Cab Overs?

It looks like they took the hood off and mounted the cab there. Are those windows in what used to be the firewall?

 

In reality, I have no clue. I suspect that most of those trucks had been built, used, and retired before I was born. The conversation that I had relayed in my previous post was completely made up by me to make people laugh. Hey, it made my GF laugh, lol. Figured other may find it funny, too.

But, yeah, I looked at it thought basically came to the same conclusion that you did; took the hood off and replaced it with the cab, then installed windows in an attempt to disguise the firewall. Funny thing, though, there is another model in which International Harvester did something similar, although the result did not appear so comically lazy:

 

From the chicken haulers assn. I am a member on their FB. Look for them on FB and you will see his truck and him complaining about needing to get his fuel tanks done next. Then you can see his rooster cruiser 379.

 

Sadly he is right most drivers now are scared of cabovers we had em at fedex express right up to the beginning of this year then they retired them cause parts are getting hard to find. Best city cab I ever drove was an international cabover them cry baby drivers were foolish that dog house made a good bed many of times.

 

A much younger Mustang and his daughter in 1983 with a nearly new Freightliner. The tractor was equipped with a 300 HP Cummins, 7 speed Spicer transmission with 3:70 rears. Top speed was 67 at 1900 RPM, big difference in the way trucks are geared today.

Leaf spring suspension and manual steering; however the three luxury options were air conditioning, AM-FM radio and heated mirrors.

 

This was a real beast from my second trucking job. A 1978 Kenworth K-100 with a V 903 Cummins. It was a V8 engine that put out a whopping 280 HP and I think zero torque. They also made a VT 903 which was the turbo version with 320 HP. With a Fuller 9 speed and 4:56 rears it ran 62 MPH at 2200 RPM. Torque was so low on V8s they had to produce horsepower through higher RPMs. The engines were designed to max out around 3000 RPM but were notorious for coming apart, hence the nickname "cummapart" which is rarely, if ever, used nowadays.

Suspension was provided by torsion bars, a truly tortuous invention. Manual steering, which was the norm for fleet trucks, air conditioning, and AM radio for entertainment.

 

This represents the end of an era, the last year of the IHC Transtar. This is a 1981 Transtar II WITH A 300 HP Cummins, the new Formula engine developed to operate at higher torgue and lower RPM. It replaced the old 290, known as the "shiny two-ninety". Before this truck I was in an older GMC Astro with the 290 which ran 80 MPH at 2400 RPM but would have you dropping gears at the first sight of a hill.

The Transtar was the first brand new truck I was ever issued. With the 9 speed Fuller it ran around 72 MPH, had air conditioning, AM-FM, and "whooppie!" power steering. Notice the wing on top, as folks were just starting to take aerodynamics into account.

Notice I have made no mention of air ride. It would be 1989 before I had a job with air ride trucks. This job had two Ford cabovers however, with the new air mounted cab, which was far from perfect. It was actually a little scary on curvy roads, feeling like a boat wanting to list from side to side.

 

Our internationals had detriots in em rough 300hp 10 speed spicer, boy them were some good trucks.

 

Our older ones did. Still had the fuel shut-off handle on the dash with cable going to pump. We had some F Model Macks too, hated those.