Quote:
Originally Posted by sodly
Back in the 50s west coast trucks (semis) were allowed, by law, to be a lot longer overall length than the east coast trucks. The length laws were much looser out west. So west coast trucks often had very long wheelbases. You see this in a lot of early Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks vs. Mack or Autocar trucks, for example. I presume west coast mirrors were necessary just to be able to see all of the trailer that was so far behind the cab. Amazingly, a lot of old tractor-trailers in the 50s still only had tiny mirrors like the stock ones on a Chevy c10, maybe 6" round. That must've made life interesting!
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Yes interesting is a good way to put it, I worked on a farm when I was young, they had a 46 or so chevy 1 1/2 or maybe 2 ton truck with those little round mirrors on the end of a long arm. Backing up was a problem because you needed just the right RPM so the mirror wouldn’t vibrate. The people my dads age never used mirrors to back up with they would open up the door and look back. Probably backed into a lot of things too.