This was posted by Lou Burch, shot in Brevard, NC this summer. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: 1966 International One Ton Stakebed Still At Work
– Posted on August 14, 2022
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Curbside Classics Archives
I can practically hear it pulling across the intersection!
Paul, while we all make do with what’s available at the time and within budget and the Ford has obviously been quite good/excellent all things considered, if you were to go back in time and every/any ’66 Truck was lined up and available to you as a used choice when you got the Ford, would you pick the/your F100 in its same configuration again?
That is a good question. And it might make a good QOTD, as I don’t think we’ve ever asked that.
Before I answer it fully right now, I’ll say it wouldn’t be an International because the cab in them doesn’t suit me well. It feels tighter than the Ford’s, and the steering wheel, whose column is unusually horizontal, intrudes more. I used to drive them, bigger versions, and it always felt a bit less than really comfortable to my tall body.
The general answer is yes, it would still be a ’66 Ford. I did not want a wood bed, as in the Chevy. I rather like the slightly off-beat styling of the Exner Dodge, but I want a big six, and they didn’t have one.
But I’m in a bit of a quandary as to some specific choices regarding the drive train of my ultimate ’66 Ford.
I have driven Loadstars with basically the same cab and I agree, there was a certain akwardness to them. The relationship between the seat, floor, steering wheel and pedals was odd. The cab seemed to be narrower that a similar vintage Ford, GM, or Ram.
Love seeing old machines still at work.
Many years ago, I helped a cousin’s husband haul scrap cars. We often used a 1965 Ford F-100 with a 240 I-6 and 4 speed manual. That old truck did awesome, pulled so much weight and never protested. It was happy doing whatever we asked of it.
I was so disappointed when they sold that truck. It’s a big reason why I bought my 1974 Chevy C10 with the 250 I-6. TBH, it’s never felt like the work truck the ’65 was, even though they’re both half tons.
I ran this exact truck for many years, in many ways far superior to the equivalent Chevy or Ford. Brakes shoes aren’t available, they have to be custom relined.
For most of the 1970s, I attended a summer camp that kept a truck very much like this, except in blue, for hauling use on the camp’s grounds. Occasionally, that stake bed was filled with kids and driven to the local general store so we could get a break from the dining room food. I don’t think you’d be allowed to haul 30 kids in an International one-ton stake bed these days.
One year in the 1980s, I attended a summer camp that kept a truck very much like this, except in copper/brown and with a standard metal bed, for general utility on the camp’s grounds. One day I saw it parked outside the “dining” hall, to which I was on my way for lunch or dinner. I walked up alongside its driver side, and there was the smell of gasoline without alcohol and with lead; cooked grease; sun-heated old upholstery and rubber; hay; spit-tobacco, cigarettes, and horse ѕhit of various age.
I saw an attractive chrome pushbutton on dashboard—to the left of the steering wheel, close to the open window. Its domed business end, surrounded by a bezel both bevelled and knurled, just begged to be pushed. The truck wasn’t running, I reasoned, so whatever electric thing the button might operate probably wouldn’t work. Or maybe the horn would honk or something, but that seemed a manageable enough risk, so I reached in and pushed it.
The truck groaned and jumped forward. Eep! I yanked my hand back out the window and hurried away. I don’t recall if anyone saw; if I got scolded, that was all.
It was the starter button. I don’t know if it was original or a make-do fix rather than replacing a combination ignition-starter switch, but that’s what it was. The truck had been parked in gear, as one does. Good job the engine didn’t start; the truck’d’ve gone right into the building.
Like it, I owned one of its ancestors a A-L 110 flatdeck long ago.
Did you get them with this front end? We didn’t in Australia.
Nice to see one still doing yeoman duty .
In the mid 1960’s we had two old ex U.S.A.F. cornbinders, two tonners IIRC .
Really stout rigs .
-Nate