Lost and Found – Pennsylvania Edition

A Daily Dose visitor by the name of Eric (yeah, small world) emailed me last week and asked if I would be interested in some photos from a near by industrial lot. He told me he wasn’t tthat familiar with trucks but thought the stuff looked old and cool. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to grab some photos. The gallery below displays the fruits of his labor. Enjoy the trucks from at least the past five decades and beyond. I particularly like the GMC Astros, it’s not every day you see two sitting in the same lot!

My hat is off to Eric, awesome stuff!

Know of any old trucks or heavy equipment in hiding?  Email Me!

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Plows and Monster Trucks

I’ve featured more than a few plow trucks this winter season on DDD and today will be no different.  With the season drawing to a close most of these rigs will remove their plows in preparation for other duties.  It was an easy winter for most of us in the Northeast but you never know how those final few weeks will go…

Mack Granite, Town of Cicero, NY – Click to Enlarge

Need some thing more simple to focus on this Friday?  How about five minutes of trucks dumping dirt inside the Carrier Dome for the Monster Jam show on Saturday.

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They still exist!

By the time I started to pay attention to the trucks on the road around me most of the Autocars like this one were gone.  Even though I missed their “golden years” I do have fond memories of trucks like the one below as they pulled away from the main DPW garage, engines screaming the entire way up Midler Ave.  They were loud, rusty, and positively huge looking when viewed from the back seat of my grandmothers car.  Trucks like this Autocar were the model that provided the inspiration for most of my childhood drawings, especially the yellow and blue paint scheme.

Former Syracuse DPW Autocar – Click to Enlarge

This former snow fighter now rests on the back of an equally decrepit lowboy.  The dump body is gone but the equipment for the wing plow still remains.  I would love to grab more photos of this truck but it hides in a very crowded junkyard with numerous hunks of steel designed to keep people out.  For an idea of what this truck looked like check out this tow truck still used by the Syracuse DPW by clicking here.

Know of any old trucks or heavy equipment in hiding?  Email Me!

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Reach For The Sky

This past holiday season I had to borrow a ladder to put up the Christmas lights on my home. The ladder did the job fine but I have to say using this truck would have been more fun. Yes, it would have been overkill but that is the American way! Go big! This National Grid Freightliner M2 112 is not your average bucket truck. With over 70+ feet of boom available you won’t find this guy fixing the power lines on your street unless you happen to live under a transmission tower. This truck is setup for some serious off road work as evidenced by the factory deleted headlights, custom steel bumper and 6×6 drive system. Not for those afraid of heights.

Freightliner M2 112 - Click to Enlarge

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Australian Kenworths

Through the Facebook grapevine I learned of these fantastic videos of Kenworth trucks from Australia.  Very nicely done and fun to pick out the details that separate them from their North American cousins.

Here is the T-609, I’m guessing this is like the T-660 or T-700.

And how about this K-200, reliving the glory days of cabovers.

And a nice compilation of the entire product line.

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Lost and Found – Brockway 359

Yesterday I was finishing a session of truck hunting when I decided to travel down one more industrial back road with the hope of finding something interesting.  At this point the haul had been somewhat disappointing but the excitement of breaking in a new camera was helping to fill the void of not grabbing any meaningful shots.  The end result of that “last” road?  A Brockway 359.  The old circle on the door and black hood scream to me that this truck was a former government vehicle.  NYSDOT or NYS Thruway maybe?  No evidence of a plow in its past.  There is even a faded and torn “Husky Town USA” bumper sticker.  Maybe at some point this truck made it to the national show in Cortland, NY?

Brockway 359 Dump Truck - Click to Enlarge

Brockway 359 Dump Truck - Click to Enlarge

Brockway 359 Dump Truck - Click to Enlarge

By the way, this street was loaded with old trucks of all kinds, stay tuned this week for more surprises.

*UPDATE*

According to sources in the know this 359 was the last Brockway in the Schyuler County fleet.  This truck is running a PT270 Cummins with a  5 x 4 transmission.

Know of any old trucks or heavy equipment in hiding?  Email Me!

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Still Working – Loadstar and John Deere

This photo is a few years old now so I can’t say with any certainty if this truck is still with us but at the time it was working so that is how I choose to remember it.  This Loadstar was working at the local farm store.  Farms, the retirement homes for old trucks.

International Loadstar - Click to Enlarge

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This is a truck.

This is a truck.  That is all.

NYSDOT International Durastar - Click to Enlarge

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Industry Heavy Weights Challenge EPA

More than a few lines of code on Daily Diesel Dose have been spent discussing the emerging saga of Navistar and their non EPA 2010 compliant diesel engines. As a quick recap, Navistar was using EPA credits to continue the manufacturer of heavy duty diesel engines that did not meet revised pollution guidelines. The trouble began early this year when the supply of said credits wad exhausted. Once the credits are gone you either stop building the engines or you a pay fine of around 2,000 dollars for each one constructed. Seems like a poor business strategy but keep in mind that until last month Navistar and the EPA were battling each other in court over the 2010 emission standards, a battle the EPA eventually won. Either Navistar thought they could win or they used the extra time to design a compliant engine, the later is an actual company claim.

When I first read the title of the article linked below I thought all the builders of heavy trucks were coming together to face down the EPA and their ridiculous mandates.  My hope in the world was almost restored….then I actually read the article, sadness followed.  The feathers of the SCR crowd (Cummins, Volvo, Daimler) are upset with the EPA. They claim the fines imposed on Navistar are not in line with establish punishments and have gone as far as to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the fines. They feel reduced or modified fines directly encourage non complaint behavior.

Nothing like a little friendly competition right?

Source: Truck, Engine Makers Challenge EPA Fines For Navistar

Previous DDD Articles Relating to EGR/SCR:

EGR or SCR? The Choice is Yours!

2011 Truck Sales Boom

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ATHS Hudson Mohawk – The Lost Footage

I was poking around my computer the other day when I came across the two videos below from the ATHS Hudson Mohawk trucks show from this past September. Enjoy this never before seen footage of classic Mack trucks in action!

Mack DM 800

1985 Mack R-Model with 1947 Oshkosh

I won’t leave you hanging, here is a great video of the Oshkosh from a few years ago.

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