Can someone help me ID this rig???

I'll have to grab a pic of an old dump truck for sale in town. Been sitting there since 2012 at least....it's a Diamond Reo and still looks relatively solid actually.

 

Look up B.C. Fry. He was a legend. His big hood “Western” Diamond T 951 was well known in the day.

 

I know of 2 down here in Australia..!!

 

Pretty sure I read about him in Wheels of Time….

 

Yep. Crazy how that truck was $28k back then. A house was what $7k to $10k?

 

Its on the reading list now. That said my favorite truck of all time and my dreams come true won the lottery purchase is one of these.


The 270s were one of the very first petes ever owned in our family and really started our pete tradition he later retrofitted a 3406A in which also kickstarted the cat tradition. im just old enough to remimber going for a ride in it with my grandpa when i was i think 4 or 5. That particular unit is long gone though. In 1997 just before he planned to retire his mich newer 359 broke down but he had a contracted load so he pulled the old 270 out of storage to deliver it. a kid in a freightliner lost control of his rig in a snowstorm and jack knifed into my grandpa sending him rolling off the road into a tree and snapping his spine in 3 places breaking both legs and breaking his arm in 9 spots. He never could walk right after that and the old truck was so badly mangled it wasnt worth salavgeing. He retired out and the 359 went to an uncle then my dad before it went to another uncle who stopped driving and sat on it for 10 years before he went back to driving and rolled it taking a corner to fast then sold said 359 for scrap.

That memory of rideing in that old 270 is why i drive today and a big part of why i went with my 579 over some of the westys and such. Honestly i would LOVE to get my grubby mits on one and make it a clone of his. His was a custom dark sapphire blue with a hand mix of gold and silver flake added to the paint. Chrome everything else.

 

Just seen an older Pete listed somewhere. Not sure if it was that old or not, but it had some age….

 

Ive seen a few 270s pop up over the years, never been in a good position to buy one any time i see them. Like right now theres one for sale on an auction up near where i live in really rough shape that has a starting bid of $18,000 i just dont have that right now after blowing the turbo, EGR carrier bearing and apu all in one month and having to replace them. Hell i basically have just enough for fuel and food plus a bit of an o #### fund to the tune of 2 or 3 tires at most XD

 

The production numbers on the old “iron nose” Petes were only in the hundreds per year. Most of them went to P-I-E in those days. I think Pete has them to thank for getting their trucks exposed to the rest of the truckers and public. The rest is history as we say.