I’ve been admiring these two handsome old trucks sitting by the side of Highway 101 about ten miles north of Port Orford. I finally got around to stopping and shooting them, and they are even more splendid close up. They’re water tankers, for fighting forest fires or rural fires where there is no available water, and belong to the Sixes Rural Fire Protection District, a volunteer fire department serving the area in the vicinity of the Sixes River.
The red one is Dodge LCF, the other a Mack U series. Both have huge water tanks, full. They’re old, but ready to roll if needed.
Here’s a look at both of them from the front. The Dodge must be a 1966 or later, given the big single headlights set in their pie dishes. The Dodge LCF (Lower Cab Forward) was built from 1960 to 1967.
The Dodge’s cab is the same one as used on their pickups until 1961
The LCF had a rather unique way of opening up the hood for access to its engine. The LCF range covered medium-duty and heavy-duty versions, and with gas or diesel power. Several brands (Cummins, Detroit Diesel, and Caterpillar were available, although the Cummins seem to be most common. The two rather skinny exhaust pipes exiting behind the cab are the tell-tales that this one has a gas engine, almost certainly the 413 V8.
I’m a bit perplexed by this badge on its side. Consolidate Diesel Electric Company apparently built gensets, so I’m not sure what the application would be here. Likely it has to do with this truck’s life before it became a tanker.
I do know what’s backing up the powerplant: an Allison 6-speed automatic. Makes sense, so that it doesn’t take an experienced truck driver to drive it. I drove a few big Ford Super Duty’s with this box; it’s a tough one as it bangs out the full throttle shifts day-in, day-out. The instrument panel is rather sparse.
The Mack is a diesel, obviously. The vertical exhaust stack confirms that, but I’m quite sure Mack had stopped building gas engines by this time. And it’s a U-Series, a variant of the very popular R-series that has its cab offset to the driver’s side. These was commonly specified for urban use, as the hood was shorter.
The Mack has a shifter for an Allison too, backing up its six cylinder Thermodyne diesel.
The tanks on these trucks are huge; I’m curious as to what they weigh. Water is such heavy stuff, and it’s clearly weighing down the rear springs, as there’s very little clearance left over the rear tires.
The license plate says it all.
The two guardians of the forests.
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So how does the auto work. The quadrant is confusing on the dodge
I love seeing old equipment still in service, if only as an occasional backup. The Dodge cab shows its pickup roots in the little slit windshield (at least compared with the one on the Mack cab).
To drive an Allison automatic, one “range shifts.” You select t range in which you are driving for the needed performance. As the vehicle accelerates or decelerates, at t behest of your foot on the accelerator, you need to shift to the appropriate tange of gears.
Chrysler got their money’s worth out of the tooling for those pie plates, used on A-vans; D/W pickups, big trucks…practically the whole of the Dodge/Fargo range. (No, I don’t know that it was all the same pie plate, but I’d bet lunch on it)
Interesting to see how precautions are managed in this environment. Presumably, someone comes along periodically and turns then over?
And an offset cab on a highway – not seen that before.
I had an 84 U model with a 350 Mack mechanical and a10 speed. Put 130,000 miles on it the first year sleeping on a piece of plywood. Knees haven’t been right since. Great little truck.
That Dodge LCF looks very much like an ex Air Force refueler. Dodge supplied the chassis for a large number of them for many years up until at least 1975. The heavy duty Dodge trucks were ‘officially’ discontinued in March of 1975, but small production runs were built until 1979 for export and government contracts. Most of the Dodge refuelers were powered by Cummins 555 V-8’s.
Think the Mack is a DM model instead of a U model.
Spotting features are the 2 step fuel tank and the deep section frame behind the cab.
DM models were used for heavy service straight trucks like this while the U model was primarily used as a highway tractor to pull long trailers in length restricted states.
Also, Mack did install Chrysler V8 gasoline engines in DM models briefly when Mack and Chrysler considered a merger.
Great photos, appreciate you posting them!
I have seen R-400’s with Chrysler 413’s in them as well. Mack referred to the engine as an ‘EN-414’.
Those black plastic knobs on the Dodge dash sure look familiar, too. Straight off Dad’s ’64 D-100 that I learned to drive with the three on the tree.
Oh what memories, both of those trucks are ex Air Force refuelers. The empty space between the cab and tank used to house the filter separator, hose reel and meter in a big cam box. The tanks will hold 5000 gallons.
Remember Mr. Kermit Addy of Addy Dodge in Lexington, SC selling the attributes of the D-100 pickup
Mr. Kermit ran a great dealership and gave Ford & Chevy a run for their money selling Dodge pickups.
Simple, reliable vehicles able to be maintained with basic tools.
We really had it good back then!
Those are both ex Air Force R-9 fuel trucks. The Dodge was the first variation of the R-9, made in around 1970 (not 100% when the first ones were delivered.) by Consolidated Diesel Electric (Condec) who took a Dodge chassis and adapted their tank / pump / filter / distribution system behind the cab. Condec made something called the “R-5” in the 60’s before this, which was a gasoline powered cab-over truck. The problem with gas engines is that they backfire often when you throttle down after pumping out 4500+ gallons onto a multi-million dollar weapons system, and nobody wants that around fuel vapor. So the R-9 was Condec’s follow-on. I have seen 1976 models using the same 1967 Dodge chassis. Chrysler has a history of floating what they can’t sell to gov’t channels. Anyway, in 1980 Condec moved to the Mack chassis cab with, if I remember right, Caterpillar engines. Other than the cab, the 1980-81 models had a very similar Condec tank and pumping system. These were used stateside and at Air Force bases in the pacific. In 1982, a company called Kovatch (who also made fire trucks at the time) got the contract to replace R-5’s stateside and in Europe; these R-9’s had the same Mack cab/chassis, but the pumping system was the Kovatch design and didn’t pump as well. The green truck pictured is a Kovatch R9. In 1983/84, Kovatch R9’s went into a war readiness storage program conceived by Norman Schwarzkopf in case there was ever a significant unrest in the middle east.
In 1989, Oshkosh (who also had made fire trucks for some time) got the contract to build the new “R-11”. This had a larger tank, roomier cab, and a special defect in the driveshaft where engaging the PTO would cause driveshaft failure, knocking a whole in the bottom of the tank. If my memory is right here, Volvo and International also made versions of the R-11.
Thank you for this information. It makes so much sense, especially as federally owned equipment is often passed down free to local governmental users like this.
I assumed the Dodge had a diesel, but its two low exhaust pipes are like those typically seen on a gas V8. So that part is a bit of a mystery still.
CONDEC also fabricated ribbon bridges for the Army and also made the M561 Gama Goat 1 1/4T truck. Their expertise was aluminum fabrication and welding. Both the bridge and truck were aluminum.
If it is powered by a Cummins 555 it would have 2 rather small exhaust pipes. I noticed it has a Donaldson type air cleaner on the right side of the hood, that would be more indicative of diesel power.
The Mack could well have a 3208 Caterpillar engine.
Mack used them in the DM-400 series, model DM-492S.
Hard to distinguish between a DM-400 that used the 3208 and Scania diesel engines (DM-487S) and the DM-600 series that used the Mack built Thermodyne and Maxidyne 672 cubic inch diesel engines without raising the hood for a look.
Appreciate the clarification on the Mack designation for the Chrysler 413 gas engine installation, Bob.
I suppose Mack offered them in all of the 400 series units at the time.
R, U, DM & MB models were offered in the 400 series at the time of the proposed merger as I recall.
On the Dodge, would you think the exhaust pipes used are 3″ diameter? Those are the smallest I recall seeing on a truck diesel installation.
Mack used single 4″ diameter exhaust pipes on most all of their models during that period until the ENDT-865 V8 Maxidyne of 1971 came from the factory with a 5″ single exhaust with a small sound resonator.
The 3″ dual exhaust pipes were used on Detroit Diesel 8V-71 Mack installations.
Never saw an EN-414 installed unfortunately but remember the big EN-707 Mack gasoline engines in L series fire trucks.
What a powerhouse they were!
We still run a 66 Fargo at our vfd in the Cariboo! My favorite truck to drive!
https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/58688-mack-r-410x-dump-truck/
Really appreciate the link, Bob.
Looks like a fine installation!
Diesels had pretty much taken over in SC by the mid 1960’s when the R, U & DM series were introduced.
The last gasoline powered Mack I remember going out of the dealership was an R-608F pumper for a local chemical plant’s on site fire station with an EN-707 engine in 1967.
All the Dodges I drove in the Air Force had Cummins engines, their exhaust was always at at the front bumper, always reminded me of a keg. Concern was heat/spark should not be to close to the jet fuel tank, likely left over worry from gas engines. Mack’s were the same way.