Old Iron, old engines & memories led me to a new thread. Was trying to count all the different Class 8 trucks I've driven (for at least a couple hours) since 68 and I think it's getting close to a hundred. It didn't take long to figure out the worst POS or the best. But a truck at age 16 might not be so bad when all you want to do is drive. It would be a lot worse after a few years under your belt. Worst one made me quit my first job at age 20, 1960 IH cabover, Emeryville. 2 axle, 262, R-96, broken left window, exhaust & engine vapors in the cab, cold air coming in in winter and heat in summer. Shift linkage so worn it would barely get into gear. Sometimes had a jo-dog on that had 3" of slop at end of frame. Best truck was a new 96 Pete I took delivery on in June 95. 3406E/455, RTLO 18718B, DT-461P, 205" WB 18K steer. I ran it for 740K miles with barely an issue. Comfortable, easy to see out of, 1 stack and felt like you and it was one. Sold it to a crane outfit and they said it was the best truck they ever had. Replaced it with a new 2005/mistake. What's your worst & best?
I haven't driven too many trucks but since they don't make their money down the road the cabs are not well taken care off. Worst is probably my first truck a 81 GMC brigideer w/ 671. Thing was a total POS nothing worked in the cab, the engine had no power but would still go around 55-60 down the road. They finally retrucked it when I got stuck in dry powder because I couldn't get out of the divots from the front tires because no power and no power steering. Best is probably 07 Freightliner, I can't remember the model. It was just really nice with low miles and had power everything and the ac worked. Was my first electronic auto with engine brake so it was nice rolling down the road. I'm sure it's all fucked up now.
Probably the 2nd worst was a 54? Freightliner I used to load trailers at the local sugar mill. Just a yard horse and wasn't used as a road tractor so it didn't need to be nothing more than a POS. 220, 5x3 with a jo-dog. I learned to drive with it. In it's last days, we would drain the water out of the oil pan 1st thing in the morning then pull it around the yard to start it. Refill with water & let it run all day to load trailers. Then the same thing the next day. It finally dropped a valve right there in the yard and that was it. Here is a very similar photo.
Worst for me was a Western Star, 2008 or so. 14L Detroit and was GUTLESS. I don’t know why but you could not lug that truck at all. It was a heavy spec 4 axle but just weak. Best all around truck I had was a 2006 Pete 379 4 axle. My first new truck. 280” wb, it drove and hauled nice. You could do a 700 mile day in it and not feel beat to a pulp. My 85 359 will always have a soft spot too, I drove the wheels off it before I got the 06 and it never let me down. It’s still around pulling a lowboy. I’ve tried to buy it back but he won’t part with it.
Hum-this could be interesting. First was a 1966 Freightliner COE, 250 with a ten speed. Only had five working gauges, the upholstery on the dog house had been cut out so you make 4th & 9th, pulling a set of doubles hauling corn into Twin City Foods in Ellensburg, 6 mph pulling Vantage grade. A 79 352 Pete COE, 400 Cummins and ten speed first trips to California in that one, overall a good truck. A 79 W900 400 A model Cat with retarder and 13 spd. That was a good truck. A 1992 379 425 Cat with retarder and 15 spd, also a good truck. A 1984 359 400 Cat with retarder and jakes plus 15 spd, a real good truck. A 1994 W900 470 12.7L Series 60 with 13 spd-I built for the company I left-Tow Truck nice truck. My 1966 351 Pete with Truck Trailer sleeper, 400 Cummins & 13 spd-Best truck I ever drove in winter. A 1963 K100-335 with a 4 & 4 COE-tow truck. A 1978 Western Star 420 NTA Cummins with 2 spd Eatons and 13 spd, Holmes 750. Nice tow truck. A 1973 Freightliner COE single axle with Holmes 650, a pile. A 1986 359 Pete 425 Cat 13 spd with 2 spd Eatons spec'd for dump truck-it was a Cadillac. A 1981 K100 400 Cat retarder & 13 spd with 110" cab-real good truck. 2 LTL9000 Ford Dump trucks, 400 Cats 13 spds, did the job. And about 30 more. But the Worst pile I ever drove as a newer truck-Ford CL9000 with a Silver 92. Turd. And several more with Detroits-gutless wonders.
I don't have much experience at all. Probably the worst truck for the job I was doing was a 78 Kenworth water truck with a 318 Detroit. I didn't do any water truck work with it at all, I just used it to pull a three axle tilt trailer moving a 200 John Deere excavator off and on the highway. It pretty much sucked as a tractor.
The "fleet" where I started in 68...... #1 55 Diamond-T, 262, R-96-O 2 axle. Bout the best sounding truck ever. #2 60 Emeryville 262 R96-O 3 axle The boss drove this one #3 59 IH Westcoaster 262, R-96 3 axle 240wb/ Hendrix pad!! #4 60 KW cabover 262 w/T-590, R-96-O 3x w Page & Page Very quiet, nice truck #5 65 Freightliner daycab/kit 262, R-96 3x with freightliner susp & aluminum housing rears with top drop rear ends. Brass ring & pinions Beat you to death. #6 The POS I mentioned in post 1. #7 65 Pete conv/kit 262 R-96 2axle Nice truck #8 54 Freightliner mentioned above.. 1987 One of the most frustrating trucks was a few early/mid 80s Freightliner C/O with 6V92s & 9 speeds running into LA and back loaded both ways getting paid by the mile........
I failed to mention that the last version of my 359 had the brake saver and jakes plus I swapped in an 18 speed. It wasn’t long after I missed the 15 and have wanted another ever since.
Driving is one side, repairing is the other. * The worst trucks I ever worked on were built by automobile manufactures. Volvo, Ford, GMC, Chevy and Dodge. IH built combines and tractors but also built some decent trucks along with some trash. Ford and GM dashes were absolute crap, using switches/controls found in a pickup. Truck manufactures that used a rear engine mount located on transmission bell, engines installed at 6* slant, snub nose trucks with engine tucked half under the dash/bulkhead and the shifter exiting the floor at the back of cab. Crap suspension like KW torsion bar, White Velvet Ride. Pete with vertical bolt crossmembers that came loose. Then junk like a Fontaine fifth wheel piled on top. A lot of terrible designed stuff back then. * But it's pretty hard to beat Freightliners {Columbia} fighting for top position as the worst pos {just possibly ever built}. The one item to make it #1 for sure is add a MB400 for power combined with a Super Ten.
The 1966 351 before I bought it, real good it was. *
Hmmm, The truck closest to my heart, my first in 1966; a '48 L series Mack with a 200 Cummins and a 4x4. It had 10' bunks and 3' stakes. The worst I ever drove was a 1974 Mack DM800 Maxidyne engine and Maxidyne transmission. It slobbered oil like a Detroit and the sheet metal kept falling off. It carried a 14 yard Columbia box. In all honesty, it was just a poorly engineered truck for the task. Of the older trucks, the best was a '69 KW with a 290 Cummins and a 5x4, 8' bunks. A very nice highway truck for the era. Slow by today's standards, but nice. I took a long time away from trucks and the "current best" would be anything after 2000. All are highway log trucks. Big engines, plenty of gears, (all 18 speeds) and creature comforts like AC, good heaters along with wipers that worked and windows that rolled up easy.
Funny what makes a truck good as you get more experience. My ford came up several notches when the shop fixed the air doors on the heater box and I can get defrost now. AC? LOL.
After a couple years with this outfit, they aquired; #9 65 KW conv. 3x,240" WB, 280 w straight exhaust, 5x4 This was the pride of the fleet. #10 65-66 Freightliner 318, RT-910, short WB 3 axle with belts driving axle #2. #11 66 Freightliner, 318, 4x4. Air compressor was on the back and the mounting bracket broke every couple month as did the dual exhaust supports.... Just remembered, when they retired POS #8, they replaced it with another mid 60s POS Freightliner 2 axle c/o with sleeper, small v-8 cummins, RT-910 and a severly warped flywheel and or pressure plates. You could not take off on flat ground loaded without having the front end jumping up and down several times. Embarrassing for a 18 year old. I had to drive it for awhile while hauling rock & sand to the batch plant at Diablo Canyon Power plant. It was a real challenge to time pulling onto the scale or onto the grizzley so I wouldnt have to stop. That truck was a REALPOS.
There were some empty or loaded didn't matter the brand or necessarily the suspension, more to do with wheel base, that were just *** slapping sons of b--ches. Certain road speed and or road surface would set it off. When I worked for the Ag Co. they had three 1986 T800's, two were 210 wheel base and one was 230. Both 210's would start slapping the steer about 35 mph, horrible. The 230 was reasonably smooth all with Reyco 102 spring ride. A friend had a 69 K100 with a 1693, not a bad truck but had worn torsion bar suspension. I would take it to Wenatchee on weekends and load it for his trips south. Hated that thing, it felt like it was going to swim right off the road. That 79 352 I listed above the only bad item was center point steering. Open road it was fine, tight spots like backing up in Frisco Fruit & Vegetable terminal could be a real job.
My trouble was Tight cabs and LONG Legs even as was skinny Back in The Day. ANY B series Bulldog, R anything Corn Queens and I had to shoehorn just to get inside. The 56 Diamond wrecker we had at Ft Scott was a a** Whipper to go very far at all, furthest I ever ran it was Eastern CO. Like to have killed me in late Summer heat NO AC, NO PS, could almost reach 50mph before needed to slow for another stop, Black Diamond GAS engine. Freight Shaker COEs rate right in there with the tiny cabs, drafty, in general CHEAP built and showed it everywhere. C series Fords, GM Low Forward Cabs and all the other half hearted builds Dodge IH White, ALL Sucked for shifting and feeling sea sick in the Driver seat. Two Story Falcons, Fords CL9000 and the later Pete COEs, ALL too TALL, just felt weird to drive. Kenworth K100s with good WB and Suspension were not bad, Pete Long Noses sit low, lower than W900s, easier to get in/out of. L, LTL, LN, LNT fords rate up there with the Business class Frt Lnrs, SAUNAS, get sun burn driving anywhere but away from Sun. Favorite will have to say were the Kelowna Cab Whites/A-Cars, steel and rusted, but solid, roomy enough, and came reasonably set for creature comforts. Like R model Bulldogs although again smallish inside, Fand MB cabs were just nasty.
And then there were the trucks we loved........ 72, sc350, 5x4, sshd on hendrix extended leaf. Armstrong steering and wing windows for A/C
The reality IMO was the best for what was needed for OTR and vocational started in 1982 and ended in 1999. Such as 1982 KW came out with the larger B cab and improved on it up to 1999 then came the overloaded dashes with way more electronics than was needed. For Pete it was the corvette dash which IIRC started in 1976 or 77 ended in early 87, plus in 87 the cheap interiors started. IH built some nice cabs in those years also. The White/Volvo/GMC cabs were never that good from day one and major instrument cluster issues from the git-go. As far as sunburn-GM Astro/ Chevy Titans were the one to roast in IMO, Terrible cabs. * When I say 82 to 99-Two examples below. All this super creature comfort adds weight and expense in repairs with the possibility of hard to get parts for as they age. Below are two examples of trucks that rode well, had enough creature comforts, quiet and easy to maintain. The 1992 Pete 379 was in the last of mechanical 3406 Cats. Had plenty of options but not silly with garbage-one that I drove. The true Last of The Mohicans-one I've personally looked at own ed by HEF member Kenworth. This truck built as a OTR came with plenty of options but no crazy options. Still has the open dash, one piece windshield which increase visibility. No over the top electronics, yes the engine is fly by wire but by the time these were built the bugs were worked out of them. A 1998 W900L with a 5DC 3406 600 Hp 16L {IIRC} very low mileage, straight and nice as they get. Trucks never got any better than this and fell off the cliff in 2000 when the throw away truck came on the scene.
Last of the low cabs!
First truck I drove 86 f700 with a 8.2 and some awful low geared rear. Good truck for learning and a 17 year old on equipment buying adventures Cdl test I taken in a single axle ch model mack with a 5 speed. Not the best thing for learning on the fly when trying to pass First truck other wise was the lt 9500 sterling road tractor tandem dump dad flopped last year First tractor 93 ltl Ford with a 9 speed and a set of air plane rears. I moreless rebuilt it is still my personal favorite. Hx international I'm been it driver from New it doesn't run much seems like a ok truck Current dump truck is a sterling that was ment to be a dump truck. Best truck dad ever had as far as I'm concerned. And we have a f750 that replaced the 700. Very nice single axle dump nice truck. Not a huge fan of its 6.7 cummapart. Just doesn't seem to be enough engine for a medium duty imo.
Here's another of the "best" trucks. 79 model, BC350, 13sp, sshd 4.11 on air ride. A/C, Armstrong P/S. 40K winch. I'm a bit fond of this one as it's the first truck I owned and I added 450K miles to it and sold it with 1.2. It served me very well and I should have kept it as a second truck.
A Best-79 W900A 400 A model Cat, 13 spd, 3:90 rears Eaton 380's. Photo taken at Dunnigan Rest Area-Dunnigan aka Pantyhose Junction. *
Although one I rebuilt and not listed earlier-A Best. 1969 W923, I installed a rebuilt 400 Cummins, 12513, shortened frame, installed SQ100's 3.90 on KW 8 bag air ride. Can't see it in this photo but I installed 1998 Daylight doors. Built in 1999 used to pull 35 ton Hyster lowboy and A train grain trailers. No A/C-had Ross power steering. *
Looked like this before. *
Nice lookin truck.
TS. you mentioned the SF Produce market, how long did you do that?
Excuse my ignorance, but is this stuff for real or jargon for something else?
All real. The brass ring and pinions were somewhat rare and used by freightliner with those alum axles/housings. Required mineral oil that as I remember smelled like fish.... Mack and a few others used the top drop in differentials but TS might be a better historian on this stuff. The belt driven axles were used in the snowy areas, big pulley mounted between the duals. Big v-belt drove the other axle without the weight or mechanics of a power divider.
Top drops were common years ago, Rockwell & Spicer manufactured them, Mack made their own. Yes mineral oil--mix some 80/90 with it and see what happens-turns into a big rubber ball inside the housing. Those aluminum housings were a Spicer thing, Spicer also built allot of married gear boxes with aluminum cases, the 63 K100 I drove was a Spicer 4 X 4 married aluminum case. * The belt drive was more common than most think GMC and Chevrolet used belt drive into the mid 70's on some of their gas powered ten wheelers, offered as a option. Was used widely by many manufactures in the late mid to late 50's up. Many issues with it though, didn't like mud.
Off and on about ten years, mainly ran to Lucky & Alpha Beta or once in awhile Raley's. Made numerous trips for other OO's that wanted a week off from time to time. if I knew shop work was going to be slow in advance I would let it be known I could probably make a trip for them, so I drove all types. It's hard to find a driver that knew the produce racket. Last trip to LA was in that 92 Pete in 1993 or 1994, I remember it because it was one week after the LA riots and the Denny trial, I had to deliver at a warehouse in Commerce on the edge of East LA right off Washington Boulevard. * The second trip I was rolling into LA at 11 am Sunday, I noticed traffic was just about non existent on the Golden State, I had no welfare radio so I couldn't ask what was up but figured there must have been a shocker-there was out in San Bernardino. That was my last trip ever to Cali. Just had other things to do.
Now for the rest of the story about the first trip- * I had Carma with me my wife {we were only dating then}. I hadn't been to LA in a while and somehow screwed up and took the 10 south Santa Monica, I took the next exit which dumped me right in burned out downtown LA at 11:45 pm Sunday. There were no lights no street lights no street signs barricades everywhere all burned up. So I didn't really know where I was, I noticed a light on and a door open at this warehouse about 4 blocks back, there was no place to turn around and I couldn't see well enough behind to back up. * So I had to make a quick decision, I grabbed the 357 tucked it in the back of my pants told Carma stay in the sleeper lay low lock the doors if someone tries to get in lay on the air horn which I hooked a bungee too and if nothing else get in the seat and drive mow over every damn thing in sight. * I walked back to the warehouse passing three on the way-they turned into a alley, probably thought there is one crazy mofo. If they did they were pretty close to right. I walked in asked the guy inside how to get to Washington Boulevard-he just looked at me and said you gonn'a get your head blown off, stay on this street 16 blocks up take a right, crazy man. * Made it back to the truck and rolled, once I made it to East LA I was in safe territory. Those boys in East LA don't fool around. My wife can verify what took place.
I have got to drive a lot of different trucks my Dad bought and sold trucks as well as some of his buddys. They would often buy a truck and use it for a short time in their other business . If they had a problem i would fix it improving the truck. Some times they would have a problem that made them a pain to drive like a hard to push gas peddle or a worn shifter tower i would fix stuff like that and make them alot more user friendly. The truck i liked the best and drove short hauls was a 1984 KW 3406 15 spd 4.11s . It was in good shape ran good and was easy to drive.
Nice to hear about all these kw, I drove 2 and was really impressed especially with the rough ground I drive on. One was a 89 and the other was a 94 w900's
Early 2000s Classic XL was my worst. Only because the shift tower and isolator were so fubar'd I constantly drove my knuckle into the dash every time I hit 3rd and 7th.
Correction to my post-it was 1992 that I made a wrong turn in LA, pondered it till I looked. Riots took place after King trial. Many on here are not even old enough to remember or know what took place. * Attack on Reginald Denny - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
I was just up the road from you that day in Oxnard waiting on a 10 pallet forklift. And waiting and waiting. That was a sad deal for Denny, wrong place, wrong time.
Worst-It was the worst for me {trucks or driving} a big reason I never ran south again.
Random-1961 T, photo taken by Brian Williams at Lebec on the Vine. *
My trucking career ended in '97 so everything I drove was earlier than that. I've driven Autocar, Ford, Mack, White, Brockway, GMC, IH, Freightliner, FWD, Oshkosh and a Peterbilt cabover. Started in White 9000, then a Road Boss, those trucks were rattle traps. The fenders flapped and there were so many rattles and squeaks inside it was very fatiguing. I wasn't a fan. The Mack DM600 was very reliable but uncomfortable for me, I'm 6'4" and legroom was sparce. GMC and Brockway were much like the Whites. The FWD and Oshkosh were purpose built for plowing, not comfort. They plowed well. IH got the job done but there wasn't anything there that made them memorable. It may sound odd but my favorite truck to drive was the Ford L Series. Dash layout was very user friendly, visibility was amazing and they were the tightest turning trucks I've ever driven. I had a lot of miles in them and they're fond memories. I mentioned the Peterbilt, it was a cabover and after a lifetime of the Peterbilt hype I wasn't all that impressed. It might be that it was a cabover but I've sat in conventionals as well and thought them to be small and cramped. These are my experiences.
I'm just the opposite, steering wheel position and low dash with a shallow back of cab were uncomfortable. From repair side the slanted engine, rear engine mounts on transmission, terrible routing of engine wiring and airlines was a mess, changing a compressor on one with a V Detroit sucked. Steel cab that rusted & out here parts access was tough, Ford authorized truck dealers were thin. As far as a turning radius the Cascadia has everyone beat. * The one area the LTL had others didn't was ride-never heard anyone who drove one complain about that. * Ford, GMC, Mack is a east coast thing, never sold well out here as class 8.
As a 17 year old, in the summertime I would ride with a couple of the line drivers hauling produce from Santa Maria to the LA markets. Good way to learn how to drive. One guy had a new 69 Pete COE, 335, 13sp 2 axle with doubles, kinda rare for running the markets. He would let me drive home from Ventura, about 2 hours while he slept. That truck was a real treat to drive after being around the trucks in post #7 all day. It had a radio & Jakes too!!!
OK, here is my worst truck story. In the late 1980’s I helped a friend build a 24x32 ft house on Perl Island in Alaska. Perl Island is located in the Gulf of Alaska off the end of the Kenai Peninsula. We loaded a landing craft with building materials in Homer and left on our 50 mile trip out to the island where we would beach the boat at high tide; let the tide go out; unload the material; then move it above the tide line for storage. There were two machines on the island that we got to run. A small 1937 Ford farm tractor which was used to pull the materials to high ground and a 1953 GMC 5 ton single axle truck. To say the truck was rusted out was an understatement. The door didn’t latch because the cab frame was too weak due to rust. The was no floor because rust won that battle too. But that was good since the fuel pump was shot so there was a 5 gal jerry jug that sat in the passenger seat and gravity fed the carb. Also, the seat springs were exposed so a piece of plywood was cut to sit on for comfort and to avoid injury. There was also no muffler so it was load. The missing floorboard and windows aided with venting fumes. Since there was no real road, it made it up to maybe 8-10 MPH. The material had to go about a mile down the beach so it was better than moving by hand. It was a truly used up rig. That was the junkiest of all the junk I’ve driven over the years and I’m in my 70’s.
This guy hated this one so much he drove it off a man made cliff. *
https://www.tiktok.com/video/7281840125225602346
If we are getting into pickups then here is the best I've owned. 800-1000 mikes a week. The worst was 2010-2012 dodge diesels, in the shop every month. (Lucky I didn't own those 3 trucks, boss went back to Ford after those)
Personally don't care, I don't drive diesel pickups.
Me neither. I am very happy with my 02 2500HD GMC, 6.0 gasoline. 185k and I know the controls. Even the radio…..
Another truck I remember as being one of the best was a 76 Pete 359 bought new by the tanker outfit I drove for from 74-78. Truck & trailer with new Clough wrapped tanks. Beautiful truck, 350, 13 sp 4.63 on air ride. The bosses nephew got this one but I got to drive it a few times. Every once in a while you find a truck that seems to be built perfectly. This one had that feel. A real pleasure to drive. In the 4 years I was there, they must have had 30 new KW & Petes come in. None with power steering, KWs had torsion bars and Petes had air. Most with new tanks.. 8 new KWs came in in as many weeks late 77. It was a great job (teamsters). Good pay, new trucks and 60-80 hrs/week.