Coffin sleeper/historical question

Maybe someone much older then me may know the correct answer, but with length laws being restrictive like they were I wouldn't doubt that such a setup was attempted at one time.

 

In the old days, a coffin sleeper was one that was 24" wide and approx 36" tall. It was mounted behind the cab of the truck and level with the top ofthe cab. There was no access from the cab directly. You had to climb up into it thru a door in the side, located on the passenger side end.
You had no way to communicate with the driver while you were in the sleeper and he couldn't tell you when he was going to jump when the brakes failed going down a 6% grade, on a two lane road, in western states in the 50"s.
Ergo "COFFIN".

 

My first team run in1975 was in a 48 kw with what was called a coffin sleeper.It was 30inches long and you crawled thru a hole where small window used to be. You used to kind of fall down to the mattress and it was attached with 4 bolts. No heat or air and first trip was to nogales az. Never heard of one under trailer.

 

My recollection is that the term was applied to narrow sleeper cabinets behind the seats. It may be that "coffin sleepers" were slung under trailers, but I've never seen any references to that, nor have I ever seen a picture of one. I have a 1937 issue of Life magazine and it has a picture of a sleeper (narrow freakin' thing with a board for a bunk), but it's behind the seats and on the tractor. Maybe it was just that early truck sleepers were narrow as a coffin and about as long. Maybe guys died in them and the name came from that.

You might get in touch with the American Truck Historical Society.
http://www.aths.org/
There might be an old timer there who could answer your question and fill in some details. If there is, I'd like to hear his answer.

 

There were sleeper compartments in the bottom nose of trailers years ago. I have seen several pictures, but never one in person. There are several pictures of these with drivers waving out the door at the C Grier Beam museum in Cherryville, NC. Nice place to visit if you're ever in the area.

He was the founder of Carolina Freight, and this is the Beam/Carolina Freight museum.

http://beamtruckmuseum.com/trucks.htm

 

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