|
|
Post by jabba on Mar 22, 2007 6:24:16 GMT -5
"Let there be trucks".
Which truck appeared when he said that?
In my opinion, it was an old 1965, 1 ton Dodge Power Wagon my ol'man owned for a while while I was growing up. Man that thing was distilled truck. He bought it at an auction from Pennsylvania Bell. It was a line service vehicle. 318 CI engine, 4 speed, and it had a crazy low crawl gear. Put it in low range and in granny gear, and you'd have to drive stakes next to the wheels to see if it was really moving or not. The suspension was so stiff, they didn't even bother to put shocks on it. No power steering either, and not even a steering shock. When you were 4 -wheeling, you have to keep your thumbs out from the inside of the steering wheel, or you'd hit a rut... and the wheel would spin and break your thumbs. (ask me how I KNOW this!)
Ours was a heap by the time it left the house... doors held on with barn hinges... dead bolt latches inside the cab to keep the doors shut. The thing would only do 60 MPH tip top. Got about 6 MPG. But boy... when God called for trucks... that was the one he was thinking of.
What's your most memorable truck?
Jabba
|
|
|
|
Post by Bill on Mar 22, 2007 7:21:21 GMT -5
1959 International 3/4 ton. Sick six with a 4box. Hi gear was 70 max and no power anything.  You didn't drive it your herded it. Ugly green and noisy as hell. Dad built a camper out of 1/2" plywood and 2X4's and it must of weighed a ton. He used the demensions of the inside of the box to build it and when finished you had to raise the camper higher than the box to put it inside the box. Sure wern't no slide in. Dangerous as hell to do too. He had to homade camper jacks to load it with and would jack it up and then back the pickup under it.  Did I tell you it was a cab over  Driven down the highway with the camper attached was a nighmare and a lesson in futility trying to keep it between the ditches. It also was a truck that you kept your thumbs out of the inside of the sterring wheel. |
|
|
|
Post by deputydon on Mar 22, 2007 8:19:37 GMT -5
My ex-bro-in[-laws '74 3/4 ton high boy Ford!!!!!! Bill you should remember it....What a truck!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
bounce
Royal Member
Posts: 5,727
|
Post by bounce on Mar 22, 2007 8:41:44 GMT -5
53 chev 2ton 4 speed no 2 speed axel, 45 mpr tops emty, power steering was totaly your self. Filled the box once with sorgum. The truck would not move it's self at all, so I flored the bitch and let out the cluch......... Well when the grain was scoped off in wagons and the truck pulled home to the shop and the left axel removed it was in two pecies and twisted several times like you can with pliers with # 9 wire till it breaks. All that and the truck never made any forward movement at all.
|
|
|
|
Post by jabba on Mar 22, 2007 9:06:33 GMT -5
My ex-bro-in[-laws '74 3/4 ton high boy Ford!!!!!! Bill you should remember it....What a truck!!!!!!!!!!! I owned a 76 highboy with a big block, 4 speed and 4.56:1 gears. I bought it in Hawaiii from a kidgetting kicked out of the Navy for $1500 and made him have it shipped home on his exit orders. He gave me power of attorney to pick it up for him. I rebuild the engine $1000, and put 33" tires on it and sold it for $4200. I didn't REALLY want to sell it, but I went fishing and caught a fish. That thing made those 33" tires look like donuts! Jabba |
|
|
|
Post by dovehunter on Mar 22, 2007 14:20:34 GMT -5
jabba:
Your description of your Power Wagon reminds me of my '68 IH Scout. I bought it new when I graduated from college - the first new vehicle I had ever owned. What impressed me so much with it was when the salesman hitched it to a tractor and trailer and then proceeded to pull it across the parking lot. I believe if I put mine in low range in low gear it would climb up the side of a building. However, with that short wheel base, you'd better hope your life insurance was paid up if you had to make a panic stop. That thing would damn near swap ends on you. I don't know why they put radios in them either. You couldn't hear the durn thing over 50 mph. I guess that wasn't too bad because I don't believe it would go much over 70 anyway. I loved that thing though and sometimes, when I get all nostalgic, I wish I had it back. It sure would go just about anywhere.
|
|
|
|
Post by deputydon on Mar 22, 2007 19:09:16 GMT -5
ROFLMAO OMG!!! I forgot about my 1st patrol vehicle @ the Sheriff's Office!!!!When I started @ the Sheriff's Office we had to buy our own patrol vehicle. Mine was a '62 Red and White Scout all wheel drive!!!!!! When we parted I could A: change out a rear axle in 20 minutes,,,, B: drive in hilly country w/o brakes,,,,,,,,C: Make 2M's scream bloody murder (2M's actually made dents in the metal dash while hanging on during a red lights and serin call ) ,,,,,,D: Was actually able to ride in peace and quite w/ Bill (Too scared to talk ),,,,,,,E: Even pass a Corvette while going down the hiway,,,,,F: It was a hell of a chick mobile!!!!!!
EVERYBODY SHOULD OWN AT LEAST ONE SCOUT IN THEIR LIFETIME!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by jabba on Mar 23, 2007 7:19:34 GMT -5
I shared a 69 scout with a buddy. One time I parked behind the scout, and it spontaneously engaged the starter. It was in reverse, luckily, and backed up into my little car instead of the house, and proceeded to shove my car out into the road. Once it got to the road my car got a decent grip and the wheels on the scout started spinning until the battery wore down. My buddies wife comes home and asks... "Why is your car and the Scout in the road?" We were like... "They aren't in the ROAD." She says... "You guys better go look." Holy crap! The thing just engaged the starter and shoved my little Toyota 20 yards out the driveway with the starter motor. Glad the ignition was off ot that thing would have started and it might STILL be idling across the country.  Jabba |
|
|
|
Post by dovehunter on Mar 23, 2007 14:14:09 GMT -5
Maybe I should mention in passing my '60 Chevy pickup that I bought in '66 at an auction for $101. So jackass had put a bolt in the fuse box because it blew fuses everytime you tried to use the headlights - burned up every wire on that circuit. My Dad & I bought a spool of bulk wire (all the same color) from Pep Boys and re-wired the thing stem to stern. I hope no one ever had to do any work on the wiring when we got rid of it. It burned oil so bad I'd drain the oil out of the other vehicles and put it in the Chevy after straining it trough a paint strainer. I tried running a mixture of 50w oil and STP to keep oil in the thing. It's amazing the things you do when you're 17 yrs. old and even more amazing that you often get by with them.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Mar 23, 2007 22:45:22 GMT -5
When I was in college, back in Thee Olden Days, 2 other fellows and I pooled our funds and bought a Jeep- for $25. Such a beauty it was, too...it had been painted yellow (with a roller) with black stripes. Welded to the front bumper was a round vertical post with a cutter on the top- we had no idea why, but I later found out it was a field modification to cut wires strung across roads. There was no top for it, so, if it rained, it got wet, although the water seemed to run out the bottom without problem ;D. We didn't drive it in the rain much, as the windshield wipers were hand powered- there was a handle on the bottom of the windshield that you flipped back and forth to make the wipers move. The Jeep was also minus a few things- like an emergency brake- we normally parked it against telephone poles so it wouldn't roll away on us. We also carried bricks for parking in areas where there were no handy poles- the bricks went under the wheels. Another thing our lovely Jeep lacked was piston rings- you could put the Jeep in low range 1st gear faced slightly uphill, shut the engine off, and it'd roll backwards down the hill Back in those days, attendents pumped gas for you when you stopped at the gas station, and the standard instructions were "Give me 1$ worth of gas, and fill it with oil" That thing made a cloud behind it like some James Bond smokescreen..... the first guy who wanted to drive it every day had to take the plugs out and clean them to get it to run. But, as long as you cleaned the plugs every 25 miles or so, the thing would run. We never had to worry about who had the keys, though- this Jeep didn't have an ignition key. You pressed a button to start it. If you parked it somewhere that you thought someone might take it (seems unlikely, but) you took the distributor cap with you. I never found out what happened to the old beast...there was this shallow pond on campus, and we always wondered if we could drive across the pond. The last guy to leave campus for the summer was gonna find out, but I dunno if he ever did. I'm sure that Jeep went to Jeep Heaven.... |
|
|
|
Post by jimiowa on Mar 24, 2007 0:16:23 GMT -5
I'm thinking the 47 Dodge 3/4 Ton was the most stylish truck Dad had when I was a kid. The windsheld tipped out at the bottom to let air in in the summer, Since I was too young to drive, I only got to drive it in fields. Then there was the 51 Studebaker 3/4 Ton, I'll never forget the time my brother and I fixed the overdrive by putting a stovebolt in the fuse block. When we got up to speed and hit the overdrive switch the Hood latch let got and the hood flipped back and put a dent in the top. Thank God the hinges held! Pop was mad enough about the dent in the top.
Then the real truck was the 1 1/2 Ton GMC V6 Dump Truck.
That had been a Hamms Beer Truck, and my father being a Chuch going tee totaler wasted no time painting over the door decals.
That was a real fun machine to loop the square in ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by glennasher on Mar 24, 2007 10:20:07 GMT -5
My first truck/car was a '60 Chevy shortbed pickup, 3 on the tree, 235 sixbanger. Oak floor in the bed, fleetside, puke green, with baby moon hubcaps on black wheels. Hunkajunk, but it got me around for a year or so. It had that odd linkage that would pop out every now and then, you'd have to open the hood and pop the linkage back so's you could shift it. It road like a car, pretty nice, actually, and it was fun to drive down the road and take the key out of the ignition, that really messed with the kid's minds in those days. I don't miss that one, though, I like my '02 Frontier a heckuva lot better, much more comfortable and smooth, and even with it's 4 banger, it's got more power........
|
|
|
|
Post by dovehunter on Mar 26, 2007 14:22:27 GMT -5
glennahser:
I had clean forgotten about the shift linkages on those old '60 Chevy pickups. Mine did exactly the same thing - not good during the 5:00 PM rush hour when you had to stop, get out and pop the hood, and re-align the linkages. I can remember being called about every kind of SOB under the sun when that happened. On mine about every other wooden slat in the pickup box had been broken out. I just got a 4'x8' sheet of marine plywood and bolted down to the bed. I also believe that was about the worst truck I ever had about getting stuck. That thing would leave you stranded in a mud puddle.
|
|
|
|
Post by glennasher on Mar 26, 2007 19:09:00 GMT -5
We always wanna remember the good stuff about old trucks, don't we? Some of that stuff WASN'T so good! Shift linkages in Chevies are one of those things. Even today Chevy's having tranny troubles, a friend of mine, with an '06 Z71 has replaced his tranny twice, and now they are telling him it's the tires making all that noise, and they've replaced them, TWICE. Yeah, right, with less than 30K on the clock, too.......... Every time I think I want to replace my Nissan with maybe a Chevy, I remember Steve's truck, and it clears my head.
|
|
|
|
Post by dovehunter on Mar 27, 2007 9:21:08 GMT -5
glennasher:
I would hazard a guess if a Nissan had been abused like that old Chevy had been before I got it that it wouldn't have lasted any longer or been in any better shape.
|
|
You didn't drive it your herded it. Ugly green and noisy as hell. Dad built a camper out of 1/2" plywood and 2X4's and it must of weighed a ton. He used the demensions of the inside of the box to build it and when finished you had to raise the camper higher than the box to put it inside the box. Sure wern't no slide in. Dangerous as hell to do too. He had to homade camper jacks to load it with and would jack it up and then back the pickup under it. 
Did I tell you it was a cab over 
