I love old shots of trucks on the go; reminds me of being on the road in the 60s or early 70s. And although not exactly a rare sight, these Ford heavy duty conventionals like this F1000/F1100 were more commonly seen as dump trucks, cement mixers, and other local/regional hauling applications and not so much as over-the-road semi trucks.
I confirmed that with my own carefully tabulated statistics, back in 1963.
More on that later. This would be a 1965 or earlier truck, since it still sports the “low roof”.
Starting in 1965, the roof on these HD trucks had their roofs raised by several inches. I have to assume that too many drivers were hitting their heads on the roof, driving over anything but smooth pavement. That white dump truck is a dead ringer for the dump truck I drove, except for having red paint like the other one. But that one had the Super Duty Ford gasoline V8, and an Allison 6-speed automatic. But that’s not what’s under the hood of the featured over-the-road truck.
It’s presumably an F1100, the top capacity (38,000 lbs FVW) and almost certainly Cummins diesel powered. According to a 1964 brochure, theses conventionals were available with the compact V6/V8 series, with 195 to 265 hp ratings.
Seeing how this one is passing that Brockway COE, it’s probably one of the higher-powered versions. But who knows?
Back to my stats: On the 1963 (or possibly 1965) edition of our annual summer pilgrimage to the Rockies, I decided to keep a detailed running tally of all the big trucks I saw, for two days straight. I’d start writing down each brand as I first saw them, then keep adding tally marks for each additional one of each brand. I wish I still had it. The winner/most popular big truck on the road between Iowa and Colorado back then?
White/White-Freightliner. Of course that’s borderline cheating, as White-Freightliners weren’t built by White, just sold through their dealer network.
Freightliner was a West Coast company and White (above) was from the East Coast, so in the Midwest at the time, both brands were quite common. In retrospect, I should have had separate categories for them.
Number 2? I want to say Mack, but I’m not 100% sure of that. That would be a fun piece of paper to have in front of me now. Update: I just remembered: it was International.
Technically, Super Duty referred to the huge truck-only gas V8s Ford used at the time. The badge would not be on a diesel truck.
Did I say otherwise? Where?
Sorry, I was looking at the URL rather than the actual headline.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/vintage-trucks/vintage-truck-of-the-dayearly-1960s-ford-super-duty-diesel-in-the-fast-lane-back-when-super-duty-really-meant-something/
These old pictures are fun. I love the stains down the side of the Ford’s trailer from the stacks; I guess they’ve cleaned Diesels up a bit over the years.
The Ford seems a size smaller than that big Brockway, but that might be because the Brockway is a cabover.
I noticed those soot stains, too. I recently saw a picture from the 60s, that showed a pronounced thick black build up from leaked oil in the middle of the lanes of some random LA freeway, with extensive litter and retread tire carcasses all over the shoulder. Things have really cleaned up.
I believe that the oily stains in the center of lanes back then we’re from road draft tubes more than leaked oil
I have always been fascinated by the manufacturers who made semi-tractors by super-sizing their pickup cabs. I wonder – are most of those cabs the kinds of things modern pickup restorers might snag to replace a rusty pickup cab? I have never looked at them that closely.
It’s certainly possible. But then there aren’t exactly a lot of old F1000s sitting around. If there were, they’d be the object of restorers too, as the interest in old big trucks is very big too. The survival rate was very low.
I wonder if anyone has ever put one of those high roof cabs on a pickup? Now that would be a quite a sight. I’d like that for myself. 🙂
I’m not sure about these but I do know on some, the floor stampings are different than used on the regular pickups. They also sometimes use slightly different cowl and firewall stampings to work with the tilt hoods and HD engines.
Right, it’d get complicated. Brake and column hanging hardware is typically different. Bottom corner of door and opening is “clipped” to match larger tire radius. Etc.,etc.
Too bad, even in rust country the big cabs were typically well preserved with oil protection. Steps, fuel tanks and height generally kept dings to a minimum.
Paul, I find your tallying of big trucks on those trips to be amusing because this past summer, one of my daughters decided to do just that on some of our long drives out to the Midwest. It’s actually a good way to pass the time, and as a benefit, we all got very good at spotting the differences between big rig makes.
Her result? Much the same as yours a few decades earlier. Freightliners were by far the most common truck, to that point that on one trip in particular we got rather sick of seeing plain-white Freightliner Cascadias, as they seemed to be just everywhere. If I recall correctly, International often wound up in the #2 spot. And it became a cause for celebration when someone would see a Western Star.
I just asked her, and she can’t find her tally sheets, but I’m sure they’re buried in the house somewhere.
Wow; I can’t imagine doing that now; the trucks are all so look-alike and boring; like new/newish cars. But good for you!
You jostled my memory though: International was the #2 brand. I don’t know why I couldn’t put my finger on it, but you triggered the flashback. Thanks.
I’ve done the same thing but just mentally when driving far by myself. It’s funny how after not that many miles, just by actually looking at them, you start to distinguish the differences between the Freighliner Cascadias, the Volvos (much squarer fenders and headlights) and the odd Peterbilt and Kenworth from quite a distance. And the rare International Lonestar looks like nothing else (besides to me maybe a Toyota Origin for some reason).
And yes, the Cascadia does seem to be the F150 of the motorways.
I used to do the same thing as a kid in 60s Israel but it was never as exciting as in the US given that we really had very few brands selling big trucks then (Leyland, Mack, Autocar, a few Volvos and Scanias, the odd Mercedes-Benz and if you got lucky maybe a rare GMC crackerbox)…
I pay attention to big trucks in much the same way I pay attention to cars, by looking out for older or unusual ones. My favorites have always been Brockways, though they are super rare on the roads now.
Because trucks are a secondary interest I haven’t invested the time to learn much about them, so I pretty much just keep my eyes open for older or unusual ones and note their presence with a moment of appreciation.
“The Highest Number F-Series”
Here’s an F-1500:
https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/2/5/250-ford-1500.html
(psst: it’s a joke. That’s a link to an F-1500 *tractor*)
Although Ford did sell the F-Series as the F-4000 in South America…
What was that, something like a U.S. 500 with diesel power?
En Argentina hubo F7000.
I have not read anything at Curbside Classics for several months, mainly due to some health issues. Today I received four posts in my email. Interesting.
I’m guessing that there isn’t a lot of weight in that box trailer since the tractor is only single rear axle.
Single axle tractors were the norm for typical freight haulers in the Eastern half of the country back then. The trailers were short, so that a greater percentage of the weight was on the trailer wheels.
Specialized haulers of heavy cargo like steel and such typically had twin rear axles.
But yes, this was not a very heavy rig. As noted in the post, the max total weight for the F1100 was 38,000 lbs. Not bad, but not a really big load eiher.
Anyone know why the landing gear back then had round wheels as opposed to the flat pads used today
Always wondered about that
I don’t have an answer, but it is something I have also wondered about. As a youngster, I remember thinking that the ones with wheels were cooler than the pad ones. I also recall seeing divots in parking lots from wheeled ones when they sat there a while. My favorite trailers were Fruehaufs, for no better reason than the name was cool, and there seemed to be a lot of them around during my formative years.
Ford’s F series model numbers in the early 60’s were confusing. Sometimes the only difference between models was the rear axle and springs, and for some odd reason the highest rated tandem axle models were 950’s. Sometime before 1966 Ford rationalized their heavy truck numbering system, and the extra heavy duty 1000 and 1100 models became specific GVW option packages. In later years, 4 digit model numbers usually were reserved for diesels. As for the F series cab roofs, I think all F series from the F-100 up got a 1″ raise in 1964, and the heavy duty F and N series got the 3.5″ raise in 1966. It was done to improve seating position and accommodate air-suspended seats. I suspect the truck in the picture had the Cummins V-6 in it, I think the V-8 was only available in the N and H series. 38,000 GVW is pretty good for a single axle tractor, even today. The GCW was probably 65,000 or better.
Looking at a brochure showed it interestingly only shows a – in the Max GCW column for the F-1100 but the F-1000 does show 65,000 and I can’t believe the F-1100 was less than that considering the GVW got a 2,000lb bump.
I checked in the ’64 brochure: the V8s were also available in the F series. But not the big Cummins inline six diesels (NH), which were only available in the N and H Series.
Noted! Thanks for that, I must have confused the V-8’s with the big 6’s for the F’s.
As to model number juggling,. I heard, but I’m not sure that it was accurate, that it was about dealer franchise agreements, and keeping certain models out of the hands of Ford light truck or passenger car dealers.
For example, a dealer is eligible to handle up to F600 model trucks. The 600 becomes a 6000 and the dealership is excluded. Something like that, but again, I’m not positive.
Partial CC Effect – there’s an F600-800 of this vintage with a dump body doing yard waste removal in my neighborhood the last few days. Definitely, make that loudly and somewhat stinkily, gasoline V8 powered and carefully manually shifted.
Vintage photos like this are fun to look at. In addition to 60-year-old or so truck models, we see the now-rare COE tractors, soot stains from the exhaust (as already noted), and the white-painted edge lines along the median (now universally yellow in the US).
Slight correction on the title. The F series was sold in Export markets where it went as high as the F-4000, I believe Brazil was the main market for it. However I can believe that F-1100 is the highest number for the US at least
I think Brazilian Ford used F-x00 for gasoline/alcohol-powered models and F-x000 for diesels.
The reverse facing hood scoops on the big F series trucks denoted either Super Duty gas V-8 or diesel power. I think as a rule of thumb the Super Duties had one scoop offset to the left and the diesels usually had 2, one on each side as the Cummins small ‘V’ diesels had twin side by side air cleaners. The Cummins small V diesels had an interesting history, I believe the design came from a joint venture between Cummins and Chrysler in England. Drivers often referred to them as ‘Hummingbirds’.
The Super Dutu hood scoop was Ford’s but Pontiac used the same scoop on their Super Duty cars. The SAME scoop, down to Ford part number. Sure made a plain old truck part hot for awhile. Lol
It was a mistake not to snag a bunch of the scoops when these trucks were fading away.
Just reading today. Great comments. To me, Ford and Dodge had accommodating heavy-duty models. Dodge dropped out in 1976 and eventually Ford brought out their Louisville Line a/k/a “L-Line.” The Louisville was designed to be a heavy-duty and to also be cheap for municipal bids. Thus, the base truck did not have a full set of gauges. There were some warning lights. In a municipal bid situation, a few dollars count.
Our L-700 grain truck has no tach; you just have to play it by ear.
Since somebody who owns an “L” chimed in…
L was a NICE cab. 20 years advanced, really.
Easy step-up entry. Great up-high control and view. Finally a “tight” cab, with real heater and maybe AC.
But that “toggle” parking brake control that could be left in released position for a warming-up truck to roll away as soon as air pressure built up… not so good.
The Louisville hit the market in 1969; that meant the hightop heavy F series and the N-series LCF kept the 1961-era styling in 1967-68 alongside the F100-800 which were refreshed to the “bumpside” generation for ’67. That meant there were probably enough differences between this cab and the lighter-duty one that it was worth keeping those old doors in production for a couple years rather than update the heavy cab behind the existing nose for a short run.
Soot stains from stacks are still a thing we have a couple of CAT630 conventionals one is under the leachate tanker the other pulls a walking floor rubbish quad semi the net operating hydraulics and corners pf the body are black, when those CAT C15s are pulling hard they smoke a little nice trucks to drive Im on the tanker tomorow and had a couple of days in the other one last week, some of our Freightliner Argosys have stacks some underfloor exhausts, the Sterling is overhead as are the two Scanias, kinda like the stacks nice bark when they are pulling hard and a nice cackle when jaking
I’m not so nostalgic about those narrow 4 lane highways divided by nothing but a narrow grass strip nor the aggravation of being stuck behind slow going trucks in both lanes. This applies doubly to New Jersey.