Last year coming back from the Empire Farm show I passed a truly heavy duty Mack truck with a long wheel base and winch system. It looked like a truck you would find in the oil fields of Texas and not the rolling hills of the Finger Lakes. That truck is still there, sitting along NYS Route 414 watching a steady stream of garbage haulers heading to the Seneca Meadows landfill. This year the Mack was joined by another interesting old truck, this International CO-4070.
Who would like to guess what the CO stands for? The International CO-4070 officially began production in 1968. It was the successor to the short lived CO-4000 line of truck that had replaced the wildly popular DCO line perhaps better known as the Emeryville just a short three years earlier. The all aluminum doubled walled cab featured welded construction instead of rivets, generous amounts of insulation and completely redesigned interior. Running along the bottom of the door found trim proudly introducing the Transtar nameplate to the world. This model would remain a staple of the International heavy truck lineup until 1981. Unfortunately somewhere over the year this truck has lost both pieces of design work from those glory days.
The CO-4070 came with a variety of engine choices and a near limitless combination of transmission options. The standard engine in those early years was the in house special, the International DVT-573 V-8 diesel capable of producing 230 horsepower. Truckers looking for something different could pick from fifteen different engines between the various Cummins and Detroit options. I poked my head under the cab of this rig but couldn’t find any identify features one way or the other so that part shall remain a mystery.
When it comes to the year of this old warrior your guess is a good as mine. I’m sure there is some tiny bit of trim, maybe something a little different about the grill or headlights that can clue a true CO-4070 fan into the exact year. If so, please share. Based on everything I see I can’t find anything to suggest this truck didn’t roll out of the factory right at the start of production in July of ’68.
If you have any ideas about what company this truck once belonged to please speak up. The National Boom crane out back suggests a former life in the service of utility company. Most likely this truck hauled a trailer with telephone or power poles attached. The asking price on the window is a low $5,500. Is that enough to entice you? If only there had been a phone number listed! 😉
Sources: International Trucks, Frank Crimson, pg 400
