What is the oldest...

started in a 71 swingfender dodge and 63 or 64 ford super duty gas pot 2 sticker way back when... ..I pull cryogenic tankers which are very costly...we still have 1967 j russell trailer we use it pulls as good as a new one( its old but has been rehabbed many times ...has air ride anti lock brakes led lights...all the goodies) the trailer I pull on a daily basis is a 1993 j russell argon trailer..it was rehabbed 3 years ago and is still good as new...many of the cryogenic trailers used by all the cryo companies are mid 70's and up...

 

1975 Reo in 2001

 

'49 Dodge B2 Model, hauled gravel for driveways. Dump bed worked like it was new.

 

about 20 years ago had a 67 ford louisville cab, 391w 5/2 looked like a show truck. wish i had kept it. pull a heil bulk tank everyday 1994 model, probably 2 million miles on it.

 

AFAIK UPS buys a heck of a lot of new trucks compared to years past.

They used to repair/rebuild the equipment based on miles or hours rather than waiting for stuff to break. I watched a mechanic pull a package car transmission because it was due for a replacement because of miles... nothing wrong with it.

Today they don't do that anymore... I took my road test with them in 1987 in a '74 Diamond Reo.... when I left in '98 the oldest tractors we had at my center were Mack CH-613's which were about 5-6 years old.

It seems that better fuel economy and resale values helped change management's mind. They even sell many of the old feeders to exporters now... They DO keep their equipment a long time but I even saw ex-buster brown trailers on Truck Paper yesterday... '94 to '98 models.

 

The new pkg car thing is a 30 year plan, they do still replace parts during the pmis based on mileage. Kinda funny, we just had to scrap like 50 p800s because of some government thing with emissions.

 

I started in a 1987 362 Pete cab-over back in 1998. Dang thing had 1,300,000 miles on it when I got it. I still cringe when I hear someone say L-10 Cummins. We had a few 1972 Fruehauf trailers with the bubble nose on them. Turns out, those bubble noses were a great place for a hornets nest. Nice surprise at 3-4 am....

 

Drove a 62 IH Emreryville a few times hauling grain in 94 when my NORMAL rig a 71 IH 4070 Transar not the Transtar 2 of the later 70's was getting its Hendrickson Suspenseion or as I called it the Filling cracker redone. Stayedin that IH til 96 then drove a 88 Pete 379 and KW then a 88 IH 9300 I thought I had died and gone to heaven with that beast.

 

At Central Transport in the mid 80's, we had a LOT of van trailers, from the mid to late 60's. It seemed Mattie never threw anything away.

 

When I first started driving, I delivered 7 Up, first sideload truck was '74 White, when running it always smelled like an electrical fire, blew the trans on day 4. Next was a '77 Ford sideloader, ran like a bat out of hell, burned oil like it was hooked to a pipeline lasted about two weeks before they sold it. Last truck was a '79 GMC sideloader, I was filling in for the guy who did the one mtn. route, so it was geared accordingly. 60 mph on the interstate, but I swear it would climb a 20% grade without breathing hard.

There are several 20' chassis in the Denver pool that are from the 60's, they have been rebuilt so many times it's not funny. My company has one that is from the early 80's, we just sold it for scrap. When I first started with them, I was driving a late '80's Int'l that was beat to hell.


As for UPS, they are only replacing tractors that are more than 10 yrs old, there are 20 new ones here in Denver, most are line haul. The package vans are all slowly being replaced by Nat. gas models, although I did see a couple of nat. gas/hybrid models recently running around.