Curious if any of you drive or know someone who drives a really, really old truck. I saw a light green 1950s or 1960s needlenose Pete on the road yesterday and it made me wonder. I've also seen the same International Transtar pulling a Landstar trailer across I80 in western PA a couple times. He runs about 45MPH.

What got me thinking is, I can't stand to drive a 1995 International cabover, let alone one from 1965. How do drivers do it? No power steering, no A/C, the ride and handling have to be terrible. The Transtar I mentioned looks like it is falling apart.

 

i know a guy that runs a old B model mack ten wheeler dump still. Not sure of the year but it has 3 sticks in it now thats trucking. God bless them people. Like my dad told me all these new drivers bitch about trucks that are only 4 or 5 years old. Thats becuase they never driveiv a real old truck. he tells me all kind of crazy storys like GAS :shock: powered atuo cars.

 

The better class of old hand drivers can drive and DID drive and loved to drive the old trucks...Old trucks took skill and a certain degree of talent to drive WELL. It was sort of a craftsmanship in a trade. Drivers basically respected each other because they knew a craftsman when they saw one. All of the areas of trucking took skill, shifting braking, turning, baacking and especially engine operation were all imortant to be done correctly or you could destroy the truck or yourself.

ANYONE can drive the new trucks.. and they still constantly complain about them (spoiled?). All of the problems and dangers of the old trucks have been weeded out with new technology. The truck takes care of itself and the driver... rather than the other way around. All of the improvements in safety have come about because of the technology inserted into the trucks. The drivers do not have a clue what it took to operate an old pre-technology truck.

 

You know they're old school when they're driving a truck with a non-turbo Cummins NH220. :lol:

 

Or when you have to do a pretrip and check the fuel and fill up the oil...

 

Ok, this is gonna sound lame....there's a movie out there called "Dumbo Drop"- I believe it is that Belushi guy..???Anyway, whatever his character is... he had to haul an elephant someplace and of course he didn't know how to drive a big truck; well, the truck must have been ancient coz' in one scene-he was having trouble figuring out all the buttons, etc.- well the ENTIRE cab flipped forward as he's going down the highway- if you've seen this movie, you'll know what I'm talking about. Ya'll just reminded me of it for some reason- and it cracks me up! I have no idea what kind of truck that was- but I've never seen one do that before! It was great! :lol:

 

Ah to be drivin' a screamin' Jimmy!

 

Does my '73 KW short hood, small cam 350 C, compression release, aluminum frame, no a/c, no power steering count here???

 

this may be the place for this not sure. My dad tells me some crazy stories about trucking back in the day. But i dont know if he is pulling my leg or not. He talks about old atuocars with gas motors. They would Vapor lock and they use to stick clothes pins on the fuel lines or something like that not to sure. Anybody actually did this. :roll: :?:

 

Hey-that 220 would Move down the Road at a pretty good clip. :P