Is there such a '51 Chevy Truck like the old timer

[VCYMAN]

told me today? He said he bought a factory built 51 Chevy truck with a fertilizer spreader on it. Said he bought it from a farmer 2-3 years ago and the farmer kept it in his barn for 20 years. Has all the original paper work. Said he has it in his back field with a pile of other old trucks. I didn't have time to go check myself.

I wonder if some farmer installed a spreader on it, but he says it came from the factory this way. I want to go see it, but is he accurate?

[OrrieG]

Right off hand I would say it was a dealer installed option. Probably has a 4 speed trans with a pto for the spreader.

[mr48chev]

I'm with Orrie, it may have come new from a dealer that way either by the dealer installing the tank and spreader or by having the truck dropped at the tank supplier to have the tank installed. They still do pretty much the same thing today. You order the cab and chassis from the dealer and have the dealer have it dropped off at a facility where what ever equipment is installed on it. Farm shop in Sunnyside Wa that i get most of my raw steel from builds feed boxes and manure spreaders and installs them on trucks to be shipped all over the Western US. http://www.fsifab.com/ From experience those spreaders aren't fun to work on or under especially in 20 below weather when things break while they are loaded.

[RootBeer 6117]

I don't know if this is a factory option but I own one that did just that,I was told by the original owner it was a flat bed with a hopper on it that they used to seed fields, they would put the truck in low, throttle it and walk along behind it refilling it. It still has the drive cog on the wheel, the bed and hopper are long gone.

[mr48chev]

That someone would design a setup like that rather than using a pto drive is something in it's self. I wonder if that hub and hopper were a lot older than the truck and originally on a 30 something truck that didn't have a pto available.

[Dan in Pasadena]

I always wondered why the old trucks - up to '59 (later?) had the cable operated throttle. I could never figure out why that might be necessary. But I'm a city dweller so I don't think in farm terms - new, and especially not old farms.

I've wondered if the cable throttle was just to "idle up" on cold winter morning to get the truck to operating temperature...but apparently there were other uses, huh?

[OrrieG]

My wife's mother, aunt and uncle grew up on a Kansas wheat farm. Lots of stories about putting the kids in the cab to steer when they couldn't reach the pedals during harvest. Hand throttle was used to let it creep in low first for bucking bales, seeding, etc. Also used to run up the rpm for pto applications like pumps, augers, etc. Our old jeeps had them too, useful for low speed throttle modulation over rough ground when your foot was bouncing up and down on the gas pedal. Most had an upper limit so you couldn't use them as a cruise control.