Early 20th Century Truck Testing

The pace of truck design and the fierce competition in the second decade of the century did not allow design testing before model release as we know it today. New ideas were literally tested on the road.

Truck driving called for nerves of steel and blood that could run hot or cold, depending on the season. Not much protection with only a roof for a cab. If the weather became too severe, the driver would many times get out and get under the truck for protection. It was common to have a driver suffer from frost bite in the winter, drenching rain in the spring, sunburn in the summer and wind blown in the fall.

The elements were not the only thing truck drivers had to put up with. Creature comforts were not designed into early trucks. Most had a bench seat without padding, suspensions were very stiff and unyielding if they existed at all. Truck drivers would bounce around like a cork in the fish pond most of the trip. The only padded seat they encountered would be in the local tavern after a hard day.

Truck builders of the time, increasingly turned to public demonstrations of their truck's rugged dependability in the rush to better their chances to gain new customers. Instead of race track , as car builders did, they used freight runs between cities to show there superiority. With the lack of a highway system, the winner at best depended on a lot of good luck.

The first transcontinental trip recorded, was a Saurer Motor Co. (import from Switzerland built in their American factory). Part of their sales campaign was to drive west to San Francisco and return. It took more than a year. The cargo was a load of timbers, not for delivery, but to build bridges and use to cross soft terrain. As an example, the trek across New Mexico took more than a month. After reaching the West Coast, they shipped the truck back to Colorado and drove it to New York via Chicago. It had logged over 5000 miles.

In 1916 GMC set out to cross the country in both directions in a truck loaded with 1 and 1/2 tons of Carnation evaporated milk. Driver William Warwick and his wife were under solemn oath to except no help along the way. They would do the needed repairs and free the truck when mired down without assistance of any kind. The truck was washed off the roadway in Colorado by a sudden rain storm, fell through the deck of a ferry boat in Illinois and mired to the axles in about every other state along the way.

In spite of the many problems along the way, the trip was completed in 68 days. Of that, 31 days of actual travel on the road and the rest were making repairs and resting. In trucker language, those days were called layovers because the driver was not at home.

Many of these trips were going on all over the country at the time, with the industry struggling to find it's way to acceptance by the economy of the time. Their competition being government subsidized railroads, and stubborn business men who did not believe the "horseless carriage" would ever replace the horse. Truck Safely out There.

More Early Trucks

The early history of companies that are still in business today provide interesting stories. The International Harvester's first truck was built in 1907. It looked like a farm wagon in search of a horse. With it's high hard rubber wheels, it was designed for dirt rutted roads in the rural areas to serve the farmers. It was widely said that farmers bought them and displayed them in their yards as a warning to horses that they could be replaced.

The company had been formed by two farm machinery manufacturers, McCormick and Deering, to serve the farmers of that era. It was named the Auto Wagon and sold well in the market place.

The GMC nameplate first emerged on the highways in 1912. It was the result of a joint venture between the Rapid Motor Co. and the Reliance Motor Co., both of central Michigan. They both staged endurance runs with trucks between Detroit and Chicago with two or three ton loads. These trips took as long as thirty three hours and were very hard on truck drivers of the day. After all, teamsters driving horses braved all kinds of weather so why should truck drivers have it different.

Another early entry into trucking is FWD, the Four Wheel Drive Auto Co. A blacksmith named Otto Zachow first built a passenger car that drove through both front and rear wheels. It performed well on Wisconsin's unpaved muddy roads. He persuaded his well-to-do brother-in-law to back him in building a three ton four wheel drive truck, powered by a four cylinder fifty six horse power gasoline engine.

This rugged truck quickly caught the eye of the U. S. Army. Based on their own tests, they ordered thirty eight Model Bs for General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing's Mexican campaign against Poncho Villa, permanently establishing FWD as a builder of tough, special-purpose vehicles.

It is well known that the advent of the trucking industry, with it's rugged drivers, who were in the truck, in front of the truck cranking the engine, along side of the truck repairing tires, chain drives or anything else that went wrong, changed the eating habits of Americans. Food distribution by trucks changed everything.
Truck Safely out There.

The First Commercial Truck

America's first commercial vehicle was built by the Winton Bicycle Co. The first model was powered by a two-cylinder, 10 horse power automobile engine which had set a 33 mile per hour speed record around a horse race track in Cleveland. Alexander Winton then reincorporated his Wnton Bicycle Co. into the Winton Motor Carriage Co.
About the same time, he is reported to have passed up a chance to hire a young Detroit mechanic -- a fellow by the name of Henry Ford.
The first truck looked like a horse drawn delivery wagon -- without a horse. It was based on Winton's two cylinder auto chassis and came with wire spoke wheels, pneumatic tires and tiller steering. A Buffalo, NY medical supply company reportedly ordered 100 of the Winton wagons to give the company a good start in the business. It is not recorded how many were built or delivered.
By 1905 Winton developed a four cylinder engine and offered a truck considerably ahead of it's time, with a compressed air starter, shaft drive, wheel steering and planetary transmission.
Winton is also credited with creating the first automobile transport trailer, hitched to a car and loaded another car on the trailer.
The 5th wheel principle emerged as early as 1909 in Springfield, MA, where a Knox truck was fitted with a turntable. It was mounted on semi elliptic springs attached to the tractor's rear axle.
Despite these early innovations, the gasoline powered trucks were no an instant success. At the turn of the century, gasoline temporarily took a back seat to steam power, thanks to Clevelanders Windsor, Walter and Rollin White.
To put it bluntly, the gasoline powered truck had to earn it's place in the industry. Truck Safely out There.

Trucking--The Very Beginning

How many truckers today remember names such as Hays, Autocar, Winton, Knox and White. These early gasoline powered trucks had a lot of competition from then popular electric powered Windsor, Walter and Rollin White. The electrics were good for pickup and delivery in the bustling cities of that time because of their quiet operating, but were limited by the time between battery charges. Steam power for trucks was never a viable source of energy. The White Brothers developed a flash boiler that could build a head of steam in seconds and became famous powering their "Whistling Billy" race car. It set an early record for a mile at 74 miles per hour in 48.3 seconds. They dropped steam for gasoline in 1910.

Just think about hard rubber tired wheels, chain drives, mechanical brakes and the evolution of all the equipment needed to make trucks dependable and economically acceptable. One of the biggest challenges turned out to be a highway system. Roads were mainly wagon trails anywhere away from a city and delivery between cities became a real challenge. Whistle stop trains were the order of the day and the trucking industry would have to prove themselves.

Looking back to the good old days makes a person wonder how they did it. Of course good old American ingenuity and strong backed workers would find a way. In the early 1900's, there were 461 truck builders who filled the roads with over 100,000 commercial vehicles. Some of the imaginative names were Meserve, Pak-age-car, Gasmobile and Famous.

With numbers like this, the horseless carriage put dobbin to pasture. Business owners were slow to replace their hay burners, but once they did the never looked back. Trucks and the trucking industry were here to stay. Truck Safely out There.

Cabbage Hill

Most truckers have a memory of the first time I did this or that. I'm sure most of those experiences include the first time they went down a famous mountain grade. There are many out in the truckers world.

I will never forget my own encounter with "Cabbage Hill", formerly known as "Dead Man's Pass". In fact the rest area at the summit is still called Dead Man's Pass. The original roadway is still there and was used as a detour during the construction of the present freeway hill. It is a narrow two lane road with some tight twenty mile per hour turns and six to seven per cent grades. A road that demands respect.

Getting back to my memorable ride down Cabbage Hill. The road back then was a two and three lane highway with no run out ramps. My rig was a single drive gas burner International, pulling a double trailer set. That is a straight trailer with a pull trailer, no converter dolly. I was loaded with wheat to 80,000 pounds. The rule with a rig like that was slow upgrade and slow, slow down grade.

Being a safety minded driver, I stopped at the brake safety check area to check the brake adjustment, (no self adjusters back then), before starting off the mountain. I left the transmission in second and under gear and started off the hill. Everything went well until just before the last sharp switchback when all hell broke loose.

The low air warning bell went off, the red flag dropped into my windshield and panic set in. With the load I was pulling, the emergency brake system lasted about half a mile. With smoke belching from all the wheels, I began to roll very fast and was busy picking up gears to keep the engine from over speeding and destroying itself.

I made the last turn and looked on down the hill for traffic. Luck was with me, the road was clear and I had to pull the transmission out of gear to save the engine. The next obstacle was the weigh station at bottom of the hill. There was no way for me to pull into it and stop with the speed and no brakes. Then I saw the weighmaster out next to the road flagging me on by. He wanted no part of my problem.

Now all I had to do was let it roll until it stopped which was clear to the Pendleton drive in theater. I climbed out of the cab, shaking all over and giving thanks for the safe ride. The belt had broken on the air compressor causing the brake failure. You can bet I really inspected that belt from that day on. In fact, pretrip inspections became a really good habit.

A rule I learned early on with trucks, "If you see something that needs attention, stop what you are doing and take care of now!", or it will be back to bite you. Truck Safely out There.

Better Days

Now that I am a trucker, things get better with time and experience. I remember one of the early trips took me to Center, Colorado.
After loading a roof system at the Truss Joist factory in Boise, I was routed through Utah again. This took me through Salt Lake City, Spanish Fork and over Soldier's Summit to travel via Moab, Utah and Cortez, Colorado. The thing I was not aware of was Wolf Creek Pass. As I headed East out of Pagosa Springs, it looked like I was headed into a box canyon.
The further I went the more it looked like there was no way over the mountain from where I was. The highway, if you could call it that, suddenly began a series of switch backs and twenty mile an hour turns and a seven or eight percent grade. The old B61 Mack I was herding had me down to second and under in the Tri-plex transmission. We are traveling at a whopping ten miles per hour.
After about eight miles of up grade we finally made the summit and looked at a sign warning truckers of six miles of seven per cent down grade ahead. No Jake Brake on a Thermodyne Mack Engine, so second and over was a pretty good gear selection for down the mountain, after stopping for a brake adjustment, (no self adjusting slack adjusters back then).
Leaving the summit, I soon found out I needed to gear down to slow the truck and save my brakes from burning. Down through the tunnel and in the valley, through Del Norte and on to Center we went. It went a little better than Orville "Hauli'n Chickens" (from the song "Wolf Creek Pass"). He was headed West and had the tunnel on the wrong side of the mountain.
This adventure ended with unloading at the new high school gym in Center and I was sent back to Boise empty. This freight was based on round trip rate per mile. It would be good to be home for the week end.
Remember to Truck Safely out There.

First Solo Trip

Wow!! On the road with my first solo OTR assignment makes me feel I have made it. Boy, was I wrong. The things that followed were world class jitters generating.
My truck was an International single drive axle gas rig pulling a single axle 35' trailer fitted with a 10' extension making it 45'. I loaded building roof trusses going to Colorado. Loaded, pretipped and ready I rolled out of Boise. The roads were not freeways, so down through Boise city, through downtown Mountain Home and the first hurdle. That was the King Hill weigh station. Red light, the signal to bring in your papers. After confronting the Weighmaster and passing with flying colors, I am off down the road.
After a lunch stop at Bliss, I rolled on without a problem to the next Weigh Station at Cotterel, Idaho. No problems here so on to Utah. The first stop there was the old weigh station at Perry on "fruit row", past Brigham City. Red light again and bring your papers and log book into the station. Here I learned what truck registration was all about. I needed a trip permit, special fuel permit, authority letter and anything else they could or couldn't find in the registration book. After buying the permits (later found out I didn't need a special fuel permit for gas), I headed for Spanish Fork, Utah.
Time to take a break, which should mean get a room for the night because I am driving a day cab truck. Back in those days we were expected to carry a bed role and make out the best we could. A room would come out of your wages, so curl up on the seat (lucky it was a bench).
Next day on to Grand Junction, and my first delivery, which came off without a hitch. After unload and refuel, myself and the truck, I headed East to Evergreen, Colorado. That meant over Loveland Pass, (The long bathroom tunnel was not there) over the Continental Divide, a route I had not been on. The experience was one of many to come, but I made it and delivered on time with no more problems.
So much for trip one as a professional truck driver. I was feeling pretty good about myself. That feeling would be short lived, but sure felt good right now.
That's it for now, more to come later. Truck Safely out There.