The service trucks in this post are heavier duty than the basic one-ton trucks discussed in A History of Light Duty Service Trucks
These mid-size trucks are often more specialized in equipment and fittings, both because the trucks themselves have the capacity to handle the tasks, and also because the specialized equipment itself is bulky and difficult to make portable.
The typical mid-size service truck, generally based on a cab-and-chassis foundation, can be built around either a dedicated service body, or constructed around a solid flatbed foundation, with modular units added to the flatbed frame. The service bodies themselves tend to have major reinforcement (and weight), in order to support cranes and lifts. These trucks are not always specialized, and some are simply extended-length, higher-capacity versions of the basic service truck format. These extended-length trucks are actually hybrids of sorts, a lighter-duty service truck, extended a bit. Their length makes them more difficult to maneuver in tight places, but they aren’t fully peers with the other, heavier-duty trucks described here.
While the light duty service trucks mentioned in the previous article can typically fit in an ordinary parking spot, and can navigate many covered parking garages without issue, the longer and larger trucks begin to run into issues. As people with “dually” long-bed pickups and “lifted” trucks have found, they need to park across multiple spots in the backs of parking lots, and their trucks often don’t play well with tight covered parking garages.
Another element of these trucks is that the exposed equipment assures they are typically parked either at a work site or in secure storage. Unattended, open parking is not a good habit with one of these (Home Depot parking lots are a common exception). They are not trucks to be parked unattended for significant lengths of time in places accessible to the public.
While a handyman may use a light-duty service truck for daily driving, and can typically keep everything locked up and mostly out of sight, it gets more difficult to do so with the larger, more elaborate rigs. The economics of such larger rigs also comes into play. The cost of such heavier duty equipment is relatively very high, and the equipment is typically dedicated to accomplishing specific tasks, so the trucks are usually employed at job sites full-time.
Generators and air compressors tend to be standard equipment in these rigs, but other features tend to be more job-specific. Many of these trucks are used to service other heavy equipment, so lifts are used to move heavy parts around. Other trucks are used for aerial work, so will have scissor lifts for materials or cherry pickers for workers. Water well maintenance rigs of this size are common, too. All of these jobs involve extending people or tools out in different directions, often leveraged out to the side of the rig, which means a particularly stable platform is required. It is typical to see stabilizers or jacks either extended from or placed around the perimeter of the frame of the truck, to keep the rig from leaning or tipping while loads are being moved around.
Trucks in this range serve some other varied roles as well. They can carry lubricants for servicing off-road construction equipment, or they can be used to change the tires on large on-road trucks or off-road equipment. Road maintenance crews can use specialized service trucks for painting stripes, setting cones, or as sign trucks, directing traffic. Gas and electric companies will use this size truck for service and maintenance of their infrastructure, and oil rig servicing firms will often use this type of truck for general maintenance out in the field. Once you start looking around, you will see these trucks everywhere.
It is very difficult to find vintage medium-duty service trucks, or even photos of them. They seem to have emerged out of a marriage of the lighter-duty service trucks and the heavier-duty flatbed trucks of decades past. While medium-duty cab-and-chassis units have always been available, medium-duty service trucks, as we know them, seem to have become mainstreamed only in the last few decades. Like the smaller trucks, the older examples tended to be painted different colors, if the photos are to be believed, while the more modern iterations are almost universally white.
While the basic layout of the medium duty service truck is universal, there are still so many variations that can be had, as the manufacturers are quick to step up to offer “improvements” or “customizations” (for a price).
The price tags on these rigs are not for the faint of heart, as they can often exceed $100k new, if equipped with lifts, cranes, or other options. Medium sized fleets may have rows of trucks, though they are often leased or otherwise carefully financed.
This time around has been a bit of a survey, like an adult version of the Richard Scarry children’s car and truck books. These service trucks are vital to building and maintaining our way of life, yet they are largely invisible to the average person (but we aren’t average around here, are we?). The service trucks go larger and heavier yet, so there is one more collection to follow.
A few years back we had a custom steel gate built by a local fabricator. His truck was a dent-side or maybe bump-side era HD Ford with a body he’d built himself. He had one piece of heavy portable equipment, a walk-behind pavement saw for cutting grooves for embedded wiring detector loops. He carried that on a hitch tray which looked different than his other weldments. I asked him about it. “Harbor Freight” was his answer. “I couldn’t build it as cheap as I could buy it”. I wish I had taken pictures of his truck; definitely a working classic.
Two articles and not a single pic of Squad 51!
Good catch, so true! Here you go. I have kept it to construction and maintenance vehicles, but the form does extend into first responders. As I mentioned in the first post, this little rabbit hole can expand into an entire warren.
If one were to stretch things a bit, one could probably come up with some sort of camping/overlanding/zombie apocalypse/towing vehicle out of one, like out of the latest Mad Max movie. Perhaps one of those weird custom car building shows has already done it.
I love these trucks but never had a need for one. I find medium duty trucks in general to be fun oddities.
They are very popular over the last decade or so and looking thru pictures they were also popular in the 50’s and 60’s then they became less so for a long time.
In 2000 a friend of mine bought a new 550 and had a 12′ flatbed installed then utility boxes and a small crane for his tree and logging service. At the time I remember thinking how unusual a F550 was, the only other person I knew with one had a 1977 or so Bump side F550 with a rack body (also used for tree work).
One part I didn’t see mentioned was the cab overs from Izuzu, UD and others that were fairly popular in the 80’s and 90s.
I also liked the old Power Wagon service bodies for line work.
Also the Top Kick and Kodiak GM Trucks were popular for these applications. When I worked at a railroad museum we had one of these with a man lift bucket and hole auger for setting line poles.
We had a 2010 Ram 4500 Cummins to service our fleet of 85 city transit buses at our garage. Large tanks of coolant, diesel fuel, trans fluid with pumps plus an air compressor under the hood. Lots of storage for various parts and fittings also. Very nice truck to drive..you would never know it was so heavy. It replaced a 99 Ford 450 with much the same equipment only less of it. It was an absolute pig to drive. Had the gasser V10 unfortunately…lots of noise and no power! Had a habit of throwing out the spark plugs…one of Fords better ideas.
As I type this I can look out my office window and see, through the bushes, two red Chevrolet utility bed trucks. Both are also crew cabs and single wheel one tons.
The configuration of stabilizers is a real thing on bucket trucks. Any used for highway purposes cannot have something that expands beyond its lane. Other units have more flexibility, depending upon use.
A decade ago, in the fleet manager portion of my job, I purchased a handful of Ford F-550s for mechanic trucks. All were V10 powered, with one having a manual transmission. All generators and lifts were transplanted from the old units due to cost.
Your statement about quickly meeting GVW is spot-on. Another group taking care of facilities had Ford F-250 utility trucks. Loaded with tools and other routine supplies, they were at, or just above, their weight limit.
Back around that same time I toured the Knapheide factory in Quincy, Illinois. The variety of beds was fascinating, particularly some of the specialty pieces in which small changing rooms were incorporated into the utility bed.
I stepped outside
And resized the picture
What I find interesting is the alloy wheels on state fleet utility trucks.
Those belong to a roofing contractor.
The one in the background is noticeably cheaper, it’s only an extended cab, cheaper wheels, etc. Boss must drive the one in the foreground.
That front end has grown on me. Glad they’re not white!
The configuration of stabilizers is a real thing on bucket trucks. Any used for highway purposes cannot have something that expands beyond its lane. Other units have more flexibility, depending upon use.
Not totally true, we had several units that had stabilizers that required an additional lane closure because of the width when the stabilizers were down. The most ironic one was our 65ft lift. They were demonstrating it in the back lot when it was brand new and tipped the rig over on its side, this unit had the slide out stabilizers, didn’t put them out far enough and no pad under the stabilizer and it pushed thru the asphalt. Brand new truck. Should have copied that photo. The new equipment seems to get the worst of it sometimes.
New equipment is always what gets damaged the most. It seems to be some type of requirement.
When talking stabilizers, I was thinking more of the F-550 range as was outlined here. Having been around some International chassis bucket trucks (I think 65′ range or thereabouts) they did need the wider stabilizers and were going to encroach into a lane regardless, but such units are relatively rare in my orbit.
Another lighter duty unit had the wrong stabilizers ordered and it created all manner of issues, primarily creeping out too far for usability. It was ultimately sold.
There is a Facebook page called Missouri Historic Highways. One of the many pictures is of a Ford F-Series bucket truck from the 1950s. No stabilizers seen and any were definitely not used. It was a totally different time.
Yeh we had all manner of these cone thru most seem to have disappeared guess they werent hardy enough for NZ conditions… mate of mine has a ford with the high roof rusting away in his yard, probably a gasser too
These type of vehicle have grown in size, I bought a 1959 CA Bedford van decades ago it was sign written Massey Fergusson sales and service and I actually worked school holidays where it had been a working vehicle, small as they are it carried everything required to split a up to a 165 MF on farm and bring the components back for repair if required yep the rear springs were shot despite extra leaves the tractor split railway and massive old school trolley jack would have been close to GVW never mind other tools parts drums of oil it carried.Whole tractors for trade in sale or repair were carried on a lend lease 42 Fargo truck, retired when tractors out grew it
A Ford F550 Service truck that I’m quite familiar with arrived at the shop a few years ago from the northern oil fields, via an auction, likely over its GVW with the amount of mud still stuck to it. It had a very low odometer reading and a very high hour meter reading. It had clearly spent a lot of time being pulled by heavy equipment through the mud, quite common with service trucks in that part of the world.
Certainly it is at or over its ~18,000 lbs GVW when it’s loaded with tools, welder, generator and all manner of parts and oils. The Fords at least, possibly the Ram as well, have the engines de-rated in the Medium Duty models vs the light duty F250/F350, from what I understand to deal with the long idling times and to reduce wear on axles and transmissions.
Yes Ram Cab and Chassis get don’t get the top dog diesel engine that is available in the Pickup version. The main reason is engine durability, for commercial applications it is expected that many will be run flat out, all day, every day.
That is why the hot ticket for the vehicle transporters that run the 3 vehicle wedge trailers is a Ram 3500 pickup with the bed removed. The 3500 pickup has a greater towing capacity than the 5500 C&C thanks to the available HO engine and a 12K advantage over the 3500 C&C and that is before they sold off the bed.
https://www.ramtrucks.com/towing/towing-guide.html#/recommended-models/bytowing/search/ram_3500/2022/25000.
https://www.ramtrucks.com/towing/towing-guide.html#/recommended-models/bytowing/search/chassis_cab_3500/2022/25000
Another reason for the pickup’s greater tow rating is the use of the wide frame instead of the 34″ frame used on the C&C.
These are pretty common at northern Colorado fracking sites. They almost always have a MIG welder, an external diesel tank, and a small crane to lift rotary bits needing servicing.
Seems some medium-duty like the Ford F-450/F-550 could be also used as a shuttle bus.
https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/specialty-vehicles/shuttle-bus/
https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/2017-ford-super-duty-f450-shuttle-bus-w-wheelchair-access-diesel-32-995.228406/
Does Ford have some plans to get the Cutaway Ecolonine/E-450 replaced by the F-450/F-550 as shuttle bus and campers? And it could be interested to see if GM and Stellantis will offer versions of the Silverado/Sierra and Ram 4500/5500 for shuttle bus and campers.
I saw a shuttle bus on a Ford F-550 chassis in Hattiesburg, Mississippi one time. It was quite long.
Ford recently updated the E-Series cab/chassis to use the new 7.3L big block (and I believe other updates, but I can’t recall at the moment). Seems they plan to keep it around for a while.
+1 on this–The Big 3 do offer their medium-duty truck chassis for any use, but shuttle bus and camper builders tend to shy away from them because of the length.
On the flip side, Ford briefly tried making an E-550 van chassis, presumably to compete with GM’s van-based chassis, but for whatever reason it was dropped after only 2 years.
Perhaps my very first exposure to seeing a cherry picker, as a very (very) young child, was the memorable extended scene with Dean Jones in Disney’s forgettable Million Dollar Duck (1971).
Really interesting. Apart from the cherry picker, everything else is completely new to me.
The only thing that comes to mind for serious off-road use and equipped with a sturdy crane plus stabilizers would have a Unimog chassis-cab as its underpinnings. Or something else that comes close enough, like an Iveco Daily 4×4.
My American Legion post has a early/mid 70’s bumpside cab F-600 bucket truck, Clark 5 speed trans and 361 FT engine (heavy truck version of the FE 360). They use it to hang flags up along TV Hwy in Aloha, OR for Memorial Day.
I lived with a friend in Aloha one summer, several years ago. There was a Presbyterian church there I fell in love with, and I’m not a super religious guy.
Thanks for your service.
Oh the memories. Thanks for this article.
My late uncle owned and operated a logging contrating company, and I worked with him for a number of years driving similar trucks to these to and from jobsites, serviced them (found probably two cups of sand in the fuel tank of an F-450, the filter on the On-Road diesel tank at our shop was bad and the petroleum company obviously needed to service the tank).
“Not to be left unattended”
One worker left a Chevy 3500 (I believe one of the last years of the pre-Duramax Diesel, it was a 5 speed with 4wd) work truck loaded down with equipment running with the A/C on in front of a store. IDIOT! I wouldn’t do this with a ragged out ’89 Metro! You can guess what happened. All they recovered was the cab and chassis.
Here’s a heavy duty one I spotted yesterday. It is untagged, clean and appears to be either well cared for or retired and restored. It also has a pleasing color scheme. It is parked outside an impound or action lot, accompanied by some lighter duty work trucks. Perhaps it is used to plow the lot in winter.
As technical note the Ford truck that’s 3rd from last and says “Royal” is actually a “contractor flatbed” used by construction workers rather than service vehicle
The large overhead rack for ladders and material and the small boxes relative to the flatbed are defining features. Here’s a front overhead view to explain further. There are also more specialized designs for concrete contractors with the bed set up to carry concrete forms and I have seen power and cable companies use this type of body