( My none too happy first son on my favorite truck )
If you read my previous post, and by now you surely know my tendencies for car-swapping, then you would know that a certain cupboard shaped brown van was overdue for a new owner. And as if by magic, the next love of my life appeared. Just imagine driving along (very slowly) in a vehicle you loathe, and coming across a vehicle you love sitting forlornly on the street. That is called opportunity! Or as it was called by its maker: a 1956 International R120 4×4 short bed pickup. Either way, it was destined to be mine.
There was a garage sale going on, and I stopped to see if anyone knew the owner of my next vehicle. The first person I asked said he was indeed the owner. We were off to a good start, and chatted about the truck. He told me that he used to drive it all the way to Seattle and back to Salem every week! Perhaps he was into abuse, but he seemed to be telling the truth. But recently, he had taken to fixing up an older L110, and the R120 had a cracked block at the water jacket that constantly seeped.
I mentioned that I might be selling my van and he asked what kind it was. When I told him his eyes lit up! Apparently, he had always wanted one (he was into abuse). I informed him that today was his lucky day. So after some test drives, we swapped titles. The International had a title that did not match the frame number but matched the body number. He said it had always been that way. Which explained some things: according to some sources International only ever made a very few prototypes of the R120 4×4 in 1955-56, waiting until 1957 and the new body style to fully launch their 4×4 truck in the form of the S120-130. Close enough for me though.
She was a sight to behold. A three quarter ton short bed with a Dana 60 rear axle with Trac-Loc, a Dana 44 HD front, a four speed transmission, a divorced Dana 18 transfer case (if I recall correctly), and an IHC Silver Diamond 220 straight six engine. It had lots of surface rust but no rust-through. So I set about painting it red with some house paint and a roller. I also gave it a tune up, which cost about ten bucks in parts.
The engine had a long crack just under the distributor from front to back. Someone had put JB weld on it, but it still seeped water all the time. So I put in some sealant stuff and it seeped a little less. But it was perfectly drivable as long as one took a can of water along.
The man I had traded said it got good gas mileage for what it was, and indeed it did. I got fifteen mpg. whether in town or off road. The trick to it was that the transmission had a very tall fourth gear. It worked great except in a forty-five mph zone, that speed was to high for third gear but to low for fourth gear. So given that it had a non-synchronized first gear, and the tall fourth gear, it meant that one really had only two usable gears in town. But the fat low torque curve of that old straight-six meant one could even start out in third gear and it would not buck a bit.
Speaking of gearing, the low speed transfer case ratio coupled with the granny first gear was the lowest stock gearing I have ever experienced. When in low-low, stepping on the gas simply made the engine race but yielded no perceptible speed increase. In fact, to make sure that it was actually moving I had to look out the window at a stationary object and wait to see if it remained stationary.
The Diamond series engines in those old International trucks were much like tractor engines, with a long stroke and smallish bore. And coupled with the short wheelbase, locking rear end and low gearing, it made like a mountain goat off road.
That truck was my daily driver for quite some time, and it was very reliable. So why did I ever get rid of it you might ask? Oh the agony of telling this!
As you know the cooling system was constantly in a state of recycling (leaking back to the road). So it would have been unsound in many ways to keep pouring antifreeze down it. Instead I ran a mixture of water and sealant most of the time. Now, Oregon doesn’t usually get very cold in the winter, or too hot in the summer, so most of the time this is not a big problem, most of the time….
( The fateful winter of ’98 in Dallas )
I had not been driving it very much, and we had moved to Dallas Oregon. That year it snowed pretty good for western Oregon. I didn’t really think much of it until it got uncommonly cold. One freezing night it suddenly occurred to me (an “oh shit” moment) that I was only running water in the cooling system. I ran outside with a flashlight and looked under the hood. Disaster! before me lay a cylinder head that had broken into several large chunks. All the freeze plugs in the block were popped. Over the next few days I sank into a deep depression.
But of course I could not let a blown motor stop that good old truck. We moved again in the summer to a farm outside of Silverton, Oregon, and dragged the International with us. Now that I had a decent shop area, I obtained another motor from an old IHC R130 tow truck. But it needed a rebuild. So I looked around for another running engine. I found a 1964 IHC Metro van with a BD240 for sale, and the man said the engine was good. It was sitting behind a barn full of rabbits. To make a long story short, man buys non running step van, man gets van running but van gets stuck, man get truck to pull it, it gets stuck in a creek of rabbit urine, man gets friend to un-stick truck with his truck, man gets van running enough to get out of field with boards and chains, man pulls it home with Dodge military ambulance (future story) just to find it has a rod knock once running it a bit. A lot of trouble just to find that out.
So as you can see all my heroic efforts were in vain. Apparently the fates had willed that I should never drive her again. So I found a buyer for it who was very exited about restoring it, and sold him all the parts to go with it. I also gave the Metro van to a man starting a plumbing business down the road. So there you have it, the story of my fantasy truck lived out, and then dashed against the cruel shoals of winter.
Great story about an unusual vehicle, went down very well with the morning tea. 🙂
First time I noticed that top pic (as your avatar) I momentarily mistook your son for a supercharger sticking out of the hood!
A very expensive supercharger
I also have continually mistaken the son for a supercharger. I had a 1940 that belonged to my late brother. Actually built in 1939. Long story short, I have a mechanically inclined (anyone better than I) nephew that lusted for it. I let him have it broken axle, frozen flathead 6, dryrotted tires and all. He seems to still like his uncle so guess he must be making satisfactory progress.
Ahh, yes. Water and freezing temperatures. This is an age-old method for cracking loose huge slabs of Indiana limestone, and it works just as well (or better) on cast iron. Particularly cast iron that is pre-scored with another crack.
What a fabulous truck. I hope that someone, somewhere, got the old girl up and running again.
You have to love the red housepaint. This reminds me of a friend who caught a big sale on some off-brand of spray paint and bought about 50 cans to paint his mail jeep. Harvest Gold. It was the ’70s. Nothing like body and paint work done in the driveway.
If I recall right, my ’50 L-170 has a final drive ration of something like 11:1 in 1st with the rear axle in “low.” It’s an 18,000lb. GVW truck, with a straight six of 89 dubious horsepower. It’s that low gearing that makes it all work.
Life moved at a slower pace in the 1950s, that’s for sure…
Freeze cracked engines happen all the time to boaters here in Oregon, it gets colder than most realize, thanks to the hoax known as global warming.
Yeah yeah, thanks for polluting.
And just what does polluting have to do with the hoax of Global Warming. CO2 is part of every organic process that uses oxygen in the world. The slight increase in CO2, but continued increase, over the last 15 years apparently has had no impact on warming. World wide temperature averages have DROPPED during that time. NASA just announced that their satellite research shows that there is apparently no reduction in heat night-time re-radiation. Valid research from glacier and tree ring data shows that CO2 increase FOLLOWS warming, does not precede or cause it. And on top of that, the data from East Anglia University, upon which ALL the THEORY of Global Warming has been based, have been shown to have intentionally manipulated the data to support government funding for research scientist’s making funding application to governments and the UN.
Great story about a great subject as usual, Micheal.
The front end sheet metal is R series but since the L, R, and S series shared the same Comfo-Vision cab and basic frame who knows what had been done to it in it’s past lives. The problem with IH’s is that often aren’t that many in the wrecking yard and since there is a lot of interchangeability the become a mishmash of different years. The fact that the serial number was on the door also leads to un-matching numbers. My 72 Traveltop was masquerading as a 75 when I bought it since apparently that was the grille they could find in the wrecking yard when it was damaged.
You are correct that 4wd didn’t show up officially until the S series of 55-6. So at this point its hard to say what you really had.
Edit: I should also add hear as mentioned in the graveyard series that at this time IH didn’t subscribe to the model year designation. They changed the letter series to denote the new model which may have started production at virtually any time in the calender year. Also it was customary for IH dealers of the era to originally title them as the year sold. Because they were built more to order with many more mechanical options than lesser trucks from the big three the LST or Line Set Ticket was the way to obtain parts not going in and saying I have a 19xx S1x0. Much the way you do with MD & HD trucks today, since everything is computerized today they all only want one piece of data the last X digits of the VIN.
The transfer case should have been a New Process 202, the Dana 18 was a married unit used in Scouts and Jeeps.
The rear end was likely one of the IH produced units the Dana 60 didn’t become the common rear in the 3/4 tons until the D-series came along, though they were used sporadically before that.
Thanks, I like to hear that, good info. It was a Dana T case not sure which but: http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/model_18.htm says it could have been an 18. The rear end may have been an Eaton. I used to have the factory manuals for all IHC light to medium trucks 40’s – 70’s, gave then away after my last IHC.
The Dana 18, 20 and 300, were never used in a divorced mount set up from the factory. Novak makes an adapter to turn D18/20 into divorced mount. http://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/kit_320.htm IH used the Dana 18 and then later the Dana 20 and 300 in the Scouts only. The full-size light line 2sp transfer cases were New Process. Some of the earlist trucks had the 201 then the 202 was the standard until the D-series trucks came along and they switched to the 205.
Hmm, don’t remember it being an NP, but could be wrong.
My father had the identical truck, but alas it was long enough ago that I don’t remember if it was titled as a 56 or 57. It was sold in the auction of his excavating business in 1974 or so, and I believe it went to Alaska.
I worked for an I-H tractor dealer in Seattle for a few months in 1962, and drove yet another identical truck to the I-H truck dealer in Tacoma and picked up the new replacement rig, identical except for the newer sheet metal. Same big heavy six, same 4-speed granny box. That truck, brand new, was already a clunk. It would probably climb anything the tires would stick to though.
My father also had a 1949 KB-11 tractor truck that we used to pull the lowboy; it had the same kind of a minor crack in the block. We ran it that way for years and it was still functional when Pop sold it in the early 70’s or so. We weren’t so lucky with one of the TD-18 bulldozers. A sudden snap of cold weather came, Pop rushed to the job to drain the radiator, and left the radiator cap on the operator’s seat. But in the morning the dumb b_____d just put the cap back on the radiator, fired up the dozer, and went to work. Well, for a little while. He’d been a pretty decent cat-skinner, and we almost hated to lose him.
Awesome truck but Im prejudiced I have seen a R series 4×4 but it was built by the owner after a tree meets truck incident and he had a R cab lying around to use for panels aparently it just bolted up There was a mint running AR110 in Cygnet Tasmania where I lived 2wd but there was no prizing it away from its owner hed had it many years like you I regret selling my old Inter and it seems other just dont want the pain that goes with a sale.
Was that the winter of 1990-1991? That was a brutally cold year in Victoria, British Columbia, Soviet Canuckistan, which is really not far from Oregon at all.
Sold a load of winter tires, did quite a few heater cores and not a few cracked blocks that year.
it was 98′ just a local snap I think
That explains it. I spent that year in Seoul, Korea and it was FREEZING in the winter!
Lots of farmers in southern Manitoba drove these well into the 70’s. If you could keep the motor running, they were indestructible, and with the 4 speed stump puller, very handy on the farm.
The engine is dead simple. A great design, except for the old fashioned casting methods employed.
I rebuilt my diamond 220 os 37 Chevy rings with extra oil ring new brgs valve job ran great never took the block out just stripped it in situ had the pistons welded and new grooves turned at work it was a good old beast would pull anything it was chained to a rea;l good shadetree motor simple and pretty near bullet proof
I’ve owned five of these damn things.
Originally, an R110, about 30 years ago. Overhauled the engine and built a “Rolling Home” style camper on the back. One night, pitch black, the critical wire in the primitive “electrical system” sheared and all the lights went out, sending me off into the boondocks. I was able to salvage the camper.
Then there was the R100 purchased “just for parts”. My evil twin, however, noticed there was some potential. Ended up ‘restoring’ that one and selling it to a friend.
Then an L130 “just for parts”. I should have known better by now, but the evil twin spoke again. I wasted a hell of a LOT of time with that one.
Then an R130 dump. Maybe the two 130s would make a dandy all purpose rig, my evil twin said in a low voice. Sounded pretty good at the time.
Finally, a KB1. Decent body, no drive train. That shouldn’t involve much work at all, said my evil twin. When I finally got rid of it there was still no drive train.
Ten years ago I finally found a buyer for the last remaining example of this extended folly, that old L130. The buyer towed it away with his 4 cylinder Toyota long wheelbase, dual rear wheel box truck (with TWO 55 gallon drums of used antifreeze inside) 25 miles to home. That poor Toyota never did run right after that and the L130 ended up sharing lawn ornament duty with a trio of garden gnomes.
“…stepping on the gas simply made the engine race but yielded no perceptible speed increase. In fact, to make sure that it was actually moving I had to look out the window at a stationary object and wait to see if it remained stationary.” Love your writing, in this post and your previous ones, but that line has to be the funniest thing I’ve read in ages! Excellent!
Thanks, and it was true, that’s the funny part.
Yes, truly a rig one wishes they never sold… I am the “friend” spoken of digging out the Metro in the river of rabbit feces. Believe me, Mike’s rendition of that event needs no embellishment. Did he mention it rained like hell that day?? I’m not sure you have fully paid your debt on that one, Mike. Maybe another cigar.
A cheap one “Bill”, remember the Travellete???
great story. i sympathize with the winter freezing episode. in college, one of my roommates had an early ’70 beater cutlass in burnt orange with a small v8. helluva car. rust all over, ripped upholstery, no brakes to speak of and the ignition key was a flathead screwdriver on the front seat. but it would still cruise effortlessly on the mass pike at 80 mph. we used construction paper the size and of a registration sticker in the window to fool the cops into thinking it was inspected while driving and parked on campus where the townie police didn’t go. no one maintained it worth a damn just topping it off the radiator with water to save the cost of antifreeze. sure enough, it freezes up in november and is frozen solid thru the whole massachusetts winter. spring comes, we give it a jump and it fires right up. it had so little water in the radiator that the ice just expanded into the air space. for all i know that thing is still plying the roads of new england. try and do that in a toyota!
Ah, yes…water and cold weather. And a perpetually-empty wallet; and a head too full of the cares of the day. It’s the saga of the poor man and his car.
Lost a 1964 Ford Galaxie that way…four-door sedan. Nice car, but Texas rough. Bought it in Houston and was broke for the purchase. It was a cold winter; freezing nights; and not having the six dollars for antifreeze, I took to dumping the radiator every night.
Unbeknown to me, the block didn’t completely empty unless the water pump was removed. Broken block; $300 purchase of the car wasted for want of a couple gallons of Prestone. The age-old story of a man too poor even for his poor-man’s car.
New block 300 dollars, lessons learned, priceless
I just bought a 1956 S-120 4×4 with a factory flatbed on her. this truck just came from the original owner who decided to part with her due to lack of use. I am happy to have her as it is also the year I was born, hence what I was looking for. drove her 500 miles home without a hitch!!! great old, rust free truck. hope to do a minor restore as she is nearly a true survivor. thanks for allowing me to post. IHC guy in Montana
Wow I saw a guy hauling one just like that home on a trailer a few months back. He probably wouldn’t dare to drive his all the way home. I hear he has health problems.
you are half right, drove it from WA to Montana the first leg, then put her on a trailer for the ride from Eureka to Billings. as far as my health issues, they are none of your business!!!
(wouldn’t be afraid to driver her anywhere)
Just purchased a 1957 S120 . I realize its a 6 lug but Looking to upgrade the front to a disc brake system with downer GM calipers and rotors . Any help is greatly appreciated Randy
working on 1957 s 120 hope to have it on the road this summer , looking for A complet heater for the truck if anyone comes across one let me know Karl .
I have owned my 1957 S-120 for 18 years. It runs but I have never gotten her to the point where I feel comfortable leaving my town of Alpine, Wyoming with her. Diamond 220 inline 6 and factory 4-wheel drive. It’s previous life was spent on a USFS outpost built near North Pole, Alaska. She was used to plow the runway, spread sand and gravel and had two huge red lights that were used to locate the runway at night. It is literally 100% complete and original. Only modifications were made to bumpers when it was brand new. I even found notes on maintenance intervals and dates.
as it looked the day I got it.