I love this shot, of an International LDC slowly grinding up a long grade, in what looks like Arizona. You think it didn’t get boiling hot in that little cramped cab, barely moving while the big Cummins toiled away at full chat right under his feet? Here’s one obvious way to let some of the heat escape.
Ha! I drove a Volvo last night, open the drivers door and the park brake comes on automatically no need tho the AC worked just fine,
US trucks here are worse the RHD conversion put the big glowing orb of the turbocharger just the other side of the firewall from the driver great in winter in summer not so much.
I remember a man who drove a Dodge conventional cab in the New York City area. In the summer, he wore no shirt because the cab was so hot. This was in the 1970’s.
When did those big trucks get minimum driver somfort items, such as power steering and air conditioning? Was it before cars? Today it would seem a safety concern, I’m sure it wasn’t then.
By the early 1970’s A/C became more and more noticeable on the big rigs and in pickups. Medium duty trucks in general seemed to go without A/C into the ‘80’s.
‘You’re working, you don’t need to be comfortable.” — the boss
Meanwhile, the driver gets heatstroke running a load across Death Valley and kills himself and a family in a station wagon.
Reminds me of the MCI Classic transit buses we had in Halifax, NS when I started driving. There were certain routes with a long distances between stops, you’d get insanely hot, and actually open the front door and drive down the road with all the vents and the front doors open begging for a bit of extra airflow. Worst part was, their predecessors the GMC New Look, were designed to have A/C way back in the 50’s but Canadian agencies rarely ordered A/C. It was 2007 before we started getting A/C in our vehicles, along with power mirrors. Power steering didn’t become normal until the mid 1980’s. Anyone whos been to Halifax, NS has seen Transit buses travelling the labyrinth of narrow streets.
I always thought driver’s area ventilation (above the windshield, below the dash, and a big driver’s window) was one of the best things about the New Looks, especially in comparison to the RTSs that replaced them and even the contemporary Flxibles and Orions, which I do recall driving with the front doors open when the a/c failed. Some of our newer Orions had front-door interlock mechanisms – presumably easier to engineer than giving the driver enough air. But I never got to drive an MCI Classic.
Reminds me in a way of the lyrics to Jerry Reed’s song “The Legend” where Bandit heads up Monteagle Mountain, and then loses his brakes on his way back down:
“Well he got to the bottom, safe and sound;
Everybody asked Bandit how he made it down;
He said “Folks, when the truck picked up too much speed.
I just a-run along beside it and I drug my feet.“
We did this in the ’70’s sometimes on very hot days in our split-screen Kombi, but with the rear-side, rear-hinged door. Now THAT scooped in a really decent flow of air! Mind you, we probably weren’t going much above 25mph up some hot hill somewhere, so the breeze didn’t exactly take your hair off either. If it seems a tad unsafe, I think that six kids ventilated by just two miserable pop-out an inch-do-nothing windows in the back of an over-loaded 1.2 litre-engined tin oven in 110 degree heat on which the headlining had long failed had such a chance of expiring from being baked that it made the lesser risk of falling out reasonable.
It’s also possible the driver above simply had a lively South Indian vindaloo the night before, because that sort of problem was also cause for the god-save-us-door-of-air – preceded always from the front by “Oh, who was THAT?” – to flung back on our Kombi.
For many years my shop truck was a 1946 Chevy 3100 series 1/2 ton pickup~ it had a crank out windshield and a center cowl ventilator, both were great when sweating my way across the Desert @ 55 PMH but every so often a bee or wasp would come flying through and by the time it lit on me it’d be _very_ pissed off…
-Nate
Often times there were shut offs under the hood to stop coolant from circulating through the heater box on the old rigs. Even with the heat off they still got warm. I always shut them off for the summer. If not so equipped, a pair of vice grips on the ingoing heater hose also works.
I have always been (skilled or not-so-skilled)labor.
Used to wear HazMat gear all day.
Then, long sleeves and a hard hat.
Now, T-shirt and sponge-thingy for my forehead.
I spoze that’s progress.
The point I forgot to make is that I have always been HOT at work. 🔥😰🕛🔥❗
I’m usually too hot at work too.
Although, living in Minnesota, I once had the experience of getting into the freezer section of a reefer trailer and thinking “Good to be in out of that cold wind.” True story.
Notice the “blind spot” mirror on RH side?
The mirror was used to monitor exhaust smoke, an input used to optimize engine operation.
Plenty of heat sources trying to broil you in the cab. I rode with my dad for many years. Luckily there were lots of stops so always a chance to cool off some. Between the roar of the engine and the whining transmission gears its amazing we can still hear anything.
A common refrain today is – “Should have kept one truck from back in the day. Let that whining kid try driving that for a day.”
Even in the early 1990’s there were fleet freight hauler buying 4×2 tractors without power steering. One less system to maintain or break.
A/C was another maintenance nightmare on trucks. The systems didn’t stand up very well, cracked lines. The aftermarket kits with a roof mounted condenser cooled very well and were reliable. The GMC Brigadier switched to a cycling clutch A/C system in 1980. The system was a poor performer. So bad that a large fleet customer switched to a aftermarket system, Thermo King units IIRC.
@XR7 :
“. Between the roar of the engine and the whining transmission gears its amazing we can still hear anything.”
_WHAT_ ? .
I’m down to 36% of my hearing left, the hearing aids give me plenty of sound but it all sounds like mumbles to me now =8-^ .
KAISER says they’re going to give me a Cochlear implant in -one- ear, that’ll help .
Those good roof top AC units were Red Dot and yes, they were superb .
When I was supporting a fleet of Peterbuilt 379’s, I often had a hard time getting parts for the Red Dot units .
-Nate
Back in the day when center lines were still white but had changed from single to double lines.
Without power steering, if a front tire blows, is it possible to steer at speed, or does the truck swerve in the direction of the blown tire?
A tanker fleet I worked for back in 1977-78 did not have power steering on any of its tractors. We probably had around 100 tractors. Mostly a mix of Internationals. The steer axles were a “center point” design, IIRC. The king pin is located on the center line of the tire. This makes a very easy steering truck once the tire starts to roll. We did have a few flats and blowouts on the front but no accidents. Always ran new tires on the steer axle and moved them at 50% tread depth to the trailer department. Poor trucks can get shredded pretty bad when a front tire lets loose.