000's. There were a few R models in the fleet alsobut they may have been test tractors.  It would have been neat if they had more R models . St. J went from L models to B models and then U models. After that IH's and fords. Dave 41's picture of the U could have been 903 powered or 673 inline. Also as I remember the 903 U's had downward exhaust(smoke eaters). If you view the transcon U's with 903's they are also downward exhausts.

Edited by james j neiweem
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Ryder had some 700's  as well. As I recall theirs had Formula  Cummins  855's  in them. Had to be tilted to the right to fit,for  sure!    Al  

  • Like 2

IF YOU BOUGHT IT, A TRUCK BROUGHT IT..AND WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH IT, A TRUCK WILL HAUL IT AWAY!!! Big John Trimble,WRVA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...
On 9/29/2016 at 9:41 AM, dave41855 said:

To my knowledge, the U700's indeed were built to accommodate vendor engines. I do believe that St. J did have some, yes, but Lord knows how many. The hoods were bigger (taller) to do this. See attached photos. The extra hood is visible in both the fenders and the narrow part of the hood top. I've been told that the Cummins 903 could not fit in a U700 because it was too wide. A Cat 3208 was the biggest V8 (other than a Mack V8) that could fit in there.

Dave

1966 Mack U700-1.jpg

1973 Mack U700-1.JPG

There were 2 different model designations for 903 powered U models,U659 and U661,one for turbocharged and one natural,they made 501 of the U659 and only 65 of the U661

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/21/2021 at 11:09 AM, Joey Mack said:

Hi Bob. Just curious where the Nissens Bakery was?  Jojo

Oh sorry took me a while to find it ha ha I was out of Lynn Massachusetts but they had a lot of bakeries maine New Jersey New Hampshire Connecticut Rhode Island… The Lynn bakery is no longer there they even tore down the building lotta good memories of course I was a lot younger than as well lol… bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...