Old Auto Transporter

Here's a pic of an old car transporter and its cargo. Times sure have changed!

1949 or 1950 Fords. Aren't you glad you weren't a truck driver back then.? When loaded you had to row those old rigs around by the gear shift, underpowered little old gas engines, springs as stiff as railroad rails, no Air conditioning, no sleeper to take a break in,. Those old boys had it rough and the ones before them even rougher. These guys now-a-days have it so easy with air seat over air cab over air suspension, upwards of 600 ponies under the hood, automatic shifting transmissions if they want them, and all the comforts of home surrounding with them.

Its interesting to note the family resemblance between the hauling truck and the loaded trucks.

Single tandems ouch!

Single axle James. Tandems are the two axle configuration and when they first became available the truckers called tandem axle trucks "twin screw", like a boat with two propellers.

Under the skin there was little difference between the pulling truck here and the one on the top front. Could very well have been the same engine bu t it had more gears in the transmission and a two speed rear axle. Back then pulling power was all done with gearing because nearly all truck engines were actually much too small for the job they had to do.

JD: Another one, stylish Ford cab over. You're right about the guys driving these rigs. The heat in summer, noise, banging and thrashing over the road must have been awful. Modern reefers likely have more horsepower than the old flathead six and v8 gas rigs. I thought I had it rough with an old '63 Kenworth western rig with a 350 Cummins, 14600/48000 axles and no air suspension.

Link to lots more: http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/john_jurkowski_trucks2.htm

The first rig that I drove was an old IH and the only power option was the strength of your arms. And as JD said it was the most underpowered tractor that existed. I finally told the boss that I couldn't run up this one section of 2 lane highway anymore because it was a slow uphill grade and I couldn't get to running speed and would tie up traffic for miles. One of the guys that I drove with and was 10 years older than I am, talked about some of the old chain driven rigs that they used to use down on the farms in Central California. I could listen to those stories for hours. As much as I beefed about that truck, it was one of my favorite jobs.

When I lived in Chicago in the late sixties you'd still see them delivering coal in chain drive, solid rubber tire Brockways. They'd stay in the alleys, never go much more than 10mph.

Boy, wouldn't you like to have one of those F-1's in your garage in the same condition today?!