I love stories like the one about how this very advanced truck called the Paymaster came to be. No, it wasn’t from the advanced engineering department at one of the big truck builders. Trucker Dean Hobbensiefken, based near Portland, Oregon, decided in the late ’60s that he could design a better truck, one more efficient, easier to service, more reliable, and one that also looked a lot more advanced than the crackerboxes being built at the time. He went to it, and the result was the Paymaster. I’m pretty sure this is the prototype he essentially hand built, based on the date and how the later ones differed. Well, that and this looks like a typical Oregon setting and load, plywood “skins” heading for the plywood mill.
Hobbensiefken managed to attract the interest of Ryder, the largest fleet lessor in the country, and a handful were built. Not exactly a success, but hey, here we are talking about it 50 years later. The Paymaster is immortal.
Apparently Hobbenskiefken built two prototypes that got the attention of Ryder, which then had ten built. Some say they were built by Hendrickson, which would make sense as Ryder certainly had no facilities to do so. What made the Paymaster so different? Well, obviously its cab was aerodynamic, and set far forward. That allowed the whole “power unit”, which consisted of a Detroit Diesel 6V-71 and Fuller RT-910 transmission to have unparalleled access and made it possible to remove it in under two hours. A Cummins VT-903 was optional.
The radiator is right behind the cab, fed by the two scoops. The Paymaster’s aerodynamics were vastly better than the boxy COE’s of the time. Instead of fuses, circuit breakers readily accessible were used. Other maintenance-friendly aspects were incorporated throughout, including no belts to break. Super single tires. Fresh thinking…
Apparently there was a version with more extensive fairings for the trailer. This looks quite a bit ahead of its time, for 1975.
Definitely evokes the Tesla semi.
Here’s another at work.
This looks to be one of the two prototypes. That appears to be Hobbenskiefken trucking company on the door. Note the super single tires.
What happened? The 1973-1974 energy crisis and resulting recession hit trucking very hard, and Ryder bailed. Apparently two more were built somewhere, making a total of 14 built.
Very interesting. Kinda the opposite of the Scania COE converted to conventional that Johannes Dutch posted the other day; this benefits from eliminating the doghouse, or at least reducing its intrusion, with a narrower cab to benefit aero. The Scania conversion is the worst of both worlds in that sense. When I worked at Peterbilt from 1976 to 1982 we put of a lot of effort into wind tunnel testing and optimizing details, but never strayed far from the traditional layouts. And I have no recollection of this Oregon truck being anywhere on our radar. I noticed a Ford Ranger in the background of the picture of the orange Paymaster with the Allied Van Lines trailer, so it’s possible that the aero fairing was a later add-on. By the mid-80’s that shape was quite common on COE’s.
FYI, the Scania COE/conventional conversion is based on the S-series, the top model cab. That cab doesn’t have a dog house, its whole floor is sitting above the engine.
WOW! I like this. As one who sold trucks, I admit that I had never heard of the Paymaster. I think that I would have enjoyed selling such a truck. I can see it in both highway and vocational applications. Really fresh thinking. THANKS!
I had never heard of these.. i did however own a few matchbox trucks as a boy that seem to have been inspired by it (seems there was a range of future trucks they produced in the 70s, think angular wedge shapes, odd wheel layouts and and lots of translucent plastic)
I’m thinking, you perhaps had this Matchbox tanker from 1973, in mind.
….and that Matchbox tanker reminds me of the 1968 Steyr 90-series and the modernized 1978 91-series. Well, its front anyway.
I agree!
With the driver located even a bit ahead of the front axle I imagine the ride was a bit punishing, particularly for long haul operation. But from comments here it seems that modern cab overs as seen commonly in Europe are pretty good for noise and ride comfort.
All the cubic feet behind and above the driver and the aero shape of the Tesla cab indicate long distance high speed use, which is pretty clearly not what a battery truck would be good for, for multiple reasons. Longer distance shipping should indeed be electric, but on an expanded national electrified rail network. I don’t understand why this isn’t a big issue. It seems like this would be an effective national investment in reducing burning of fossil fuels, including for Amtrak. Obviously private rail companies aren’t going to do it.
I was in England (Heathrow-Bath-York-London) a few months ago and was a little surprised about how much of their passenger rail network isn’t electrified. Seems like a no-brainer. Running around the EU and UK on trains is a great thing to do one way or another though.
Modern battery technology makes electric local delivery vans a no-brainer. It’s about the worst possible use for IC powered vehicles there is. The Postal Service was about to order something like 90% of their new fleet with IC power but was forced to change to 50%, which is still way too much. We should be investing in electric vehicles for all local delivery whether private or semi-public.
Cheap? No. Necessary, yes.
Local delivery EV trucks are catching on here but so far I only see class 2 trucks (14 tonne) in EV nothing bigger yet.
All of the United States’ heavy rail is electrified: diesel/electric hybrid. The US ships a much larger proportion of freight by rail than European or Asian countries. It makes more sense to ship heavy freight very long distances by train in the US; people are light and can easily and economically go by air.
Take into consideration that the United Kingdom is tiny compared to the US: about the size north-to-south as Wyoming and Colorado.
Not exactly “electrified” and “diesel/electric/hybrid”. The term “hybrid” means that the vehicle’s propulsion comes from more than one source: gas, or electric, or a mix of the two.
A diesel-electric locomotive is just as “dirty” as if it were diesel-mechanical. It’s a different “transmission”, but not a real hybrid, although there are a few hybrid and battery powered locomotives now in switching duty.
You’re quite right: with the massive distances in the US, electrification would be very expensive.
Of course you’re right, Paul, diesel/electric locomotives in service today aren’t true hybrids in that they have no storage to act as either a capacitor or battery to power the locomotive. Still, shipping freight by rail is extremely efficient, emitting an order of magnitude less CO₂ per ton/mile compared to truck freight and about half as much PM2.5.
(Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2020 SmartWay Shipper Company Partner Tool: Technical Documentation)
Looks like there’s a Paymaster on display at the Iowa 80 Truck Museum.
https://iowa80truckingmuseum.com/uncategorized/paymaster-truck-now-on-display/
I agree postal vehicles are perfect for electric, but building in the infrastructure will be a huge cost. In the little burg I live in, most of the Post Office trucks are parked on the street overnight, so they’d either have to eminent domain the building next to them just for parking/charging or build a new post office. I’ve got to SWAG they would be looking at well over $100K just for parking and charging. Maybe double that or more. For each mail truck. And while cheaper per mile, you would still have to buy electricity.
As an aside, I wonder about the starters on the current mail trucks. Especially with so much e-commerce now those things must start at least a hundred times a day.
What an incredible story. This prompted me to read up a little bit more about Mr. Hobbensiefken – not only did he build this rig entirely himself and in his own spare time, but he used his prototype as one of his work vehicles. From what I can tell, he logged 50,000 mi. on it before Ryder bought into his design, and then he kept using his own prototypes well into the 1980s. One eventually logged half a million miles.
One of his prototypes is on display at the Pacific Northwest Truck Museum near Salem.
Seeing all of this truck’s advancements, it deserved better than to be just a footnote in transportation history. And since it always helps to put a name with the story, here’s a picture of Mr. Hobbensiefken, and another of him next to one of his trucks.
Always good to see some fresh thinking, but I’m a bit puzzled about the plywood hauling truck in the first picture.
As far as I can tell, neither the engine and radiators are mounted behind the cab and there are no apparent radiator air ducts. The cab appears to be cut off very and close to the trailer. Is the radiator under the cab somehow, fed by the grille at the front?
The cab is not as close to the trailer as it might look due to the camera’s perspective. But yes, the side mounted radiators are not there, so presumably this was the first prototype and it had a different arrangement for the radiator, which we can assume was not effective enough.
The DD 6V-71 was a quite compact engine; there would have been room enough for it between the cab and trailer.
I had a Tonka truck of this I am pretty sure, in mint green. Cool trucks.
Running out of Portland to Coos Bay, I used to see these trucks quite often.
I never saw one broke down.
I found a side shot that seems to show the mechanical better. Engine fits between the cab and the 5th wheel hitch. Looks like the transmission is almost under the hitch.
https://preview.redd.it/mmddgwwrcs191.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=871185fc7cf52972a5518bafc1bcb30babd952ef
Fascinating. Thanks for that.
Then how were the engine-driven accessories…driven?
On some marine diesel engines, all accessories are gear or PTO driven instead of belts. The Cummins B series has an extra gear on the timing gears that can run different things. In the marine world it’s usually used for a seawater cooling pump, but I have seen other things like hydraulic pumps there. On lobster boats, it was fairly common to hang a hydraulic pump off the front of the engine directly coupled to the front of the crankshaft damper. You can also get a PTO on many transmissions to run something as well.