Mystery Yard-Truck Makes Us Imagine Strangest Hot-Rod Ever
We don't know what it is, but we know we like it.
Tanshanomi sent these photos in of a yard-slug he found quite some time ago. I’ll admit, I’m not entirely sure what it is.
And you know what, I’ve just decided I don’t care. It could be a de-bodied overhead crane, or the remnants of a combine harvester, or just a bunch of pieces cobbled together. No matter, whatever it is, and however it was put together, it would make one hell of a weird hot-rod. Tanshanomi imagines “a mad cool hotrod in the tall-and-short Little Red Wagon tradition, with a wooden stake bed, super-wide single rear tires, a leaned-on engine, candy apple red lacquer and chrome wheels.”
We say “yes”. What say you? How would this best be converted to a project?
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I will take a stab at it. Two square blocks of downtown SLC have been under construction for 2 years now. Seems the Mormons wanted to invest 8 billion (yes with a B) on a complete makeover of the area adjacent to the temple. This includes a giant open air mall and several high-rise office/apartment buildings. I see trucks like this all the time, albeit a lot newer. The ones I see haul the steel beams from the trainyard several blocks away and are way more manuverable than your standard big rig, getting down narrow streets and alleys with ease.
That said, I would chop, lower, lengthen and drop a Merlin behind the cab and add a big-ass wing. Patina stays.
It looks as though it could have been an airplane tug at some point. I would have to guess that if it was still being used, it is probably just a runabout to move trailers and whatnot around a rather large trucking facility. as far as rat rod stuff goes, I would find an old fat fender Ford truck cab, or perhaps…a Divco van body…Hmmm…
Not an airport/airplane tug, it has the wrong kind of hitch. You are right, it is a yard truck, like the kind used a a freight yard or a plant to move trailers around, usually doesn't even go on the highway. Judging by the carbureted engine and the valve covers, it is early 1980s at the newest.
Definitely a yard-dog – no highway miles on this donkey. A buddy's been in the trucking business longer than I've been alive, and he says once these things are over 2 years old, they all tend to look the same, like they've been rode hard and put away wet.
Economics and/or lack of space is the mother of these things. I used to see them around the factories near my old house in Chicago all the time. They're geared low and extremely maneuverable, so they're not just useful in large yards, but also in tightly-woven old-school industrial parks with narrow roads and loading docks built back when 30' trailers were unheard of. But in all those years I don't think I *ever* saw one out in normal traffic, other than having to cross the street or in a quick jaunt from one building to another nearby.
Speaking of the old days, there were similar equivalents back then too. Even for railroads. The Port of Baltimore had tracks laid in the street, even through residential areas. Obviously steam locomotives were not welcome there, so the B&O Railroad had special dock tractors (modified semi-cabs) with railroad couplers in place of a hitch, to move freight cars down to the docks. These were not really street legal, but a better neighbor than a steam engine.
I'm not completely sure, but I think the nearby Van Nuys Anheuser-Busch brewery uses tug tractors similar to these to shuffle big-rig trailers around the facility, involving nothing more than a short block of public road travel at most.. Graverobber or Jonny Lieberman may be able to confirm or refute my observation.
Yup, It's a yard-goat (or spotter). There's a lever under the seat that allows it to swivel 180 degrees so you can go out the back-door and hook up the air-line(s) to release the trailers parking brake, and the fifth-wheel raises up so you don't have to get out and raise the trailers landing gear. All the ones I knew only had 2-speeds (slow, and even slower) in forward and reverse, but I've heard stories of guys that use them all day replacing the 110 Cummins with a 400 and having wheelie contests at high-speed. Truck yards are great places for hearing stories.
The newer "Goats" or "shunt trucks" have six speed transmissions with generally only 160-220HP under the hood, or seat. Genarally you don't leave the truck yard because the added height of the trailer may result in a traffic light or powerline being taken out.
<http://www.arrowtruck.com/invImages/001_157344/im…
I've seen similar trucks moving around loads of barley at the Coors brewery here in Golden.
Personally, I'm OK with the philosophy of trying to make hotrods out of oddball vehicles. Hemi powered meter-maid-mobile, anyone?
No on the hot rod part. Old and steel doesn't equate hotrod potential.
But I love the house-pipe fittings on the heater lines. Good ol' riggin'
Let us leave pretty women to men of no imagination. — Marcel Proust
That thing is so cool. It looks like someone took the frame of a highway tractor, bolted the cab off a Massy combine or self-propelled swather to it then stuffed a truck engine in it and said "That'll work for ya right?".
I managed to find one very similar to this… it's an Ottawa Commando yard truck (see link).
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blo…
I just knew somebody here would be able to identify it…
Yup. I found a 1989 Ottawa that looks an awful lot like it… I'm guessing it's from the late 70's or early 80's. This picture is the '89.
http://www.atthe.com/imgcache/5e0f2459c1e9aa1d63f…
So this is where everybody went!
Hey, look who showed up! Pull up a chair, brother!
Yay!
and we love it here!!
I used to drive a yard truck, we called ourselves yard dogs. The yard truck we had had only rear brakes, it was great fun in the winter.
Can it be a "shooting brake" if there's only two doors total? And are there any where the back opens like a door, rather than a hatch? Or is that called something different altogether?
I try to find photo's of an Autocar halfcab. Might be used as a Yard-mule aswelle. The only thing I found was one with a concrete mixer. Can anyone help me??
Hessel