One of my instructors in truck driving school told tales of driving those old Macks with several gearshifts in them. Said a driver had to hook his arm through the steering wheel while shifting two levers at once! Sounds like fun! 8)

 

I hated those things-Some people still love them n those Autocars you could land a 747 on their Hoods-they seeme that long :P

 

Yeah,the older Macks had 2 gear selectors. The one on the left had 1-5. The other on the right,had Reverse,Low,and Direct. I work part time for a guy who has 2 R Model Macks. Both are so wore out. The shifting selectors arent that bad,but the range selectors are so wore out,that its hard to tell if youre in neutral,or in Reverse,Low,or Direct.

 

Around my area you see lots of old rigs that the local Farmers use to haul harvest to the Processing Plants. Many of these trucks sit all year until the one month they get ressurected to make the 10-20 mile round trip haul. These are some pretty sad looking rusted out jaloppies. Lots of old CabOvers with hornet nests hidden under the rust and mud. Flatbeds with grass growing on them. Old Flatbed trucks with wobble splitrims. Sput spit sputter..rattle...clunk...varoomcough...flutter... miss...hummmm..hack.

...GERT..gert..gerta GRIND CLUNK ....shifts the mexican migrant worker. :evil:

 

Yeah,they stuck those clothes pins on the fuel line to keep the gasoline from changing from liquid to vapour. Vapour lock is when the gasoline evaporated in the carburetor,before it made its way through the intake. Some of the older Chevrolet C-60s,and C-65s were known for this. Those 427s put off so much heat,that when you sat,and idled after running a while on the road,they would vapour lock,especially in the summer heat on the wheat harvest. The family that I went on wheat harvest with,started during WWII. They used to run gas trucks. Well,most everyone did back then. They used to have 4 bobtail graintrucks. They now have 42' hopper bottoms,but my first year that I worked for them,they still had 1 C-65,which is a tandem Chevrolet truck. GVWR was 54,000. You couldnt let those trucks idle in the summer. That tempature would jump to 240 before you knew it,but,I remember hearing about guys who worked for them in the past that would let those trucks idle in the fields after just pulling off the road,and then they would try to vapour lock.

 

Reminds me of the first truck I drove for pay. 73 Transtar 290 Smallcam 4x3 and rubber block suspension. I was never so glad to haul over gross my entire life.

 

Yeah-With the 98" WB I think they had :P

 

Yeah,a half twin bed for the sleeper aughta do it. :lol: :P

 

I have seen that old codger driving that Transtar.......It looks horribly uncomfortable and right on the edges of falling completely apart..i was actually surprised that thing was legal on the interstate.