Big island. Big Trucks. Work in the sugarcane fields of Hawaii was demanding on both men and machines. Naturally the work of hauling sugarcane to the mills fell on the shoulders of Autocars Trucks. Seven days a weeks, both day and night, Autocars trucks and their drivers traveled over roads and through weather that varied from excellent to exceedingly terrible. With average cane loads regularly grossing in excess of 100,000 pounds drivers were expected to supply mills with 1.5 millions pounds of sugar cane an hour. The timing had to be precise with a truck arriving every three minutes to avoid bottlenecks and “no cane” shut downs.
Check out the video below to see how these beastmode trucks operated in their prime. The action starts around the 3:25 mark. The narration indicates these trucks received extensive modifications by the company and were in excess of 200,000 dollars a unit.
The last commercial sugarcane operation on the big island of Hawaii ceased operation decades ago but the legacy remains. Clearly this tanker is one of the trucks from the Hamakua Sugar Company video witnessed above. The tropical climate has done wonders for it longevity! We should all be so lucky.
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