Yes, my title is a bit convoluted. But when I saw that the guy in the ad extolling his White 3000 trucks hauling Tom’s Potato Chips was named Tom, I assumed he was the founder, just like the White 3000 was the founder of the modern tilt cab truck.
Not so, it turns out; about Tom, that is.
The White 3000, which arrived in 1949, was a real milestone in the development of the modern truck. Unlike all the pre-war COE (Cab Over Engine) trucks, which had a high cab sitting way up over the engine, the 3000 was a radical departure: by pushing the cab forward, the cab could be lower since the leg room area was now in front of the engine. And the White Mustang flathead six meant that the seats didn’t have to be very high either. And then of course there was the fairly radical concept of the whole thing tilting forward.
These were everywhere still in Baltimore after we arrived in 1965; the perfect city truck. I remember looking into the back of one once and being a bit surprised to see a big flathead six. What was I expecting?
During the 1950s, the demand for diesel engines grew steadily, so the 3000 had to be adapted to accept the big Cummins NH220. That required raising the cab some, as can be seen by the much deeper fenders. And it also required two additional radiator attached to the rear of the cab, whose fan was driven by a shaft running back there.
As to Tom’s, it has had a rather convoluted history. It started with a Tom Huston, who started selling nickel bags of roasted peanuts in 1925. Within two years they were being sold nationally, with $4 million in annual sales. But Tom couldn’t or didn’t pay back some notes, so he lost the company to the bank. It continued to grow fast without him.
General Mills bought Tom’s in 1966, and then it changed hands several more times. In 1988 it was bought by management, but that didn’t turn out well. Sales were on a downward trajectory. Another buyout in 1993 resulted in further declines, and Tom’s went belly-up.
Then in 2005, Snyder’s-Lance picked it up for cheap, and has been distributing them ever since.
As to that Tom Black in the ad, I suspect his company was a regional distributor.
I love it when truck manufacturers used actual examples of companies using their products.
It’s interesting to see a Tom’s Potato Chips semi-trailer, since the company is more well-known for small distributors (like the one below) who personally restocked stores. In the 1950s, Tom’s had 8 potato chip plants, so maybe this truck was delivering chips from one of the factories to a distribution site. I don’t know how long Tom’s kept up the small distributorships though… I assume at some point the sales of potato chips overtook that of the peanuts that had built the company, and I’m sure at some point the volume because too much for the small delivery drivers to handle.
Anyway, this is a great ad, in multiple respects.
Zennon C.R. Hansen a member of the Automobile Hall of Fame, quoted from the AH of F;
In 1951, while at Diamond T, Hansen pioneered the tilt-cab design that was adopted by several other manufacturers because of its versatility and serviceability. In 1965, Hansen was asked to take over the leadership of the failing Mack Truck Company. “I’m going to make it growl again,”
thanks for the tip on Hanson, Mack trucks has a write up on him. That was my memory too, Diamond T invented the tilt cab. It appears that Hanson was not the inventor but helped to push it.
“Diamond T had been an industry pioneer in the development and adaptation of many major advancements in truck design including tube and fin radiators, Four wheel hydraulic brakes, rubber spring shackle bushing, tapered roller bearings for drive shaft supports, load compensating rear springs, deluxe stream lined closed cabs, seven bearing six cylinder engines with heat treated alloy blocks, cushioned engine mountings, roll out sub frames and tilting cabs.”
Claimed “firsts” are always a bit fuzzy.
What year for Diamond T’s first tilt cab?
Not to be confused with Tilt, the man.
In 1951, while at Diamond T, Hansen pioneered the tilt-cab design
The tilt cab White 3000 came out in 1949. Am I missing something?
BlueovalDave quotes a source claiming Diamond T as pioneering the “development and adaptation” of tilting cab.
“Diamond T had been an industry pioneer in the development and adaptation of many major advancements in truck design including tube and fin radiators, …and tilting cabs.”
It’s just not very specific language is all. The tilting cab predates ’49. So I wondered where Diamond T drove their stake in the tilting-cab timeline.
My dad’s company had one of these tractors. Must have been the early to mid- ’60’s. Consolidated Freightways (CF) had a ton of these also. There was some weird stuff going on one year, no sure if it was a strike or what but there were terminals that they couldn’t pick up freight from for awhile. My dad’s company truck colors at that time was red with red trailers. The White 3000 cab over was repainted in CF green so they could slip in to these terminals and pick up freight. The company tended to sit on their old equipment for a long time, just parked at one of their storage lots until they totally dissolved from the tin worms. That lonely old White in its CF green sat on that lot for many years as a constant reminder of my childhood days riding with my dad.
Tom Black’s obituary in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, November 13, 1970, says that he became a potato chip producer in 1947 and soon went into business with the Huston Peanut Co. of Columbus, Ga., to produce items to be distributed by them. Eventually he and his two sons became vice-presidents of Huston Peanut, while he continued to own and operate his local facility.
I remember touring the Tom’s Potato Chip factory here in Knoxville in the late Sixties. It smelled great, naturally, and overhead conveyor belts carrying potatoes made a strong impression. Who knew there were that many potatoes in the world? The building is still there, at the corner of Concord Street and Sutherland Avenue.
Tom Black Track at the University of Tennessee is named after the potato chip tycoon.
Well, that’s confusing. So it looks like Tom Black, and his son, also named Tom Black, produced peanuts and potato chips, and than began producing foods for Tom Huston, who also produced peanuts and potato chips. Eventually Tom and Tom took over a greater part of Tom’s business.
Well, that makes sense, but where does Tom fit in to all of this?
1954: White Truck construction profiled in the (hometown) Cleveland paper–including all those concerns about length and differing state regulations I never thought about before becoming a CC reader:
You could hardly wish for better service access then you had with these units. Especially if you spent the 10 minutes pulling off the front tires. Most nostalgic photos. I don’t recall seeing many of these on the road, however my early years school readers depicted these trucks in numerous stories. Thanks Paul for the memory lane.
Nice post – love these 3000s – like you they were everywhere in central Ohio in the late 50s-60s when I was a lad…
First tilt cab in the US but Skoda had them on some of its 6SD2 6X6 trucks already before the war.
I don’t remember seeing these on the road when I was a kid, but they certainly may have still been out there. I love the curve of the front and the entire design. Alas, they seem to have disappeared even more completely than some other trucks, so I may never see one again, unless I luck into one at a museum.
Another famous (at least here in Canada) White cab over:
https://www.autos.ca/classic-cars/motoring-memories-the-labatt-streamliners-1937-1947/
After a time, probably in the 40’s, Tom’s distributors started using Metro walk in trucks. My Dad was a sales manager at a Tom’s distributor in middle GA from 1964 to around 1978. As a kid in 1968, I remember them buying 3 International Metros, with aluminum bodies.
A random thought… I wonder if “Potator Chip” Tom Black president of Tom Black, Inc. was any relation to Robert F Black, long-time president of White?
How difficult was it to tilt the cab for engine access? Looks to be at least a 2 person job.
In the late 1960’s I and dozens of other college students drove for The Milwaukee Journal newspaper. “The J”, as we called it had at least one tandem axle White 3000 plus a few single axle units. I wrote a six page article about the Journal/Sentinel transportation system which appeared in the November/December issue of “Wheels of Time”, the publication of the American Truck Historical Society. Thanks, Greg Wernisch
The 3000 predates the Diamond-T tilt cabs. White also had other tilt cabs years before the3000, as had Sterling.
It is stated as if the White 3000 was the first truck of its kind. Not so. There were MANY trucks of this type before the 3000, including from White.
Cab of engine (COE) trucks, sure, there were many, but not ones whose cab tilted like the 3000’s. If you can show me examples of older tilt cab trucks, I’d be very happy to give them the credit they deserve.