Mack trucks are usually thought of in terms of big, heavy-duty rigs, but between 1938 and 1944, Mack built the Model ED, in the one to one and a half ton rating range. Most were pickups or other light trucks, but apparently a few station wagons were built, with a wood body, of course.
Since only 2,686 EDs were built, it’s not surprising that only some 50 remain, and a Google search turns up one woodie wagon.
Looks like its body was made by a different firm, but here it is, in all of its wooden glory.
Here’s the pickup truck. Love those cast wheels; just like the big Macks.
The ED came with a 209 cubic inch Continental six rated at 67 hp, and if that wasn’t enough, there was the larger 226 inch version, rated at 72 hp. The 226 showed up in a number of cars and Jeeps to come, including all the Kaiser-Frazers.
Someday, someone needs to do an article on the Continental six. It must be one of the most prolific motors in American automotive history.
This seems like it was aimed at the same customer that would go for the Diamond T 201 pickup. I love in the last photo how you could pick up a chassis and running gear for $675, cab and body separate of course. It’s funny to think of a world where this could still happen and you would have the likes of a Peterbilt pickup or a Kenworth SUV.
Diamond T 201 for reference…
International Harvester came closest, selling light trucks into the dawn of the 1980s. There was even a new SUV under development.
Despite the advertised claims, Mack’s cab-optional ED didn’t have the stamina to pull it off…
Don’t forget the International CXT!
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:International_CXT_Commercial_Extreme_Truck_1.jpg#/media/File:International_CXT_Commercial_Extreme_Truck_1.jpg
Cool truck. Thanks.
Looks like four rows of seating, so I’d say this straddles the line between station wagon and mini-bus.
Since some percentage were built in the ’42-’44 range, I would suspect that some/most of those went to the war effort. Probably not in the theatre, but domestically, to transport military personnel to/from/around bases. Another possibility was the transport of carless production workers to/from factories.
Certainly the station wagons’ use case would be more likely “small bus” than “family car”.
https://www.iberkshires.com/story/42111/North-Adams-Restores-1941-Fire-Engine.html?fb_comment_id=447286838649779_3773060099405753 This link is to a 1941 Mack Fire Truck restored by the North Adams, MA F.D. I have seen it in person.
Of note, the ED Macks have six-bolt-circle wheels. This means that they are a higher load bearer than most of today’s SUV’s.
since i do not have any other way to let Paul know, my new E-mail address is tmerj20@yahoo.com.
As time marches on, I find it hard to remember why wood bodies on “station wagons” were ever a thing. I’m assuming it must have been fundamentally a volume issue, when the cost of tooling for stamped steel panels in that era couldn’t be justified by the numbers of these types of vehicles sold, and woodworkers were plentiful and cheap to employ.
Although those panels would have been very simple in metal…most of them were basically flat. You’d think they could have been hand-beaten at a cheaper price than all that jointed woodwork. Perhaps it was a style/marketing issue as well.
For that matter, why they didn’t just put windows and seats into a panel truck body.
I mean, they did – that’s what GM’s “Carryall Suburban” was and Dodge had offered a similar setup in 1933-34 that was more intended to be a regular two-door sedan that doubled as a small van so it only had two rows of seats.
We got most American pickups as complete to the firewall to be bodied locally usually as flat decks some of those smaller Macks must have arrived ive seen one but never as a woody wagon,
International had some bodied as coupes and not the Aussie style coupe utility they were coupe cars for company reps, cant find the pic of the Mack
That yellow Mack is the Mack Daddy!
Merriam-Webster: one that is the best
Looks like the yellow “woodie” wagon that “John Walton” brought home in season seven or eight of the “The Waltons”.
The Waltons’s woody was a 1940 Plymouth. Goodnight John Boy.
Thank you there “HBN”
That wagon body looks like it might have been built by Cantrell:
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/j-t-cantrell-company
I love that green and wood one, it’s gorgeous. The pickup isn’t bad either, but my god, 67HP? I don’t know what those things weighed, but I bet it wasn’t light. As much as I abhor today’s pickups with 300+HP to haul groceries and maybe a kid or two in the back, trying to move a heavy load or tow something with that power?
But that green woodie, it’s cool!
Speeds were a lot lower then. Vehicles like this were not expected to go faster than about 45 mph.
Folks towed trailers with less than that. It’s all about gearing and lower speeds.
What’s with the blue sedan ? That’s wild—especially for IH ??
That was a locally-built body in New Zealand, for company reps.