I’m always drawn to old photos of GMC’s “Crackerbox” COE units, although I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it’s because I rode in one once when hitchhiking and the deafening roar of the Detroit Diesel is what caused of my tinnitus? Or because I relate to its no-nonsense industrial looks? Or because I spent days researching and writing the only in-depth article on them on the web?
In this case, it was the the small-diameter twin exhaust stacks, which stand as testament that 8″ sewer pipe stacks are not actually necessary, as if we didn’t know that already. And then there’s the total lack of mufflers. Do you know how load a Screaming Jimmy is without any muffling at all. Come to think of it, maybe I did ride in this very truck. And as best as I can tell, it’s one of the early DFR8000 units with air ride and independent front suspension, which only came with the new 6V-71 DD diesel and not the 6-71 inline version. That explains the twin stacks.
More on the GMC “Crackerbox”:
Only those who’ve heard one can appreciate your ride long ago Paul .
Tinnitus is a terrible thing .
-Nate
What surprises me the most is that someone took such an artful photo of what must have been at the time just another old rig.
What a view!
Today, ‘grittiness’ in visual and sensory form, is often achieved with a software special effect, or a paint application technique. Back then, it was very real, and a natural part of everyday wear and tear, and life. It’s still around, but we knowingly attempt to mask (and control) it better.
Always amusing, to hear a modern ICE-equipped car, with exhaust system damage, or a hole. A generally rare event, that lends an old school sense. When raw-sounding cars, with bad mufflers, were common.
Judging from the background it’s a Brian Williams picture. It immediately looked familiar, many pictures of him can be found in books (like ‘Big Rigs of the 1950s’ by Ron Adams) and on the web.
Immortalized by Junior Brown
Paul, so nice to see the Jimmy revisited and always neat to see all those colorful license plates. A single IFTA just isn’t the same.
The two lane Ontario Highway 7 between Sarnia, Toronto, and Ottawa, was Central Canada’s Route 66. A road known for very abundant heavy truck traffic, as it handled much of the commerce through this part of the country. As well as a major link to many fresh water lakes, and provincial parks.
I feel fortunate to have lived near the highway as a small kid in the 1970s, and spotted so many ’50s through ’70s vintage heavy trucks, in their prime years. The volume of trucks that patronized that road, which largely went through some of the more remote parts of the lower Canadian Shield, was remarkable. It was also a major intercity bus route. Weekdays, truck and bus traffic, often outnumbered cars. On weekends, the fishing and camping enthusiasts, filled the highway. As Sundays, trucks hauling perishables, were the only transports allowed on the road.
The remnants of various rest stops, restaurants, and motels, can still be seen along the route. Particularly, between Peterborough and Perth.
Wish I had the foresight as a child, to take pics of all the truck convoys that filled this vintage passage, for decades. Car carriers carrying the latest from each of the Big Three, were among the highest profile rigs. As this once extremely vital part of the Trans-Canada Highway, is now mostly maintained by local governments.
The province was slow to adopt passing lanes. They did not become common until the ’80s and ’90s. After, Highway 7 became obsolete for large scale commerce. So, long lines of trucks, buses and cars was common. So busy, it was near impossible to even attempt for a moment to pass. And there was no point, really.
I do recall frighteningly close calls, when someone would try to pass, during breaks in the volume.
Rural section of Highway 7 between Brampton and Woodbridge at Highway 50 in 1967. Four different brands of gas. Esso, Texaco, Fina, and British-American. Fina winning the aesthetics award. As they also appear to be selling pre-owned cars.
I remember driving on Hwy 7 as a kid, circa 1970. We had family in Trenton, Ontario and we often made the trip from the Ottawa area. Even though the 401 was open by that time, Dad always took “Number 7” because he enjoyed the scenery. Like Daniel states below, there were few passing lanes and the trip could be quite slow.
Later in life I asked Dad why he always took Number 7. He said he was not confident that his dirt cheap two ply bias tires could stand a sustained 70 MPH. On the rare occasions we drove on the 401, I recall blown out tires littering the roadside. The speed limit was 70 MPH and many divers exceeded it by a big margin, this with bias ply tires and drum brakes. Yikes!
Prior to Highway 416 (a freeway) opening in the 1990’s, linking to the 401, Highway 7 was the most practical way of travelling between Toronto and Ottawa.
So, traffic volume was very high. And there were virtually no passing lanes, other than Carleton Place, heading west from Ottawa. For at least 80 kms, until the late 1970’s.
I grew up in Eganville and my family had a cottage on Big Rideau Lake near Perth and we made many trips down Highway 41 to Highway 7 in the 70’s and 80’s. More than a few times we were delayed by head on collisions on Highway 7.
The commercial business sections of Carleton Place and Perth, on the eastern end of Highway 7, were the only areas with second passing lanes for years. An open highway passing lane section, just west of Carleton Place, was added in the late 1970s.
Many head-on type collision accidents reported in the Peterborough Examiner, Perth Courier, Carleton Place Canadian, and Ottawa Citizen, as well as CJOH TV in Ottawa, over the years. On Highway 17, as well. Both highways have claimed many lives. Though safety did improve, lower traffic volume on Highway 7, helped a great deal.
Inexcusable, it took the Ministry of Transportation so many years to improve highway safety on Highway 7.
I think you are right about that truck being a DLR 8000. As for the exhaust, wow. Makes my ears ring just looking at the picture. I have seen some of the later 6V-71 powered GMC ‘Steel Tilt’ cab trucks that had horizontal frame mounted mufflers with stacks. They used an unusual muffler that had both the inlet and outlet on the forward end, and the configuration was commonly used on auto transporters where space was limited behind the cab. The exhaust on that ‘Crackerbox’ however looks like it is coming straight out the back of the cab.
Well, I pulled out of Pittsburgh, rolling down the eastern seaboard
I’ve got me diesel wound up and she’s running like never before
There’s a speed zone ahead but it’s all right, I don’t see a cop in sight
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight
I got ten forward gears and a Georgia overdrive
I’m passing little white lines and my eyes are open wide
Just passed a Jimmy and a White, I’ve been passing everything in sight
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight
Well, it seems like a month since I kissed my baby goodbye
I could have a lot of women, but I’m not like some of the guys
I could find one to hold me tight, but I could not make believe it’s right
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight
Well, the ICC is checking on down the line
I’m a little overweight and my log books are way behind
But nothing bothers me tonight, I can dodge all the scales all right
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight
My rig’s a little old, but that don’t mean she’s slow
There’s a flame from her stack and the smoke’s rolling black as coal
My home town’s coming in sight, if you think I’m happy, you’re right
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight
Dave Dudley has some great driving songs
Two lane blacktop is what we get to drive on, police are anal about speed limits, Fortunately for truck drivers 2 stroke diesels died out many years ago. Yes they sound great unless its in your ear all day, Playing with exhaust diameter on 2 strokes can gain or lose power bigger may not help but having most of the noise exit above the cab is a good thing underfloor exhausts still exist here including left side exits for blowing soot over cyclists and pedestrians as do straight pipe systems but for 14 hour days behind the wheel I’d rather be able to hear the stereo or simply nothing at all.
For me, it was the businesslike looks of the GM Crackerbox CEO trucks. Out here in California the largest user was Pacific Motor Trucking, a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Company, the dominant railroad. Their dull red cabs showed the Crackerbox in all its utilitarian glory, without any dressup from multicolored paint jobs.
Merriam-Webster ‘Utilitarian’: GMC Crackerbox.
I’m surprised that since US cars were entirely style-driven, such pure functionality would appeal to operators. Perhaps it didn’t, which is why its replacement was surprisingly handsome.
The Crackerbox functionality sort of lived on in our Bedford TM, which was similarly odd in the narrow-cabbed version.
They were really as close as we got to the Screamin’ Jimmy sound, though.
My personal 6-71 experience was as ships power generators aboard a number of US Coast Guard cutters. Their distinctive exhaust note made it easier for many of us to navigate back from the bars in unfamilar liberty ports.
I can’t imagine sitting on top of one of those 2 strokes while flying down the highway. Tinnitus indeed!