The area of Michigan that I call home is flatter than week-old Faygo. While fertile sugar beet fields are perhaps poor substitutes for what others might consider to be breathtaking vistas, that doesn’t mean we don’t know beauty in our neck of the not woods (thanks, Paul Bunyan). Come autumn, small farms dust off their ancient sugar beet haulers and air up the decades old tires for slow trips to the processing plants. Yes, wobbly wheels and exhaust leaks are the sights and sounds of home to me.
At least half of my daily commute is so comparatively free of traffic that I get to know my fellow travelers too well. I know the ones who can’t hold a speed, the ones who accelerate rapidly to superlegal speeds and coast down, and the ones who panic at four-way stops (the ultimate intelligence test, I always say). I get to join my occasional companion, the morning star Venus, when it’s still dark enough to enjoy such things. On October afternoons, however, the real fun begins: sugar-beet truck spotting. It’s not the big 18 wheelers with tandem trailers that I anticipate with such enthusiasm, but the old mediums, the stake trucks, the chassis-cabs with dump beds. Some are weather-beaten and weary, audibly struggling against their loads. Others, like a certain Sweptline-era Dodge I admire, are polished and maintained to a degree of which I’m envious.
It’s never advisable to daydream and drive, but I often imagine myself commuting to work in a ’60s beet truck. I don’t work on a farm and I don’t haul beets, but it would do the job admirably, if not a little more slowly than I’m accustomed to.
Back home in town, a small used car dealer is currently taunting beet truck dreamers with these two, parked near the street where anybody can see them, slam on the brakes, and run around like a crazy man taking pictures. The 1961 Dodge 500 caught my eye immediately. Its “Sweptline” styling has perhaps some gawky angles, but so do I. Anyone who doesn’t fall for this big red Dodge a little bit should check themselves for a heart.
Speaking of hearts, I was surprised to find a Chrysler flathead six under the hood. Filing this fact under “you learn something every day,” I raced home to research 1961 Dodge trucks. I found that this is a 251 cubic-inch version of the familiar old engine, and it was available for a couple years in medium-duty trucks after the introduction of the slant six. An old, reliable Carter BBS mixes the fuel, and the universal radiator flexi-hose tells you that either a resourceful farmer owned the truck or that parts are hard to source locally for a 60-year-old Dodge.
It’s going to need some work on the battery tray, and, let’s face it, probably everything else.
The data tag certainly offers more information than the usual color and trim options. The net horsepower rating of 115 guarantees that your fellow commuters’ patience will be tested, but the “Dependable Dodge” tagline of old almost certainly holds true. You’ll eventually get where you’re going.
The truck is in pretty good shape, albeit a little damp inside. The necker’s knob is a useful addition for those long trips to the beet piles with your sweetheart. The odometer reads 83,000 miles, which seems accurate based upon the general condition of everything.
I’d be a little nervous about buying six big new tires. Like many old car owners, I replace my tires based on age rather than tread life, and these look like they might have seen an orbit or two.
I was so excited about the Dodge that I barely noticed this 1968 Chevy 50 parked beside it, although I’d probably prefer it as a working vehicle. These cabover Chevrolets, like their Ford counterparts, have a timeless appeal. Their basic styling lasted for years, a shining example of industrial design.
The “spec sheet” in the front window lists 26,000 miles and a Chevy 350 under the cab. Although I enjoy driving just about anything, I prefer a V8 in my old cars. My research shows that this truck probably came with a 327, but many engines were offered in medium-duty Chevrolets of this era – everything from inline sixes to Detroit Diesels were available depending on the model the customer ordered.
Like the Dodge, the Chevy is in nice shape. The doors were locked on this one, but the dealer is asking $7495 for it, and I have no idea if that’s a good deal or not. The Dodge doesn’t yet have a price in the window – it’s a relatively new addition to the lot.
The interior looks good from here, and I didn’t see much rust, either. Both trucks pass the initial inspection, but I’m accustomed to a list of problems on anything I buy.
Now that I’m in my forties, I’ve started thinking about different jobs I could try when I decide to retire. Based on my daydreams, I’ve long said I was going to drive beet trucks, and like many things I say and think, I don’t know how much I’m kidding, if at all. Time could be worse spent than continuing my rural fantasy commute behind the wheel of one of these neat old trucks. But which one?
Love them both, but the Dodge is exceptional. The ’61s were always quite rare, with that unique grille. I’d forgotten about the flathead six still being available in these. I assume it’s because the HD “Premium” 225 slant six may not yet have been in production, and the 251 six was a proven veteran.
Driving a beet truck seasonally sounds like fun, as long as it’s something interesting like one of these two. Of course you’ll be busy curating your classic car museum.
Unique grill.. yes. I’ve never understood that version of the grille on those Dodges. It’s as if Exner wasn’t done with designing the grille, and the powers that be said, it needs to be done NOW. So Virgil in a fit of defiance slaps that mesh thing with wings in there. It’s just odd to me.
Look at the “cheese grater” grill of the 61 Plymouth. It is also unrefined in design and manufacture.
I’d love to be an auto museum curator! Unlike some of the larger private collections that are open one Sunday a month, and filled with pristine French and Italian coachbuilt classics, mine will be a collection of barely collectible and easily attainable driver quality American “classics.” 🙂
Bay City Saginaw area ??
Regarding the beet truck as daily driver concept. I had a similar vehicle a few years back that I would commute in on occasion when my also ancient daily driver was on the fritz. It was a 1975 1 ton IH 4×4 200 dually pickup that had a water tank body for brush fires on it. My intention was to remove the fire equipment bed and install a stepside one on it, but that was an unrealized dream. On the road at 7:30 am I flashed back to being in army convoys. Everything on it felt heavy and sluggish, from the 5 pound sledgehammer of a shifter to the weighty defroster controls. Safety depended on keeping a massive following distance and hoping that no one was foolish enough to rear end what appeared to be a linear sculpture made of railroad track on the back. No one at work ever asked for a ride.
Our community was very heavily invested in sugar beets as well, albeit a long time ago, haven’t noticed much of it lately (haven’t been looking though either, admittedly) – but Sugar Beet Park opened recently with a giant Sugar Beet shaped play structure!) The Dodge is quite nice, but I’m drawn to the blue Chevy, it reminds me heavily of a couple of Tonka trucks I used to play with at my neighbor’s house that had kids that were older then me. The forward slant of the cab reminds me a little bulldog straining at the leash, just let me run! Excellent finds.
I’ve seen a few of the cabover Chevys (Chevies?) with “427” badges, which is always cool, even if they aren’t anything like L88s.
I’d never heard of Faygo, so I took the bait and clicked on the link. Their company history page highlights the GMC truck used for early deliveries, though the accompanying picture shows a truck at least 30 years newer. I would assume it’s sweetened with corn syrup, but maybe it’s actually sugar from beets?
The Faygo Kid is fondly remembered more than fifty years after he first flickered on Detroit TV screens. Hopefully, once again Black Bart will get the chance to taunt his nemesis The Faygo Kid, so a new generation of kids can yell, “Which way did he go? Which way did he go? He went for Fayyyyyy-go!”
I’d have to look at one of my cans of Redpop in the fridge, but I think they use corn syrup. My wife really likes the “real sugar” Pepsi that is currently a little hard to find at stores.
Oh, bestill my heart! I could be happy in either one, and now that I’m retired, maybe I should get my CDL and look into whether there are any beet farms here in mid-TN. I see a lot of logging trucks, but they’re all very beat up trucks, decades newer than these old gals.
Kinda makes me wish I still had my ’50 L-170.
I wish I had that truck, too.
Beet trucks – ARGH! In Wisconsin, reefer trailers commonly supplemented the beet hauling fleet at harvest time. Kids could get jobs cleaning the trailers. We had hot water pressure washers, but they didn’t budge the combination of dirt and small beets that got caught in the refrigeration grooves of the trailer floor. The way of getting them out was to scrape the full length of each individual groove with a 6′ pry bar. It was hot backbreaking work, but one of the few jobs at which a kid could earn some decent coin without a work permit. To this day, I hate beets!
Don’t talk me out of a job, Rob. 🙂
Don’t forget the smell, Aaron, at least for those who live near Bay City!
Seems like most of the trucks during beet season in recent years are rather monotonous dump trailers pulled by 90s semis. I would be in favor of seeing more vintage trucks like this in service, even if it ended up slowing traffic down a bit.
That smell has gotten worse over the years…it’s now less like burnt sugar and more like manure. Word has it that the retention ponds are to blame, but who knows. I must admit that the last year or two has been better.
You’re right about the ’90s semis (they’re everywhere), but there are still quite a few old trucks if you get out into the country a bit.
At one time Manteca was identified by travelers on Highway 99 and the 120 Bypass by both the sight and smell of Spreckels Sugar. The four 15-story sugar silos were the tallest structures around while the smell from the processing — and the use of sugar pulp to fatten cattle at the adjacent Moffat Feed Lot — created an aroma that penetrated even the thickest fog to let travelers know they were passing through Manteca.
DENNIS WYATT
The Manteca (Calif.) Bulletin
Do I ever remember the smell.
Manteca is Spanish for lard. The main industries of California in the early 19th century before the Americans arrived was the production of tallow and cowhides. The dried cowhides were used to barter for needed goods due to the lack of actual hard currency. I always thought that Manteca stank because of the lard and tallow rendering.
https://www.independent.com/2007/11/08/question-what-was-hide-and-tallow-trade/
If only it was that logical. “The railroad that came right through the center of town and still does – they and the farmers decided to name it ‘Monteca,’ but the railroad spelled it wrong,” said Sally Mendes, president of the Manteca Historical Society.
Mendes asserts that Monteca is Spanish for butter and that the intent was to emphasize the area’s dairy production but the word monteca does not exist in Spanish. The word for butter is mantequilla. At least we can agree that the city of Manteca has an air about it though nothing like the Harris Ranch.
Torrington, Wyoming had a sugar beet plant until around 2015 and that in area (Goshen County) these trucks (and beet debris on the roads) can be seen. The beets now go to Fort Morgan, Colorado.
One of these would make the perfect homecoming float for the royalty at the high school in Brush, Colorado; the team name is “Beetdiggers”.
That’s basically my dream, Jon.
Here’s a very early memory on the subject of sugar beets and related trucks and equipment:
I wonder if anyone got a songwriting credit for that jingle. 🙂
It’s funny that you posted that. I was singing that song at work (don’t ask) and my 28 year old co-worker thought I was nuts for remembering such an odd thing from my early childhood.
After digging up and watching that one, I recalled watching a segment about tree trimming as well as making steel drums, both of which I was able to find. It’s odd what sticks with you.
Habbout this one, remember that?
I can’t say I do. That one is… different!
Kinda late to the party, but I’m loving this blast from the past. Looks like a JD 30 Series (44 or 4630, probably) with spacer duals pulling a similar vintage sugar beet harvester (4310?), emptying into a Ford Louisville gas truck (L800 tandem?) not far removed from our own L700.
I’ll post a few more pictures of the Dodge for anyone who likes it as much as I do.
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Ah, the old farm truck. In the 80s I got to drive one on my BIL’s farm (well, it was still his father’s farm then). They ran two grain trucks, a 66 Chevy and a 60 GMC with the V6. I got to drive the GMC once when they needed an extra hand to move the truck from one location to another during harvest – it was pure mechanical heaven.
I would never have guessed that Dodge kept that flathead that long in normal trucks – I knew it stayed in the Power Wagons until the end. I had to look it up, this big Chrysler flathead was in trucks one year after Studebaker finally killed the old 245 cid Commander flathead six in their larger Transtar trucks. As you say, I learn something new every day too.
It’s interesting that the 251 was the only six-cylinder option for ’61 and ’62; there must have been a reason, I guess! I’d love to drive that V6 GMC.
My first guess is the new slant 6, first offered in 1959 at 177 cubic inches, was not torque-y enough for trucks. The 225 came along in 1960 IIRC. That doesn’t fully explain why the truck still has the flatty in 61. It could be there wasn’t enough manufacturing capacity to equip the larger Mopars with the 225 and at the same time include the trucks. I don’t think that is the answer though. Mopar seemed to have plenty of foundry capacity at the time. Maybe they wanted to make the changeover incrementally and not have every platform depending on the new engine at once just in case of, I don’t know, some calamitous manufacturing failure or invasion by Saucer-men. The truck chassis and bodies were all new for 1961. Caution so as not to change too much, too soon?
No, sir. The 170 (not 177) and the 225 Slant-6s were both new at the same time, for the 1960 model year. They were first offered in trucks in 1961 to coincide with the new truck range. The old sidevalve 6 as well as the 225 Slant-6 were available in the big D-series trucks such as this D-500 for a number of years I can’t bring to mind at the moment, and the sidevalve engine carried on through 1968 in the Power Wagon (and even later than that once the PW became an export-only model).
I just checked a couple of brochures: the 251 was the only six in medium duty trucks in ’61 and ’62. In ’63 they switched to the 225 /6. No overlap. I assume they just didn’t feel a big hurry about putting a “Premium” (heavy duty) version of the 225 into production.
Yes, the 251 stayed around for a while in the PW.
Thanks, Paul. All my truck brochures went away in the great selloff of 2019.
Of course 170cu not 177.Typo and bad proof reading.
It would take some time to “truckize” a new engine, so the Slant Six’s delay makes sense.
That’s also why I was surprised to see the “new” alternator system voltage regulator. Since the old engine was a carryover and a short-timer the old generator would seem excuseable.
Clutch housing appears to be a V8 housing adapted to the six.
The story is the same here, only trade sugar beets for wheat harvest. And peanuts too. for years I’ve hade a weird obsession for medium duty trucks with grain bed and hoist. 47′-’53 Chevys, ’68 F-500, ’68 Loadstar, ’48 IH KB4. I’d love to have that Dodge. My wife would just shake her head.
There was something just right about the Loadstar’s styling. It’s not traditionally beautiful or anything, but I think that’s how trucks were meant to look. They were around forever – my 3rd grade bus was based on one, and I loved listening to it idle away while we were waiting for everyone to get aboard.
Of course that’s how trucks are meant to look—it says so in Scripture.
Beet trucking: Several weeks of dangerously muddy roads, severely overloaded vehicles years (decades!) behind on maintenance driving slowly and interfering with traffic.
Beets falling off the truck at every corner and intersection. Trucks are noisy as hell because the muffler fell off three seasons ago.
Things got so bad with mud, that the beet plant actually tries to separate the dirt from the beets, then loads an appropriate quantity of dirt back onto the empty trucks as they leave, so they can dump the dirt back onto the fields. The fields don’t erode as much that way.
The highways are so thick and black with mud that cars end up in the ditch when they go out-of-control. Instead of fixing the problem, some farmers put up signs along the highway telling motorists to “be careful–mud on road”.
For the record, sugar beets are enormously GMO. Don’t get me started on the stench of processing the beets. It’ll make ya’ puke if you get too close to it. And the stench crosses state lines, so folks in one state have no recourse against a beet processing plant in another state.
The local politicians–bought by the big processing corporation–tell us that “That’s The Smell Of Money”. Yeah, it is…if you’re a member of the co-op, or selling supplies to members of the co-op. All the profits go to Vegas after the harvest and the payout of the “shares”.
It’s amazing that the industry can get by, operating like this. Half of what they do should be illegal. Maybe we really should get our sugar from sugar cane.
There is a rendering plant in here in Vancouver BC and every summer, that neighbourhood gives off an unholy stink!
It was a commercial area, but space being at such a premium here, residences were eventually allowed. They, of course, started complaining about the smell.
We had a similar problem with people moving to homes on the flightpath of Vancouver International Airport.
Which is why now in Washington there are right to farm/manage natural resource/airport addendums for purchase and sale agreements. Some counties have specific ones and there is a general state wide one too. They all basically say that this property is within a X distance radius of an area zoned for Y and that may not be compatible with residential use.
My first real truck-driving job in ’86 was hauling frozen meat for a distributor. Mainly grocery store and fast food restaurant deliveries, but one afternoon I got in late and was told I had to take a truckload to a “by-products” plant. I pulled in with the windows up and the A/C on, and the smell was strong but not over-powering. I got some direction and picked my spot to back in. When I got out to open the refer doors, the stench hit me like a ton of bricks. I barely made it to the doors, swung them open and ran back to the cab, holding my breath. I backed up, hit the dock and set the brakes. A few minutes later, a guy taps on my window and tells me I have to unload the 48 lineal feet of rotted meat. I told him there was no way that was happening, they do it themselves or I take it back. At that point, I didn’t care if I lost my 6.00/hr job, and stuck to my guns. While I was there, a dumptruck much like this old Dodge pulled up next to me, with herbivore appendages sticking up out of the bed. I almost went vegetarian right there, I swear. The crew unloaded mine, and I learned later that they were supposed to unload but tried that game with every new driver that came through the gate. S.O.Bs!
Interesting that the Dodge is alternator equipped.
I just found a brochure for mediums on eBay, and the specs say that they all had alternators for ’61.
Standard equipment starting in ’61. But it is interesting to see an olde-tyme sidevalve engine factory equipped with an alternator rather than a generator!
I’ve occasionally wanted a farm truck myself but they are hard to park in a subdivision so the Loadstar of my dreams has to wait. On the other hand if I could find some spare yen I could do a miniature excavation setup with a Kobelco Super Shovel and a dump body kei truck
Me too! Me too!
Sweet!
Both of those trucks are very much from the same era, the Dodge representing the Virgil Exner and the Chevy the Chuck Jordan theory of commercial truck design. I think the Chevy has a practical and purposeful look to it suggesting forward motion, while the Dodge looks ‘different’. Nonetheless I would like to own either one of them!
I believe Paul is correct, the ‘Premium’ 225-2 Slant Six came out in 1963. It had a roller timing chain, better quality exhaust valves and crank bearings, and valve rotators. All early Slant Six’s had forged steel crankshafts.
Sweet old trucks =8-) .
In the early to mid 1960’s I was involved with haying and logging, typical rural farm duties, yes it was fun for us kids to ride in and work with these and scads of IHC L series medium duty trucks .
None ever went faster than 45 MPH loaded or empty, not many freeways back then, just two lane highways .
Good times that taught .Baby Boomers who lived it, serious work ethics .
-Nate
Reading this about beets made me think of tomatoes which are a very California thing. Every summer growers can produce 2,000,000,000 lbs. of tomatoes each week during the height of the season concentrated around the San Joaquin Valley. Being from San Diego I wasn’t aware of this till we moved north and I saw some roads littered with tomatoes. I then learned first hand spending the summer of ’72 working in a tomato canning plant out in Thornton. Happens every summer and is one of those things I consider quintessential California. Oh, and they don’t smell when fresh or processed.
https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/whats-black-and
Still a sweet (and surprisingly clean, straight, and original) ’61 Dodge, first year of that new body, before they had a much-needed do-over on the grille.
Now, did somebody say something about sugar beets? Here’s a Ford to go with the Dodge and Chev. This sketch was part of my very early childhood. I wonder why the guy at the end has bad teeth, eh!
I agree about the grille…”We do it right because we do it twice!” 🙂
I’m actually more taken by the cabover Chevy, and I have a near visceral hate for anything GM. The Dodge though. 115HP out of a 251 flathead? That’s up in pushrod OHV engines for the time. Gross ratings, not net. I’m thinking that flathead 6 was more like 85 or 90HP. I might be wrong, but I bet that rating came from marketing, not engineering.
If you look at something like a Chevy or Ford 250 from the later ’60s, they were rated in the 140-150 horsepower range (gross). Even the Chrysler 225 was rated at 145 horsepower, so 115 was probably in line (ha) for an engine with a comparatively large displacement.
The 115 hp rating for the 251 _6 seems reasonably realistic to me, too.
The 225 \6 was rated 127 hp in Dodge/Fargo truck documents, versus 145 hp in the passenger car documents of the same years. The truck engines were configured and equipped just about identically to the passenger car engine in all the ways that mattered to output. A thorough 3rd-party 1961 test of a 225 engine recorded horsepower and torque figures that very closely matched the Dodge/Fargo truck published figures, which were lower and less round (didn’t end in tidy little 5s) than the numbers Chrysler published for the same engine in cars. That looks to me like it was decided that the only real purpose of a horsepower number on a passenger car is to sell the car, while people buying work trucks or specifying industrial-commercial engines have a genuine need to know what they’re actually getting.
The 127 hp for the 225 /6 rating was a net rating, something that was commonly done in truck brochures, since operators wanted to know how many actual hp were available as installed.
The 145 hp rating was a gross rating. The difference between the two jives with typical differences of other engines’ gross and net ratings.
Yes, gross ratings, regardless of how accurate they are, are essentially meaningless. It’s a bit like an athlete on steroids.
In case anyone was curious, both of these trucks sold over the summer. I hope someone’s enjoying the beet truck (or whatever they’re using them for) lifestyle. 🙂
I would be happy taking either, although if a third contender with a Detroit showed up that might be my choice. I always like those GM cabovers, and the C series, because they both seemed to me to be wearing some sort of facial expression,
Lots of worries about the beet crop this year but I think it turned out ok.