67-72 C/K/T-40's-90's!

[factorystock]

Originally Posted by Bob B.

Pontiac East was built in the early 70's specifically as a medium duty truck plant.

Yep, construction began spring of '70, assuming ready for the '73 models.

[Bob B.]

Originally Posted by factorystock

Yep, construction began spring of '70, assuming ready for the '73 models.

Yes, I don't think any 72's were built there. Seems that before 1973, the medium duty C series trucks were built at a lot of other plants. Flint and Fremont for sure.

Great picture, thanks for posting.

[Bob B.]

Originally Posted by factorystock

Little bit of Ford-Cat literature.

Those 'Ford Blue' Caterpillar diesels always busted me up. Their blue Detroit Diesels as well!

Detroits supplied to International Harvester were sometimes painted 'Farmall Red'.

[special-K]

And GM, since they made their own diesel, wasn't concerned with matching their gas engine color.

Here's a nice one

[factorystock]

Originally Posted by Bob B.

Those 'Ford Blue' Caterpillar diesels always busted me up. Their blue Detroit Diesels as well!

And Cummins too?

[Bob B.]

Originally Posted by factorystock

And Cummins too?

Ha, look at that!

[C10 - C90 Bill]

Another question for Bob or anyone else who would know. Somewhere around the late'70's to mid '80's you could get a GMC 7500 with a 6V-53 Detroit and a Road Ranger Trans, but only in a Tandem Axle truck for some reason. It seems like the Single Axle trucks could only get a 5-Speed and 2-Speed Rear at best. Wondering why this was and could you Special Order a Single Axle with a Road Ranger back then?

[Bob B.]

Originally Posted by C10 - C90 Bill

Another question for Bob or anyone else who would know. Somewhere around the late'70's to mid '80's you could get a GMC 7500 with a 6V-53 Detroit and a Road Ranger Trans, but only in a Tandem Axle truck for some reason. It seems like the Single Axle trucks could only get a 5-Speed and 2-Speed Rear at best. Wondering why this was and could you Special Order a Single Axle with a Road Ranger back then?

You got me. The 6V-53 was available in the Brigadier 7500's up until about 1984 or so, but the vast majority I remember seeing were Cat 3208 powered. I don't have anything on transmission availability for the 6V-53. You need to find a Data Book from the early 80's, it would say.

[C10 - C90 Bill]

Originally Posted by Bob B.

You got me. The 6V-53 was available in the Brigadier 7500's up until about 1984 or so, but the vast majority I remember seeing were Cat 3208 powered. I don't have anything on transmission availability for the 6V-53. You need to find a Data Book from the early 80's, it would say.

Not real sure where I saw it. Could be in my GMC aftermarket book, but it listed a Road Ranger in Tandem Axles only for some reason. The main reason I became aware of it is that a city I was well aware of bought a whole fleet of them. As much as I would like to find 9500 with a Detroit and an RR, I wouldn't mind a 7500 with one, but in Single Axle only. Wondering how far special orders went. You may remember that I drove a special order 9500. It had a 637 V-8 Gas with a 10-Speed RR. It was a '71 and still to this day, I've never seen or heard of another.

[Bob B.]

You never know, some fleet may have put in a large special order for 6V-53 7500 tandems with the small Road Ranger 10 or 13 speed and GMC decided to make it an R.P.O..

I remember you talking about a truck with a 637 gasser and a 10 speed. From all I have ever heard about the 637, that sounds like the ideal combination. Yet, most were built with 5 speeds. I wonder how the 637 would have been with a 5X4.

[C10 - C90 Bill]

Bob, I have located some 637's online with 2 sticks. A town in NY had some. The 637 and the 10-Speed RR was a good combination. With a full load (30,000) it would die on some hills like a Detroit and require a lot of shifting, which I didn't mind, but was pretty impressive none-the-less. I always wished they gave me a Detroit though, lol.

[Mike80D]

Here are a couple we use around the farm. The 72, 366, 5+2 has been there since it was new. The white 70 350, 4+2 is handy for hauling out of the field, but it has made several trips to the elevator. Just have to be extra mindful in the curves!

[special-K]

I love seeing that you work these trucks. I see a few in use on farms around here, grain bodies. I think that's just great.

I don't know if I've showed these yet. But I keep finding them on Purplewave.com. I hope one can wait for me before they all get cycled out. One day I hope to raise crop on the family place up home in the mountains. Not a lot of land, but could offer my services around the county, just to enjoy putting one to use. I guess I could do that here for now

[C10 - C90 Bill]

Heavy Mediums are cool trucks.

[NoStopN]

I'm on a weekend trip with my wife & I swear I've seen 3 67-72 C50s or larger trucks. Scavenger hunt in western NC.

[crazyjeenyus]

Just picked up this beautiful '67 C50. It was sitting in a field less than 5min. from my house. And yes that is a Radioshack speaker mounted in the corner -gives a whole new meaning to the term head-banger

[C10 - C90 Bill]

Looks good. Keep us posted on it.

[special-K]

Looks like a good one! Radio Shack, that would be Realistic, right?

[Bob B.]

1967 EM5500 video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8iykFA4LpQ

[CarolinaHD]

67 c50 custom cab grain dump with 27k miles. 292/sm465
67 c60 fire truck with 6300 miles. 366/sm465

[Bob B.]

Here's a rare one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UWCm7vCG_k

[C10 - C90 Bill]

Cool truck, interesting story, great work on the wheels. But you could probably guess what I'm going to say, lol. Too bad it's an Automatic.

Truck also sounds great and pretty surprising fuel mileage. My 478 Gas would only get about 7-9 MPG.

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

Originally Posted by Bob B.

You got me. The 6V-53 was available in the Brigadier 7500's up until about 1984 or so, but the vast majority I remember seeing were Cat 3208 powered. I don't have anything on transmission availability for the 6V-53. You need to find a Data Book from the early 80's, it would say.

This 1979 Chevy Bruin HV70 fire truck has the 6V-53T (turbo) backed with an Allison MT-654CR 5-speed close-ratio automatic (with a shorter fourth); both it and the MT-644 actually had the same torque converters as the HT-700 and V-730 series so they were mostly used behind heavier-duty diesels like the Detroit 6-71 and 6V-92TA rather than the mid-range 6V-53, but the MT-654CR was the only five-speed MT that didn't have the deep low gear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_2eejjlKg

~Ben