289 M 1975 Peterbilt battery cable problem

289A would be an aluminum frame. M, well I was researching to see if M stood for metal, and look what I found! 1975 PETERBILT 289M For Sale in Stockton, California

Thats a steel frame, not an aluminum frame.

 

I was thinking A was aluminum. M was aluminum with metal or steel cross members and S was steel

 

How well did aluminum frames stand up? Never seen one in real life, didn't even know they existed until a couple years ago.

 

All the ones I saw working were farmer owned here in Arkansas. All looked good. I saw an old W900 in NW Nebraska last year I posted a pic of. It was also aluminum, and clean.

@Oxbow posted pics of his trucks frame a while back. It resembled some nasty battery terminal corrosion.

 

Not bad priced. A guy could build a nice truck outta that. Should go quick

 

Mine would have probably held up much better, but it used to be owned by a crane company in Nevada and I imagine that the mag chloride they put on the mine roads got in between the steel liner and the aluminum frame and caused a chemical reaction similar to rust jacking. Our state uses salt brine or some sort mag or calcium chloride on the roads in the winter now and that didn't help the situation.

 

IIRC, the pic you posted looked like 3 or 4 inches of rust jacking. May be why I never realized it was aluminum. Could be I'm just blind and inattentive too.

I didn't see those 6 fingers on that gal either. Hell, I didn't notice she had hands till it was pointed out

 

I've got a pic of the original frame on the W9. Same deal, rust jacked so bad the web of the outer rail resembled a buttoned headliner in places where the bolts hadn't snapped. The rust jacking was bad enough it actually cracked some of the suspension brackets.

 

Pretty clean California trucks. I imagine you won't have them long. I may holler at you about that 379.

How soon do you need to move these from where they are?