Anyone ever drive a cabover?

you're a better man than me. if i were to see one, i'd want to see it burn down to the ground.

 

corn popper my first truck lol then a corn binder (9670) big improvement . ac actually worked .. then moved up to a peterbuilt had a longer wheelbase didn't ride bad at all ... I never drove a small day cab like yellow and pie had but I bet that ride was something

 

Where's the doghouse? I've around million on those COE. 3 window Petes, Ford 9000, ect.

 

It's not bad.

In my time the 78, 82,92 and 87 in particular had double stitched diamond premium interior that covered everything. The dog house in particular had insulation several inches thick backed by a relfective foil to contain the engine heat.

HOWEVER. You learned to wear certain boots, two sized layered socks and certain pants and so on because there was thin sheet of metal in front of your body under the dash and glass. Holes in the floor, front and so on allowed the very cold air in during winter storms. You had to have a good heater. A few time the core of my freightliner heater broke or the hose cracked. Lose all the coolant. But during winter in those old days engine would be at 260 or so on the water gauge and finally zero as the fluid ran out. (Huge amounts of it) Once that water gauge stopped swinging (As the last of the coolant bled out via the block water pump and stayed at zero, your next three gauges were the pyro, oil temp and oil pressure. Oil temp rose first followed by a fall of oil pressure as it broke down in the extreme heat and the pyro told you what the pistons and manifold were enduring. Once those values exceeded or zero'ed depending on what gauge you were following, you no longer had a engine. No engine, no truck.

You needed to be parked engine off at a shop capable of fixing the huge coolant loss leaks and cores. Today's computer engines would just shut down if they got a little thirsty losing a pint of coolant to protect themselves with a code and wont run until you bypassed the sensor or added (Or even peed into the overflow tank) to satisfy the new computer crap.

On the two times I had that trouble I had a ocean going oil lantern for ships on the doghouse providing SOME heat and two sleeping bags bigger than I am nested under 4 mexican blankets and a silver anti shock EMT type blanket as a wrap. And the truck was parked facing the east to catch the sunrise that will provide some warmth that will keep you alive and get you moving again. When you had food and most especially water metabolism being young then were able to keep up with the constant freezing for a while anyway. But once you lose your reasoning powers and your shivering has stopped and began to babble your death is not far away, that is when you got on the radio asking for another driver to hold up where you are at with a warm cab to protect your life; (Ive done that a couple times, appts be darned...) State troopers were very good with this kind of problem when they had channel 9 that heard the call.

Certain cabovers like the suicide mack, road commander, and a few others do not merit any consideration or thought for even a minute. They did not deserve any love. The GMC Astro for instance had nothing that worked in the dash. When you had ice pick in your Ears (I am a deaf man and anything above 5000 hertz at 130 or higher db registered as pain instead of noise to me) from the turbo, it's time to upshift the astro.

That is the other thing. You learned to put a certain gauge of sheet metal in layers against the doghouse over the turbocharger itself so if it should explode or try to puke oil (Which is seriously hot) your passenger has a fighting chance over there in the right seat because turbo was right there.

Ive froze. That's not so bad. Compared to one incident where my failed AC recycled and added to interior heat combined with the rising of the morning sun from 6 to noon with about a 150 or so degree interior temp cooking me inside that bunk. I consider that day my new birthday among others because when I finally tried to wake up with a body that would not function I had to think of the bad dispatcher, then got really angry and burned the last of my fight or flight chemicals to get out of there and to the lunch counter with a standing order of however many gallons of iced tea, sweet and lemons with a instruction to staff that if I fell off stool, it's heat stroke and I could lose my life. It was from noon until about 2 am before my kidneys began to produce urine again. That trip to the mens room was joyful that meant I will get better towards morning. And think about the fixing that will have to be done and the yelling that would get going.

Anyway I was not going to get into cabovering too much here, but I did anyway. I liked some of them very much. The Freightliner 87 to me was luxury. The School had a Cabover KW with even more luxury that was unfortunately not a road truck. It had airride which was a novelty then. I had 73 international transtar as my school truck. I'll scan and post a picture sometime.

You could do things with a cabover you couldnt do with a conventional. But with the newer set back axles and other improvements to the Conventionals with their big condo apartments and studios etc there is or was no point in keeping a cabover.

One final thought. When you get into Iowa against storm winds about this time of the year that square cabover was a battle. If you thought teenagers in a gym was a stinky bunch, after fighting a wind for a day pulling into say Salinas, people poked me with a pole saying get a shower now. You stink. Never mind the interior of that truck. 10% bleach, pine sol and a couple rolls of shop towels disinfected and kept them clean relatively. You had to do it. Your human body is a source of it's own infections and sicknesses if you did not keep a clean cabover inside.

 

Granted I have seen 3 or 4.One is run by "an Old Dinosaur" ,that Wouldnt Drive Anything Else",Yes he is an O OP.I see him every now and then.Once he gets started on his "Trucker Stories". There is no Escape? Youll find yourself engaged in an Hour and 50 minute conversation in the Parking Lot.Heck of a nice guy,though.

 

I drive cab over pretty much every day they seem to ride abit rougher although you guys have pretty smooth roads so it wouldn't bother you to much. We have some of the roughest roads in the western world so to speak and so a cab over shakes like crazy when your driving.

 

the engine cover sit coffee snacks that little gear shift

 

I have driven many cabovers, only one rode poorly and all had big power and good A/C; I still have a 1980 Peterbilt cabover at the house with a 3406b turned up to 500hp and it has both a retarder and a Jake Brake.

Mine has the cornered cab dual stacks which look great but never really seal like the rigid mount stacks, the seal on the floor for the shift tower is always an issue as well but other than that it was a great truck to drive back in the day.

But I will never run it again except maybe in a parade, I have always preferred Conventionals.

 

Why was it hot in the transtar I see by the roof it had a keyser air conditioning set up on it lol.
I had a 74 White road commander cab over with the same keyser set up...
most worthless junk they could bolt to a truck...