Stop ur whining and drive

elmer vitalis old 57 pan used to be on display in a des moines diner 15-20 years ago. dont know if its still there or not. my buddy also said it was a 62 or 63 model. was leased to hagen back then hagen and vitalis had some freight agreement about candy to denver out of chicago. payed good but once you got to denver you was stuck,and sugar out of fort morgan didnt pay squat. b safe out there

 

Used to be there were very, very few 'hoods', long-noses, conventionals ( whatever you want to call them ), when I started back in 19 hundred and 73. Probably 95 % cabin -overs. Length laws made long wheel bases illegal.
Lots of home made trucks back then. Take 2 or 3 trucks, put them together and go to moving freight. Running gear from one, cut - off frame from another, cab from # 3.
Most trucks were around 300 hp or less, figured 4 mpg. Fuel was around 25 to 30 cents, my insurance was about 2300 a year, IIRC.
No 102'' trailers, first trailer I bought was a used 1969 40' Great Dane,flat wooden floor, I put a Carrier under-slung unit on it,back in 1973. Hauled many a load of produce up the East Coast with it, would trip lease back south.Trip leasing meant you signed a lease to a carrier for only 1 load, and put their paper signs on your doors.Ran under their Authority, ordinary O/O's did not have rights, they were hard to get.
We used to have to purchase a fuel sticker for nearly every state you entered. Not uncommon to have 15 decals on your door. Different states had different rules, some required decal on drivers door, some passenger's door, some both. Some just a number they gave you. Every quarter had to file a fuel report with every state. VERY aggravating.
Also had BINGO CARDS you had to have. A cardboard sheet with a postage size stamp each state gave you to show you were registered with them , and had insurance on file in their state.Some states had a special license plate they issued showing you were registered with them.
Mississippi had a rule they would measure your fuel with a wooden stick as you entered the state, then measure it again as you left. They would determine how many miles you travelled, how much fuel you probably burned, and if you did not have a fuel purchase ticket to show you bought fuel, you paid the tax due on your mileage then.
Back then we aimed for a buck a mile freight, as a general rule. Could make good money doing it.
As mentioned tube tires were aggravating at times. Old 2 piece lock rings were dangerous, no radial tires.
Many older truckers back then were ex-military who had come from a farm,
most had been in WW2, or Korea. There was more of a 'CAN-DO' attitude, and more pride in their choice of occupation.

 

We must have worked for the same outfit!!!

 

Not only did you have a myriad of fuel stickers on your doors,you also had some on the windshield.Ohio HUT was always on the lower rite windshield.Iowa reciprocity was in the center of windshield,and Texas had something on the windshield for a while.IRP plates and IFTA are truly one of the great things done to improve trucking.Back in the day,depending on where you were baseplated,mean't what other tax plates you had to have on your truck and trailer.It was a mess.Here's a pic of some of the old trucks I owned,and if you look at the tan 4300 I think there were 7 tags on the front,and 3 on the trailer.I was leased to Consolidated Freightways then,and you had to be double base plated,we used Cal. and Ill.,in order to be able to cover your weights,and reciprocity.Some states were still 73280,which made it a real mess.The other tags on the front,that I remember were Vermont,Miss.,Nevada,Oregon,N.Y. and a waffle plate.It had small stickers that some states made you use,Including Washington.It was a mess,I wonder if anyone really understood it all.

 

^^^^^^Don't forget every state expiring at different times throughout the year&lovely places like VA...standin at the scale at the stroke of midnite w/ticketbooks&oos stickers....

 

The other part that I don't miss is being awake all night and getting to lump your load of meat or produce off because the companies I drove for didn't pay for lumpers so it came out of your pocket.

 

Heard a funny story from an old trucker once.. "trucks used to be so slow that when we drove donner pass we would open the door and take a leak going uphill."

 

Bias ply tires series parallel switches positive ground Frieghtliners and 24 volt starters. If you had aluminum rims on the steering axle and dual exhaust it was a fancy truck. I once drove a Cabover Freightliner for Roy Clough running Newfandland that had a mustard yellow interior. I learned a lot from Roy if you broke down on the Rock you had to fix it no one was coming to your rescue.

 

Used to take up to minutes to get that idle set with the hand throttle, and just about the time you crawled over the dog house to get into that single mattress sleeper, the thing would fall to low idle or be racing 1500 rpms. Start all over again.

3 of us got pulled over in OH one day, and I don't think any of us were even going 58. He did lets us go after he ran our licenses.

That mechanical fuel valve came in handy one night going through Green Bay in a '76 Transtar with a shiny 290. I think it was about 20 below zero or felt like it, and the thing shut down right now. I findled with the pump, found the turn on, and it started right up and away I went....thank you Jesus...

 

The shiny 290 in its day was a great engine. 4.2 miles per gallon a decent rumble at the exhaust tip and cheap to rebuild. But I do remember one trip Toronto to Calgary with my dad in his 69 Frieghtliner COE with a 335 Cummins 15 direct Hendrickson extended leaf suspension and 40 below zero. My dad could run. When we talk about new trucks and today's drivers he looks sad. Things have changed some say for the better but I'm not so sure. Some times just as I'm falling asleep I can still hear that O'l 335 and its dual straight pipes. I'd just about give anything for another 1000 miles with my dad and that old truck