Since we have a large and productive garden, we rarely make it down to the Farmer’s Market downtown. But we were in the neighborhood and Stephanie wanted to check on some fall starts, so we dropped by. No luck on the starts, but there was this very handsome GMC Advanced Design truck, so it wasn’t totally wasted. These are my favorite trucks of all time, especially so the GMC versions with their bigger and stronger sixes (compared to the Chevy versions). And since we’ve been a bit rough on GM lately, let’s acknowledge that the Advance Design trucks have already earned our GM’s Greatest Hits designation.
I haven’t heard of this particular farm before, but I like their choice of truck, as well as their name and logo.
This truck has had a nice restoration. Like that upholstery; looks tough and vintage, although I don’t think it’s historically correct. Or how would I know, since they all inevitably have that Indian-blanket seat cover. Very nice.
I’m not exactly sure of the year of this truck, since the changes were minimal. The standard engine in these is the 228 CID GMC six, but the larger members of the same family make a great upgrade. The 270 and 302 inch versions are highly desirable, real torque monsters.
There is something almost universally appealing about trucks of this era. Agreed that these GMC/Chevy trucks had as much appeal of any of them, likely more.
I will also agree at the appeal of the Organic Redneck. Something for everyone. 🙂
Terrific trucks. I had a co-worker who owned a ’49 GMC 1/2 ton with the 228 six. Having ridden it in a time or two, it is truly amazing for its ruggedness and simplicity – what a pickup should be.
NO thats a real truck, a pickup is a ute a light duty device this thing could actually WORK
Beautiful truck, glad to see it still in use and well cared for.
The lack of vent windows indicates that the truck is a 1950 or earlier. The metal borders on the tops of the door windows went away then too iirc.
Pop had a 1955 GMC dump truck that was a great rig. It had really low mileage and Alaska plates when he bought it in 1958. It turned out to need the engine rebuilt, and the thought of the mechanic was that the truck had been used on a winter job where it had to be left running 24-7 in order to be available for use, thus accumulating a great many engine hours in a short period of time.
It wasn’t under-tired like a lot of dump trucks we saw – it had 10.00×22 tires. It had an electric fuel pump, so we’d turn the key on, wait for it to quit pumping, then start the engine. The instrument panel was completely different from the Chevy and GMC pickup panels.
I had a couple of interesting experiences with it – once the gas cap got lost, so I cut a beer can and stuck the end onto the filler pipe. The truck ran out of gas on the way home, with plenty still in the tank, and it took me a little while to figure out that the can was too tight on the filler neck.
There was one rainy-day job where we were trying to move topsoil from one place to another in a new subdivision. After the first load the loader guy grumped at me that I’d brought the truck back with the dump box still half full, so the next load I got out and spent about 15 minutes emptying it out with a shovel. We both decided that not only was this not cost-effective but we ran the risk of tipping the truck over backward if the dirt wouldn’t come out of the bed by itself, and suspended work for the day. Fun times, fun times….
Read the title as “Redneck Rutger Hauer”…
Between the tube radio hum and the mechanical fresh air venting system, I can almost feel and hear this in operation. Insert obligatory first-gear grind and the soundtrack is complete. But only under load, as granny first was unnecessary when empty. Nice catch of a great old truck.
Beautiful old truck its been done up obviously and is in semi retirement only hauling light loads now, the resemblance to the Bedfords we got is remarkable its easy to see where the British designers got their ideas from right down to the engine.
A great old truck. The older I get, the more I love these old trucks.