Coffin sleeper/historical question

Can anyone tell me which episode of American Trucker has the pic of the sleeper UNDER the trailer ?? I have heard of this but , NEVER seen one! Very interesting topic for truck history guys!

 

Hey let me know the episode IF you remember it !

 

Although I don't know if it was ever in "production" because of the length laws I have seen pics of a weird combo. It was basically a straight truck with a B train setup over the rear axle for the trailer.

The weird part was that the box on the truck extended all the way forward and the cab, if you could call it that, was slung between the frame rails.

I will see if I can find the pic, it was different, from the side it just looked like a rocky mountain combo with no tractor.

 

In our moving company, we have threatend some of our laborers with riding in the belly box or on the underslung walk boards. (of COURSE it's all in jest! Sheesh!)

One guy wanted me to let him ride on one of the underslung walkboards just though the parking lot on a dare. I said, "not on my watch!" I'm not risking him getting hurt just so he can show off.

Still every once in a while guys climb in there just to prank other laborers. It's pretty funny to tell a guy to "fetch the boards" and somebody's hand pops out and grabs him.

 

I always thought coffin sleeper meant something like this...... or not ??

 

I thought the original coffin sleepers were built into the trailer. Either in the nose, or a box behind the landing gear under the trailer.

You've been-----\/\/\/\-----Thunderstruck!!!

 

That is what it's came to mean because through the years those are still made.

I love hearing people talk about the new trucks are cheap plastic not built like they used to be. Thank God! When I started in '94 people were still disconnecting the front brakes "for safety."

That also has a sleeper in the cab. The driver seat lays back to make a bed.

 

I was trying to find out when the first trucks were sold with
sleepers included, and found your thread here on Trucker's Report. I'm writing a book
about a man named Gene Hoerman. His father was Al Hoerman from Manhattan, Kansas.
He had a company called Hoerman Freight Service in the early 1930s. Al hired a welder
to add onto the back of his cab so that he and his assistant could trade off driving
and sleeping. This was as early as 1933. After reading about all the other "designs"
for sleepers, some much later than this, I'm wondering if Al actually invented the
first sleeper cab...? They drove out to western Kansas and picked up farm machinery
for John Deere and Caterpillar - although first they had to dig it out of the dust! - and
brought it back for cleaning and resale. I'm not a trucker, but I sure would like to
give proper credit to this man who made an idea work way ahead of his time!
Thanks! Dan Walter

 

Yesterday I found some information on Coachbuilt.com . "Kenworth is credited with building the first commercially available sleeper cab, which appeared in 1933, and Studebaker is known to have offered sleeper cabs the following year. Custom-built sleeper bodies can be seen on a few late 1920s and very early 1930s trucks, however they were built on an individual basis by regional trucking companies and body builders." There were listings for
1931 Chevy Proctor-Keefe Sleeper Cab
1932 Chevy Orrville Sleeper Cab
1932 Chevy York Sleeper Cab

So.....I've been told that Al Hoerman, Hoerman Freight Service, went to Michigan (Detroit?) and purchased a truck with no cab - and that he drove it back to Kansas. (Hope the weather was decent!!) It is reasonable to believe that he may have seen a picture or description of one of these sleeper cabs (he was an avid reader of Popular Mechanics) and that he and Beck Woodman, a local welder, designed and constructed the truck cab. That is theory A.