Greener Times

Heavy truck builders have always enjoyed using letter abbreviations to denote model lines. It would seem over the years that only a few certain letters were deemed good enough to be a truck name as the same letters would surface again and again. While no one dared to use the letter B for their trucks other than Mack, the letters R, L, and A were both shared among International and Mack over the course of their storied truck building careers. Here we see what I believe to be a Mack LJ and a L-Series International. The production of both model lines over lapped by a number of years with little confusion. I’m not sure what the letter L means to truck building folk but apparently it was the right character for the job.

Found in the hillsides of Herkimer County these two trucks eagerly await the day their letter is called again.

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1972 Peterbilt 351

It’s not hard to imagine that if this truck pulled up behind you on a country road you might begin to have flashbacks of the movie Duel in which Dennis Weaver is chased through the countryside by a maniac trucker. After all, the 351 seen here is the same model used (along with a 281) in that now classic movie. The movie truck happened to be a 1955 model while this truck is from 1972. While there are more than a few differences between the two trucks, with the most striking being the square style fenders and quad headlights, the vibe is there.

Matt happened across this truck near Cato, NY and new right away he had to stop for a photo. The last I knew, this truck belonged to the Henderson family, and to the best of my knowledge still does. They have a few other nice trucks in the fleet including this 1949 Autocar DC100.

Nice find Matt. It won’t be much longer to these trucks are back on the road and heading to shows.

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Ebay Finds – 1989 Peterbilt Street Rod

Here’s another one for the eternal debate of do you like big rigs turned into custom hot rods. Currently for sale on ebay this former 1989 Peterbilt is powered by a 427 Chevy connected to a Eaton Fuller manual transmission. Personally I would have stuck with a diesel but to each his own. Aside from the trans, some truck features still exist on this rig including a rear axle riding a New Way air ride suspension and an air ride drivers seat. 

So what’s your verdict. Heard turner or head scratcher?

Visit the full listing by clicking here.

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Autocar Mondays – Sugar Cane Trucker

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.

Do you have an Autocar you would like to see featured on Autocar Mondays? Email eric@dailydieseldose.com today!

 

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A Community Problem

Some days I yearn for a simpler time. A time when the local town dump was nothing more than a smoldering, uncovered, rodent infested pile of refuse on the edge town. Back in these days pigs would eat our garbage and we in turn would eat the pigs. As long as you thoroughly cooked your bacon and ham the specter of trichinosis was kept at bay. It the summer it was advisable to keep your pants tucked into your socks to avoid rat bites carrying Murine Typhus or Weil’s disease.

I’m being sarcastic of course but the state of refuse collection of the early 50’s resembles little of the modern and mostly clean methods of the 21st century.

In this period film Caterpillar took a look at the various methods of waste disposal and offered their take on the new method of cut, fill, and cover. Of course, Caterpillar equipment features prominently in the film with an interesting non hydraulic lift bucket setup. I found it interesting that most of the garbage shown in this film would be considered recyclable today.

What an age we live in.

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Where has Color Gone?

Remember the other day when I alluded that I went to an International dealer in Virginia and took some photos but then never posted any? Some of you were probably like “what? this world renowned International homer is acting like he isn’t going to post photos?” LOL, right.

This is what I saw, a new HX620 with pusher axle, Cummins engine and a 18 speed Fuller. 

At the International dealer back home this 5900i has been floating around the lot for awhile now. Pushing four years old this truck has yet to find a home. The dealer has this truck listed as new with 15 miles on it. Presumably under the hood one will find the larger Maxxforce engine which very well might be the reason this truck is still unsold. Like its replacement above, the 5900i has an 18 speed trans, air ride transmission and 19 foot Bibeau dump body. Asking price 119,000 U.S. dollars. Click here for more details. 

And just to break up the white wash of paint jobs here is a Durastar in black with Jerr-Dan rollback.

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Parking Lot of the Future

A building once stood here but now there is nothing but rubble. The Brennan Motor complex demolition is about 94.7% complete with just the hauling of broken bricks and concrete left on the agenda. Some of this material will probably be left behind to bring the lot up to grade and help provide the base for a new parking lot.

Dig. Fill. Repeat.

Why does it always the seem the sun is the wrong place for photos?

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Record Warmth

What better day to post about snow plows than the second warmest February 23rd ever recorded in CNY! Back when I shot this truck from the Town of Dewitt Highway Department two weeks ago such warm temperatures were nothing but a dream.

And just one week ago this past Monday they were still nothing more than a dream when I visited the Trius shop in Fort Edward.

Although when I took a photo of this Freightliner M2 on Tuesday the dream was becoming more of reality. If you zoom in on the photo you can almost make out what appears to be a wing on the passenger side of the truck.

Notes from the gallery below, new International Workstar for the NYSTA, City of Syracuse 4×4 WorkStar, NYSTA Western Star 4700, another angle of Fort Edward International.

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Kenworth in Flames

Kenworth in flames! How about that for a clickbait title. While passing through a seemingly endless run of distribution centers not to far from the B-Model I noticed (how could I not?) a trio of Kenworth W-900’s dressed up with custom paint jobs.

Hauling for Wolf Pak Transport these three are just a few of the many customized Kenworths of the fleet. Even a lowly day cab box truck gets in on the action around here.

No self respecting Kenworth fleet would be complete without a T-800.

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I went to Virginia

After a trip south to visit family I suppose it’s time to get back to the regularly scheduled program.

As you know, I never travel anywhere without expectations of finding something interesting for this website. Finding myself with some free time I figured I would check out some of the local truck dealers of the Richmond, Virginia area starting with an International (surprise!) dealer. I can’t say I was hoping for much but it has been my past experience that certain types of business tend to be clustered around each other. I figured if International was a strikeout there were be something else nearby. As you don’t see any Internationals in this post I’ll let you figure out how that part of the trip went. It wasn’t long until I came across Lawrence Truck and Trailer and pristine B-61 that I presume was for sale.

Taking a quick walk around the truck everything appeared to be in order. In the restored cab I found none other than two stick beast of a 20 speed Mack Quadruplex. It should go without saying that the axles and springs were heavy spec and all Mack.

It was strange to me, as a northern person, seeing road work taking place in the month of February. The orange barrels and cones usually don’t migrate back to our roads until late March at the earliest. Not to far from the B-61 a new bridge was under construction over the Interstate. A fleet of Mack Granites was busy hauling dirt from one portion of the job to the next. I didn’t plan on covering any of this action but while pulling into parking spot a nearby gas station I noticed this poor guy. No, you are not looking at a new style of side dump trailer. I’m not sure exactly why the hoist separated from the frame but it did. Maybe the load stuck? Structural failure? We will probably never know. The driver was taking it easy in the cab while someone else was near the bed working away at the load with a shovel. Talk about a long day.

I came across a few other noteworthy rigs during my stay. If you like W900’s check back tomorrow.

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