A little while back I showed you a FWD car carrier with stylistic elements by Brooks Stevens that was rather unusual. Its FWD and other elements were specifically designed to create a car carrier capable of hauling five cars in a number of Midwest states that had very restrictive maximum length regulations. It wasn’t the only one. Here’s another approach, and a pretty wild one at that. It’s the prototype built by Whitehead & Kales in around 1950, which lifted the cab up from the rest of the Dodge truck to make room for one of the cars. They even took a patent out on it, #2,647,009. I bet it looked pretty strange from a head-on view from opposing traffic.
If you’re hoping the actual production version looks a lot better, you might be disappointed.
Here’s the “Skyscraper”, also built by W&K. Same basic principle, but the cab at least appears to be somewhat connected to the truck.
And this one wasn’t the only company that tried something along these lines. Stay tuned.
Now does this make the Brooks Stevens one look better?
It’s early in the morning and I’m not truly awake. I needed three takes to figure out the top photo; at first I thought it was some weird forward-tilt cab, tilted for maintenance.
+1
Great stuff – amazing pics.
To answer the question at the end – Yes!
The first picture is intriguing, the second is just plain ugly. And judging from the scars on the lower part of The Skyscraper, it must have been plenty tricky to judge distances from way up high like that.
Better to have scars on the lower parts, than a decapitation from a lower-than-expected overpass. Though forward visibility over the tops of cars ahead must have been great.
That was my thought too. Driving under a bridge in one of these must have been an incredibly scary experience.
The prototype is endlessly fascinating in a weird way. It’s too bad that picture is so dark as I’d love to see all the extensions made for the brakes, throttle, steering, clutch, etc. That prototype would have to be a bear for ingress/egress.
It looks like that Buick is on top of the Dodge’s engine.
+1, and just imagine all the slop in the controls as it aged – if it lasted that long.
Wonder what onlookers would have thought as this thing drove down the road. Would the kids have pointed and laughed?
The steering linkage could almost be visualized, a frame located bellcrank with vertical and horizontal links.
Hydraulic clutch – okay.
But that shift linkage?!?
That’s an Oldsmobile.
You can see a fair bit of the steering
Wow. Clearly had too much time on their hands.
I hope the drivers were mindful of the uniqueness of the truck as they were getting off the truck.
They make Kenworths with climbing walls look like a sensible idea these are obviously ideas before health and safety was thought of
I would imagine that the prototype was not a functioning truck but a mule to demonstrate a concept. The steering column doesn’t appear to be connected and a bare firewall wouldn’t look right.
Toll booths must have been a bear!
I like it. Reminds me a little of a GM Futurliner.
Chrysler’s answer to it? Surely not…
Bizarro stuff, Mid-Century Transformers? Ergonomics for getting in and out must be interesting. Reminds me of some of the bizarre early airplane designs. These must be CWOE (Cab Way Over Engine) designs. Fill ‘er up, check the oil and could you clean the windshield while yer at it?