Ahh, auctions. It feels like I haven’t been to one in a really long time. RTI Auctions holds a two day extravaganza in conjunction with the Empire Farm Days show that usually contains a few gems worth nothing. Remember that huge lump of iron from last year, the Allis Chalmers HD21 with Zor plow? What a beast that thing was. This year my eye fell upon a 1987 GMC General with set back axle. That’s right, set back axle.
History now records 1987 as being the final year of the General and the only year the set back axle option was offered. Right around this time General Motors would enter a joint venture with Volvo creating the Volvo GM Heavy Truck corporation and the WhiteGMC brand of truck. Production numbers of the set back axle are unknown but much lower compared to the tradition General. Rumors have circulated on the internet that only twenty of these trucks left the factory with this setup. I find this number to be too low for a factory production run. A little more digging indicates that some set back Generals may have been produced wearing the WhiteGMC name badge. If true, this is probably were the twenty number originated as I have never seen a GMC General of any form wearing this name badge.
All things considered this truck was still pretty much intact. The fiberglass front was largely in one piece and free of major cracks. The grill wasn’t half bad either with all logos and trims to be found. Out back a real nice dump body was just begging to be used. Under the hood? No idea. But it turned over easy. Inside the cab the view stayed the same with an intact dash and function gauges. Some form of 10 speed transmission could be found sticking up through the cab floor. Flipping down the drivers sun visor found an asset sticker for Dolomite Products, a large aggregate supplier from the Rochester area.
I spent a few moments documenting the truck via video for those that don’t like to read. 🙂
I’m going to guess this truck found a decent home largely thanks to the nice dump body out back. Yeah, I suppose someone could buy the truck for the body alone and junk the rest but who would do that to a classic?! Surely no one reading this site. More to come from this auction. Think Oshkosh plow and International Transtars.
