Once upon a time, COE (Cab Over Engine) big trucks dominated the highways in America; No more. Now they’re a rarity. But not only have COE trucks of all stripes disappeared, but most of their makers have too. Only one of these four, Kenworth (“bulldog” on the lower left) is still making big trucks. Let’s take a look at the great variety of COEs that once plied America’s highways and gave kid truck spotters like me the challenge of identifying them all.
We’ll get back to those four at the top, but let’s start with this White 5000. It was designed to compete with the top seller White Freightliner COE, which White used to sell through its dealer network. White wanted in on the lightweight COE market, and they gave this 5000 a fiberglass cab as a consequence. But it never sold well; these were a rarity for a truck spotter kid like me in the ’60s.
The opposite was the case with the White 3000, the first popular COE tilt cab truck. These were everywhere in the Middle Atlantic area and everywhere else in the Eastern half of the country. They were also commonly used as straight trucks, as their short length gave them a major advantage in cities. I remember looking in under the back of the cab of one and seeing a flathead gas six engine. That was a bit disappointing to me; I was somehow expecting something a bit bigger or impressive.
White did much better with the 7000 series that replaced the oddly-styled 5000. This looks very familiar, as a White 7000 hauled the moving van when we moved from Iowa to Baltimore. The driver let me climb in the cab and I “drove” that rig for hours while he and his helpers loaded the North American van lines trailer. I asked him how many horsepower it had, and when he said “230” I was a bit shocked and crestfallen. That was the same as our new ’65 Dodge Coronet wagon; I just assumed big semi trucks must have several times as much power. It was one of those major milestones in my automotive knowledge.
These Diamond T COEs were quite distinctive but not very common.
This is Diamond T’s last CEO, before they were merged into Diamond Reo.
And one from the Diamond Reo era.
Speaking of REO, I don’t remember seeing any of these REO cabs, which were usually used as a semi tractor.
I do remember this REO CEO style, with its rounded front. A bit unusual but handsome.
Let’s take a closer look at this Ford H-series, sometimes called a “double Falcon”. It used the common C-series cab but substantially elevated.
Here’s a Ford from 1956, an 800 series.
It looks like a Ford C series, but it’s a Mack N62, which also used this cab made by Budd. And this one was shot in the Netherlands.
Here’s comes a Mack H-Series, with a bit of a smoke plume from its exhaust stack. Macks were enormously popular in the East back in the day, although more commonly the conventional B-Series and such.
This was a more familiar Mack sighting, although not in this “centipede” configuration which was required for heavy loads in Michigan due to severe axle load limits.
GMC’s “cannonball” COE was a popular truck in the 1950s thanks to its then-exclusive use of the Detroit Diesel. Starting in 1959, GM was forced to sell the DD engines to other truck brands.
Here’s another one, for good measure and for the fat little dog crossing the road in front of it. This Bekins moving van has a small “pup” trailer behind the main one.
An unusual picture of a Kenworth hauling just the pup trailer. World’s shortest semi truck/trailer combination?
Back to GMC, this is a “crackerbox” D-Series day cab hauling a load of fine meat. I remember vividly hearing one of these “Screaming Jimmy” powered crackerboxes accelerating through the gears on a grade as I was standing on a corner of Hwy 40 in the Baltimore area.
This is one of my favorite pictures in this group. Is this “bullnose” Kenworth passing the Buick hauling a trailer, or is the Buick on the shoulder? Either way, there’s not a lot of daylight between them.
Another shot of one of these old Kenworths. These West Coast trucks were only rarely seen in the East, especially the COE versions, so I might have been stumped if I’d seen one back then.
Half cab trucks were typically used either as yard goats as well as to haul long loads in a straight truck configuration. Given the lack of any plates on the front of this Kenworth, it almost certainly was the former.
A tall boy International at full chat. These were rather odd looking, with that little cab shared with pickups and such sitting so high.
On the other hand, these “Emeryville” International DCO trucks were extremely common, although not in this “dromedary” configuration except on the West Coast.
The “Emeryville” on the left is sitting at the pumps with its replacement, a COF-4000 series. Also extremely common, back when International was the #1 selling big truck brand.
This would have been an unusual sighting in the late ’60s or early ’70s: a 1940s vintage International van. The grille has a decided similarity to the very popular International Metro vans.
Heading back to the West Coast, here’s a 1950s Peterbilt COE, in a straight truck and trailer configuration.
Likely a GMC T-70 from the 1930s with an unusual trailer.
Marmon was one of those rare small survivors that would soon succumb to the inevitable consolidation of the industry.
A Dodge from the late ’30s hauling what look to be Pontiacs from 1941 or so.
Dodge’s last COE was the L-Series, from 1965. This one is hooked to triple trailers, likely in Idaho which allowed such loads then. Oregon allows them in more recent years and they’re pretty common on I-5.
We mustn’t forget the bullnose Freightliner, the original light weight aluminum-cab COE that came to be the best seller.
The Oshkosh K2358 wasn’t exactly an over-the-road COE but built for special assignments like oversize loads and such.
We’ll end with this splendid factory shot of a new GMC Astro, which arrived in 1969 with considerable fanfare, being by far the most modern and polished big truck design up to that time. Pretty much all COEs that came afterwards were heavily influenced by its styling, huge windshield and curved corners. Quite the contrast to its “crackerbox” predecessor.
Related CC reading:
Those Curious Long Wheelbase West Coast COE Trucks – Why Did They Do This?
A Gallery Of Majestic Peterbilt COE Trucks – Riding High And Mighty
Vintage Trucks: A Gallery of International COE Semis – Some More Unconventional Than Others
Thanks for finding and selecting such a great variety. Those Mack’s and Reo’s and other East Coast trucks weren’t exactly rare in the West (at least Mack) but totally outnumbered by Freighliner and the Paccar brands, as well as Ford, GMC and IH. The Bekins pup trailer seems to be used with some kind of dolly, as it looks like it’s just a semi-trailer attached to a fifth wheel on the tractor in the second picture. The only pup trailers I’m used to seeing are end dumps with a long rigid drawbar, hitched i up p to a full truck; true trailers, not semi’s.
Nice, not many of those trucks over here, that Bekins furniture wagon pulling a trailer is called a ‘A’train here, nightmare to reverse, a similar configuration has evolved now and is used for frozen food transport without the steering dolly on the second trailer they are easier to operate.
That centipede is an interesting lookin critter, axle loading rates are kinda light here but thats ridiculous,
I actually like cabover trucks, set up properly they drive nice and driving on city roads a metre or more of truck in front of the windscreen isnt a help when the rig is 25 metres long you barely get around intersections at all anyway
Sweet collection of classics, keep them coming!
Setting the big Turkish Fords apart (F-Max and F-Line), I guess the very last top-segment cabover these days with a US brand name is the Kenworth K200 from Australia, which must be an evolution of the K100 of yore.
Oh, did you warm my heart! As an old (and I do mean old) truck salesperson, this is quite a tour and very much appreciated. I have driven the GMC Astro. It was a delight to drive.
Those Astros were a real step up from the crackerbox, but they had a single cylinder cab lift system and as they aged you had to pry the cab over to get it back in the saddles when you let it down.
Upon further inspection of all the cabovers, I noticed the (faded) color scheme on the Dutch Mack N62. Never mind the fact that it clearly says ‘Hendriks’ on its roof…
That must be the Hendriks hauling company from the small town of Lobith, especially known for their brick haulers. Pictured below another Hendriks Mack (they had multiple of them over the years) with a Floor semi-trailer. The same Floor company also imported and assembled Macks, so most likely, all of Hendriks’ Macks were locally built.
Hey Johannes Dutch, interesting photo you’ve posted. It looks like a DM (dump/mixer) 600, much heavery than an R model. In the US this truck would have a short fiberglass tilt hood, while DM800s usually had long steel or “construction” fenders and hood.
Jim, that’s a 1972 Mack DM609S, according to the information I found. So a DM600-series indeed. Such a combination was easily weighing around 110,000 to 130,000 lbs, when fully loaded.
In the post-Mack era, Hendriks switched to Detroit Diesel two-stroke powered FTF tractors (both generations from the seventies and eighties), also built by the very same Floor company. Below a second gen Hendriks FTF tractor.
Nice collection of pics, a lot of these are brands we never saw here in western Canada. Up until the mid 70s or so heavy trucks were something of a regional thing as you point out. We had lots of Kenworths and Freightliners, since they were manufactured here in BC, as well as GMCs (even the odd Chevy Titan) and Internationals. The only other cabover we had was Hayes, a local brand. Anything else was very rare.
I’ve put a few miles on Astros and Freightliners, but on the whole I preferred conventionals. The visibility from an Astro was tough to beat though!
You still see the odd cabover at work here on Vancouver Island, but they are getting scarce. They hung on longer than most places since BC Ferries charges commercial vehicles by length and it ‘aint cheap. They were also popular with the motion picture industry who often have to set up in cramped locations.
It’s interesting to see what some of the manufacturers did styling wise. It’s pretty tough to make a box look distinctive!
Great photos! Some of these were still on the road when I started fixing trucks in the ’70s. Worked on a few “crackerboxes” and Emeryvilles. Smith Transfer ran H model Macks and it wasn’t uncommon to come around a bend on old 60 and see no hand on the wheel as they were both on the shifters! H models were surprisingly roomy, at 6’2″ and 225 I was quite comfortable in one.
Walmart was the last big buyer of Cabovers, running them well into the 90’s around here.
I don’t know if that could count, the Ford WT-9000 like the one who was featured in the movie “White Line Fever” with Jan-Michael Vincent is another of these rare COE trucks.
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_40306-Ford-WT-9000-1974.html
An older WT-9000 appeared in David Cronenberg’s 1977 movie Rabid. I was around 15 or so when I watched that film, quite frightening I thought it was. The vampire-ish protagonist got a lift from the truck driver.
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_306081-Ford-WT-9000-1970.html
In the New York City are there were lots of Mack MB trucks in the 70s and early 80s, before being replaced by Mack Midliners for 20 years or so. Most MBs were straight trucks but plenty were used as tractors in the city. The International Transtar was also all over the East Coast until the late 80s
Some very interesting trucks there! If you look very closely at the Diamond T livestock hauler’s cab and compare it to the REO 4 pictures down from it you’ll see that they have the same cab. Actually they are the same truck, a result of the White Motor purchase of Diamond T and REO. Even before White merged Diamond T and REO, they ‘cross pollinated’ many models between the 2 makes to fill out the respective lines. REO was a little weak in heavy duty diesels so some Diamond T’s were rebaged as REO’s. This early rounded style of Diamond T cabover was commonly referred to as a ‘China Closet’. The tandem-axle REO dump truck is representative of REO’s own cabover, and I believe it was only offered with REO’s well respected ‘Gold Comet’ gasoline V-8. I doubt that truck could accommodate much in the way of a diesel engine. The ‘half-cab’ Kenworth was actually an over-the-road model, despite its appearance to the contrary. Known as the ‘CBE’ (cab beside engine) the idea was to make a very light tractor with a cab as short as a cabover. Many had a jump seat behind the driver’s seat. Anyway, thanks for a great article!
Nice selection!