Favorite old school truck?

It surely is, still has the flat glass windshield and removable sleeper.

 

There are no old school trucks that looked like that, they didn't run huge visors, drop bumpers, or long wheelbase trucks.

 

If it has square head lights it is too new to be a truley old school ride.

 

Whatever dude.

 

Really, go look at some trucks from the 70s and early 80s and tell me how many long wheelbase trucks you see that were factory. Spend some time around some drivers that actually drove those trucks and see what they say about the definition of old school these days.

 

The guy who taught me to drive started driving himself when he came back from Korea. How much more old school can you get? This is the problem with being an aficinado or a snob, you assume you are the end all be all.

On that note, there were lots of trucks "back in the day" that had long wheelbases, in the 70's Mercury built sleepers that were as long as 84" from what I have seen which means you would need close to a 300" wb truck to move them.

The thing that instilled my love in my for the W900L is when I was a kid in the late 80's I saw a trucking company that was just up the street from where I went to school, they had 3 of these brand spankin new W900L's and man they were beautiful. I remember watching them roll past the school, when ever they did I would just stand there and stare, they looked so good pulling the all aluminum ravens flat beds.

Little did I know then that when I got out of the navy 15 years later I would wind up working for and learning to drive with those guys.

The ole man there had his own trucks back into the early 70's and before that he was a company driver through the 60's. Both of his boys also have driven since the early 80's and they grew up in and around the truck their whole lives.

The late 70's and early 80's was my favorite era for trucking, I loved the paint schemes of that era, I loved the style, and that is what I am building my own truck after.

To say that a truck can't be old school because it has square headlights, well that just isn't so, Kenworth started using square headlights sometime between 81 and 83, I believe 81 or 82 was the last year of the W900A, which was replaced by the W900B, that W900B cab is for the most part the same cab my 94 has, and if I am not mistaken I think the late W900A's as well.

The Liniage of the W900 goes way back into some of the earliest trucks Kenworth built, it is the Legacy truck, it follows the lines of the old W925 that they built through the 50's and stopped in 62 I believe, then came the W900A, now we're on to the W900L, If that ain't old school man, I don't know what is!

As for how I am building my truck. This truck is a 87 007 edition KW.



To me with the old Aerodine I sleeper that thing is old school and very cool.

Now my truck originally came with that Aerodine I sleeper, and someone switched to the Aerodine II somewhere along the way. I haven't decided if I am going to stick with it or switch it back yet, or if I want to go crazy and put a mercury on it.

But I did come up with this:



It is a paint shceme I drew up based on some really cool old school trucks I have found around, and it pays homage to those Kenworths I loved so much as a kid.

Personally I think it is going to look pretty awesome hooked up in front of a 50 ton lowboy. Especially once I get the trailer painted to match.

And really, isn't that what old school is all about, appreciating the rich history of our industry from days gone by?

 

I own three trucks from that era, one of them happens to be a W900A, the updates that came with the B model to me took the classic right out of it.

The longest of the three carries a 204" wheelbase, so must be different parts of the country because here you will not wheel base from the factory that long.

I get a kick out of driving my cabover and I hope that when I get my w900 done it will be just as good. I don't know if it is because they are something I don't see everyday that makes them more ideal classics or what. You definitely understand the concept.

 

Back in the day way out west you would see a lot of longer trucks with Drom's on them, you would have a 60" sleeper with another 4-6 feet of drom behind that as well, I think the reason for this is because a lot of those guys were running loaded to the gills and going right around the scales because many of them were getting paid by the hundred weight.

They would stack the trailer full, then throw a couple of more pallets on the drom.

Most drivers today don't even know what in the heck a drom is.

 

Your right, the only other time I have seen it is to allow for front over hang on a flatbed.


This would have been a big truck around here in the era.

 

Found this one a few days ago.
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