Old trucks for hauling

Anyone here use old trucks to haul tractors? I mean like 1940,50,60's era trucks.
I like to get something with a flat bed plus the ability to tow a trailer. Problem is that old grain trucks and such only had 100 or so HP. Might look cool, but would be dog slow.

So that might bump me up to a Old Road tractor and trailer? I saw a '62 Mack single axle with a 24' trailer for $12k.

I only need something to haul 9-10,000 lbs of small antique tractors.
 
How about an old truck with modern small diesel
repower? that would be cool.Several years ago a
friend installed a 6.2 chevy diesel in a 55 chevy 1
ton.50 mph was top speed,but man did that thing
pull,pass all the new trucks up the mountain passes
 
the thing on old trucks is not hp so much its their gearing, in order for 100hp to pull the load the truck was designed for the final gearing has to be relitivly low, limiting top end to around 50mph, which was fine in the 40's and 50's as most secondary roads as well as a lot of primary roads had a 45 mph speed limit, i have a old section of such a hiway next to me which is still used and 45 was all you can do and stay in the lane on the narrow twisting road, now the hiways have vastly improved and at 45 you would be passed by anything bigger than a moped, the way to fix the problem and maintain the cool look of the 30's thru the '60's ers trucks would be to swap in a modern rear end, with taller gears, but for that to work you will need to provide more power to pull those gears with a load on the truck, a crate motor ie 350 chevy or a first gen cummings would be even better , the other option is to use back roads and secondary hiways and just go slower, as the old trucks were perfectly cabable of moving the load, they just took some time to do it
 
I have a 1979 dodge Powerwagon. It's got a built 360 in it and
has plenty of power and I've towed 18,000 with it, actually
didn't do to bad for having a 3 speed, but its got the 727
torqueflite transmission, and I have stuck a lot of money in the
motor, still gotta repaint it. Then I plan on finding a 1974
Powerwagon with a 440 and making the 440 really wild. You
can get a 440 to have 700hp with some tuning and aftermarket
parts.
 
Just repower one with a modern mechanical diesel.
Don't plan on getting your money back out of it.
Just do it for your own personal reasons and enjoy
it.

Casey in SD
 
here ya go
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What's it in. Sure it spendy if its four sale. my 360 looks very similar, I changed cams, ground crank, pit on a eldebrock high rise four barrel carb, long tube headers, electric fan, and some other mods. summitracing.com helped me out alot. and made everything chrome I could buy, and then put in a polished aluminum radiator. Now I gotta fix the outside to be pretty.
 
This is exactly what I've been trying to get
together too!!! Thought of all the ideas below, but
can't decide. Will start with a 30's or 40's ford
tho.
 
I have a small fleet of gmc 9500's 1972 gmc 20 foot grove rollback body haul tractors every day with it. and two road tractors 1969 and 1974
 
I have a 1964 IH Emeryville cabover and a 40' dropdeck trailer to haul my toys with. has a 250 Cummins and had a 10 speed when I got it. putting a 13 speed in it this winter.
Didn't take it down just to put the 13 speed in, it needed a clutch so I figured it was a good time to upgrade transmission.
 
My uncle rebuilt this 1950 Ford F-4 several years ago to use on the farm. Grand paw bought the truck in 1966 then dad bought it from him in 73 then my uncle bought it from dad in 83. He took it down to the frame and rebuilt everything. This was the first truck I ever drove, Flat head V8 and a double clutchin 4 speed. Uncle Bill drives it to shows and sometimes to the hay field to pull a wagon home. It still aint hardly broke in yet with 48,000 miles on it. Bandit
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I have seen a couple B model Mack cabs as well as some others sitting on late model, heavy pick-up truck chassis. That gives you the best of both worlds.
 
I have a '48 ford f6 that I redid and use on the farm. It can still haul a load, I have had 200 bushels of corn on it many times. But it is very slow, even slower loaded, and the brakes would not be safe if it could move faster. I like the truck, but to run highway speeds with a load you would need to basically put that cab on a modern truck frame.
Josh
 
Someday when I find just the right old truck cab I will drop it onto a wrecked late model diesel frame and running gear. Get all the modern conveniences like power brakes/steering, A/C, disc brakes, good seats, etc but the classic styling.
 
(quoted from post at 19:19:12 01/07/14) I have a small fleet of gmc 9500's 1972 gmc 20 foot grove rollback body haul tractors every day with it. and two road tractors 1969 and 1974

Are any of them long nose? Those look sharp. I used to meet them on the highway, they came out of Quebec.
 
yes showcrop i have 5 longnose's i only run one. I i did it right here is a picture of my 69 longnose when i was painting it. and on of my 72 rollback.
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Larry the pulling sled guy has a Early 50's I think
Cab over Ford. He used a International school bus
frame and 466 turbo diesel. Really nice. So
everything underneath is modern, with a Cool cab.
and a long roll-off bed. and winch.
 
The beauty of working with a truck, in most cases, is that you have more room to work and modify. Around here it is not uncommon to take an older truck body and mount it on something like an F-350 chassis with engine and running gear, or the make of your choice.Of course, I realize that for your purpose, you would likely need something larger, but it's not that much difference. A few years ago I had to take the company truck to a little shop out on the RFD for some work. The man who ran the shop had taken a 40s something Chevrolet COE body and mounted it on a later Chevy truck chassis with a rollback bed. Had, IIRC, a 327ci engine from a Corvette for power. Looked like a factory job and I later saw it at a car show hauling an old Chevy pickup.
 
saw this style truck in the robot boxing movie " Real Steel " International Harvester sightliner. Bill
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one im in the middle of right now, i just shot the paint yesterday a 1957 chevy which had been sitting inthe same spot since the early '70's the cool thing is this truck belongs to one of my friends, who bought it brand new in 1957, he still owns it today at age 86, and wants to take it down the road a few more times , the running gear is 100% original inline 6, 4 speed, rear is a single speed, it was parked back when pickup trucks got strong enough to pull a trailer full of 12 head of cattle faster than this ol girl could run with 6 in its bed
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I tried to pick up a older International single axle dump truck with some big ol gas job in it. I would've put a 12 valve cummins in it but....they gave it away. Someday I want to do that.
 
There seem to be more classic cab over semis pulling bullracks.The new trucks with all their computer and pollution technology seem to have more problems than the older trucks of 20 years ago.Kinda like classic cars you look at the old ones and the new ones look about the same.Nothing looks nicer than a vintage tractor pulled by a matching older truck.
 
these are a very rare body style today for some reason they didnt sell many, lol i wonder how todays female drivers would have liked driving one of these back in the day
 
they sure are, and with total production of only 261 trucks, today the bighorn dodge is one of the most sought after [ and expensive] road tractors by collectors today , and a few folks still use them
 
(quoted from post at 21:19:12 01/07/14) I have a small fleet of gmc 9500's 1972 gmc 20 foot grove rollback body haul tractors every day with it. and two road tractors 1969 and 1974

Love the looks of a long nose 9500. 318 and 13 spd makes sweet music.
 
I have a '52 Diamond T 420 5 ton capacity straight truck ready as my next project. It's going to be a stretched single axle road tractor with a 5.9 cummins and either 10 or 13 speed Eaton. I may even air ride it.
 
(quoted from post at 16:09:51 03/09/14) I have a '52 Diamond T 420 5 ton capacity straight truck ready as my next project. It's going to be a stretched single axle road tractor with a 5.9 cummins and either 10 or 13 speed Eaton. I may even air ride it.

post pics, I've seen Diamond Ts with 4BT swaps but never an ISB. awesome project.
 

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