International was once the best selling truck brand; now its successor brand, Navistar, is barely hanging on to the #4 slot for semi trucks. Let’s go back to the time when Internationals COEs (cab over engine) were everywhere, hauling all sorts of loads. International built quite a variety of COE trucks; here’s two of them. The very common “Emeryville” is on the right and the quite unconventional Sightliner is on the left. Note the foot-level “windshields” that even have their own wipers. I guess there were some situations where the view through them was useful, but obviously not often, as the Sightliner had a short life.
International’s first new postwar COE was the CO, using the Comfovision cab that IH designed but was built by Chicago Cab. A number of other truck companies used this cab too; I’ll do a post on all of them sometime soon.
Here’s one in moving van service; the badge on the front and lack of an exhaust stack indicates it’s got a gas V8 engine.
This one is a diesel. These were built and used mostly in the East and Midwest where the overall length restrictions favored them.
Out west, International opened its own plant in Emeryville, CA and these big W-Series trucks had their own unique cab. We did a post on the Emeryville trucks here.
For use where length restrictions weren’t so severe, International sold this RDC, one of the more unusual trucks of times. It was the cab of their conventional truck series sitting high and almost over the engine.
Here’s a closer look at a restored one.
Here’s an RDC cresting a long steep grade out West somewhere. The driver has the door open to keep cool. Or maybe he’s looking at the pavement to make sure the truck is still moving?
That Comfovision cab was jacked up and to make the DCO, commonly referred to as the Emoryville, as that’s where these trucks were built. They were now suitable for long-haul runs, and were a very common sight.
Here’s one shot at a truck stop in California, with the common long wheelbase, since length restrictions were much more generous there.
This Emeryville is hauling an extra long load of VWs under a special use permit in Washington.
Here’s another look at a Sightliner. The cab is obviously from the Loadstar and also used on the International pickups and such.
The DCO was eventually superseded by the Transtar, which became an extremely common sight in its day. I don’t have the stats available, but the Transtar and the Freightliner were undoubtedly the best selling COEs in the ’60s and ’70s. This one is hauling an AM general transit bus.
This Transtar sports a factory double sleeper cab. Maybe a husband and wife team? The trailer shows the effects of the diesel exhaust stack.
One more.
Here’s a Transtar CO4070 with a newer CO9670 on the right.
This oddball is another oddball, a 9600, built only for a couple of years in the mid-seventies.
Here’s a rather rare double-front axle Transtar.
Towards the end of the COE era, there was this 9700 with a set-back front axle and large aero device on the roof. International COE trucks continued to be built in Brazil, which were exported to a number of other countries.
The photo with all the VW’s (and one Porsche) is particularly apropos, now that VW owns Navistar, along with Scania and MAN.
What are the current 1, 2, and 3?
Daimler (Freightliner and Western Star), PACCAR (Kenworth and Peterbilt), and Volvo (Volvo and Mack). In the US.
Delightful overview! For some reason, the last of the big US cabovers (actually sold in the US) are my favorites, yet prior to the aero-packages and certainly not with a set-back front axle. Some fine examples are the article’s International CO9670, the Mack MH Ultra-Liner, Peterbilt 362 and the Ford CL9000.
There once was an International-DAF connection, many years before PACCAR. This must be the rarest International cabover ever, clearly based on the DAF F241-series (starting with the 1973 2800). Only marketed in South-Africa, as far as I know.
Below an example of the IH-Heidelberg (Germany) truck/tractor production.
Much more here, many pictures included:
https://www.ihace.de/50_heidelberg/05_historie/h_historie.htm
I left out the compact tractors/trucks. As you know, that cab was made in three widths! That’s the original narrow cab.
The soot on the trailer behind the sleeper Transtar begs the obvious, if ignorant question… Why not increase the height of the exhaust stack another 18″ and avoid that??
Simple- Low bridges, fuel station canopies and other overhead obstacles.
Max height laws 4.25m is pretty universal
Okay, I’ll bite: in what circumstances would those low-mounted windshields be useful? I can think of a few general ideas – pulling up narrow ramps, perhaps – but as a non-expert the specific uses escape me.
The Sightliner’s were designed to eliminate blind spots in the very front 2′ of the truck. In towns that many US highways went through prior to interstate completion), you literally went through downtown. Pedestrians crossing in front was common and a driver can’t see the first couple feet in front of the bumper.
The failing of the design was most driver’s complained of blinding headlight glare at night, especially on rainy nights.
Thanks. The concept does make a lot more sense under those conditions.
I read somewhere that they were very cold on the legs and feet as well.
Nice overview! I especially like how you included the newer 9000-series COEs in the chronology, which were iconic on the roads in the 1980s and 1990s. I still see them pulling loads on occasion.
A tiny quibble: The corporate title was changed to “Navistar” after the Harvester trademark was sold off with the ag division in the 1980s, but the truck brand has always remained International.
I don’t know if anyone notices these days, there are very few International band trucks running around. In NJ where I live the most common trucks, local delivery and long haul, are Freightliner, a truck operation of Daimler in North America.
I still see quite a few of the big new Navistar branded conventionals in the West. Their grills are, uh, distinctive in the rear view mirror. I found some 2022 US market share info that showed that the IH/Navistar sales were actually a bit higher than Volvo-branded trucks, though when Mack is added in, Volvo corporate totals were higher.
I hope I’m not offending anyone when I say that the Sightliner is odd in the most glorious way imaginable. I love it!
The overall shape and looks of the Sightliner reminded me of the BMC trucks (lorries?) of yore, like the 1963 Morris below.
BMC FGK cab had windows in strange places
Glorious and loveable oddity is exactly it. In these photos and in the poster Eric703 put up below, it has the most comically droll expression as a face.
And windscreen wipers for a shoe display! Wonder if Dr Seuss was involved in the design…
Dr. Seuss – that’s it!
I found a few International ads that highlighted “1,708 sq. in. of forward vision” on account of the two lower windshields. Technically that’s true, but foot-vision isn’t what comes to mind when I think about forward visibility.
After driving a few newer Internationals in my driving career I can say they are the bottom of the barrel these days, they sell because they are cheap and thats it. There is a running joke in the trucking industry, dont work for a company that runs a fleet of Internationals because if they are cheap with buying trucks then they are cheap with everything else.
I like the picture of the Navajo truck. It’s parked at Colorado’s state capitol, and the slogan on the side, “The Front Range of Science and Technology,” was an economic development slogan used in the late 1960s to attract high-tech employers to the Denver metro area. I suspect the truck was parked there as part of a press release or photo shoot.
Great review, Paul. I note the International designated “Heidelberg.” This was a not-so-cheap-to-buy Medim-duty COE made in one of the plants in the Midwest. Offerings for transmissions included a five-speed column-mounted five-speed mechanical linkage. Now, that was a nightmare! Keeping the linkages tight was the problem. Another fun feature of this truck, at least for me, was opening the door to enter, and then banging my right knee on the lower part of the door. I cannot tell you how many times I cursed. Once in the cab, it was a delightful view and easy enough to drive. Bear in mind, I was selling them and not operating them daily.
The Sightliner seems to be a solution to a non existent problem. It’s supposed to improve visibility. For all of the drawbacks of cab over trucks, with no hood visibility was never a problem in them. It also requires the driver to wear pants.
Or, at minimum, underpants.
Testing my distant memory, Canadian Pacific Transport was probably the most conspicuous Transtar user in Canada in the 1970s. These were everywhere.
Solved my own question. From The Drive website:
“International hoped to remedy the inherent pitfalls of cabover trucks with the Sightliner. Instead of just building a taller windshield, the manufacturer kept the narrow brow at the top and added a pair of extra windows just above the floorboard. Theoretically, this would allow the driver a better view of what was directly in front of them, making for a safer experience.”
Interesting, that Sighliner Cab!
Edison Motors is trying to build electric logging/vocational trucks, with a version of the sightliner cab idea:
https://www.edisonmotors.ca/
Navistar lost a lot of market share, in addition to it’s lucrative business with Ford, as a result of various engine issues related to emissions and SCR around 2010, which included both significant regulatory fines and serious reliabilty issues, a lot has been written on that over the years.
I am only speculating here, but In addition it is likely they went through a lot of corporate and engineering workforce churn when they both decided to relocate their headquarters AND close their engineering center in Fort Wayne, IA, all around the same time as the debacle over the engine issues was reaching their peak. Around this time they also dabbled in a lot of ventures including enormous luxury pickup trucks that were eventually abandoned, as well as going through a lot of issues with the SEC regarding significant accounting irregularities. Suffice to say, the years 2000 to 2016 were pretty tough on Navistar. Later on they stabilized themselves somewhat by creating alliances with GM and Traton.
Great gallery of images!
Here’s a 1959 International ad the features the entire model line, from pickups up to the Sightliner.
Nice! And what a collection of faces it is.
International cabs are confusing to say the least. The ‘Comfovision’ cab came out in 1949 and was used on most conventional and non-tilting cabovers, including medium duty RC and heavy duty ‘Emeryville’ RDC models. In 1956 International introduced the tilting ‘CO’ models. The Blatz Beer and Allied trucks pictured are ‘CO’ models. The CO cab is really interesting. It was designed by Diamond T and used by them along with International and Hendrikson. One story I heard about that was International paid for the cab tooling in exchange for the right to use it (Diamond T was a small independant truck manufacturer at the time). I believe the CO cab was also manufactured by Chicago Cab. Diamond T offered a fiberglass version of that cab as an option on their trucks, and continued to use both the steel and fiberglass cabs on their trucks after they were bought out by White and merged into Diamond REO. International offered the CO models until 1974, both gas and diesel. In 1957 International replaced the RDC cabovers with the new tilt-cab DCO-400 series, the Golden State rig is an example These trucks used the CO cab raised up to clear large Cummins and Detroit diesel engines. International may have got the idea from Hendrikson as they offered a similar truck around the same time, not sure who was first. The Sightliner was an oddball, the idea was to create a very short 48″ cab. Astute observation on Paul’s part, the Sightliner cab was a modified ‘A’ series (later Loadstar) cab. The Sightliner was powered exclusively by International’s large gasoline V-8’s, not being available with a diesel may explain why it was dropped in 1962. In the mid-60’s the DCO-400’s were replaced by the 4000 series which became the famous ‘Transtar’ cabover and the Sightliner and CO’s were replaced by the newer cab-forward CO series that eventually became the Cargostar
Ford, the GM twins and IH used to have a large share of the truck market and now IH is the only one left. Navistar really shot themselves in the foot. If they had succeeded in get the engines running reliably and not using DEF they might have had something. But the engines had tons of problems and they ended up using DEF with another engine.
Another big player that left was Cat. Cat also stumbled, bridge engines that cost them plenty and lots of trouble with the last group with the soot traps. Would have been interesting to see what Caterpillar was going to do for 2010, DEF or not?
CAT stayed building highway trucks in Australia quite a few came to NZ we had 3 CAT tractor units on the rubbish C15 v& 18 speed manuals they use Navistar cabs which makes them cramped inside like all American trucks.
In the 70s and 80s Transtars were the dominate COE semi tractors seen throughout the midwest. Large fleets like Schneider’s from Wisconsin had Transtars criss- crossing to the US.
I’d be tempted to mount a realistic-looking toy driver with his own toy steering wheel down there, just to give oncoming cars a nightmare.
It became Navistar here the only brand locally assembled Ive driven a few they were as good or bad as anything else from the US.
I remember the Transtar as being all over in the 70s, but don’t recall the older ones. I probably just wasn’t noticing them.
I drove one of the Transtar from the late 1970s for a year. Hated it, I’m really long in the body and those cabs were about 4 inches short of head room. Then I got a 9700 series, it had the head room I needed and even though I never liked cabovers it was a great truck to drive.
Always wondered what engine came in all those 9700s. Did they have any power?
A decade ago I worked with an ad agency who’d also done work for International when the new-design conventional came out. They explained that International and Mack had always been the choice of corporate fleets like UPS and other trucking companies, but owner-operators preferred Kenworth, Peterbilt, and Freightliner.
Their campaign was to get O/Os to buy one of those overwrought designs. From what I see on the NJ Turnpike every other weekend it didn’t succeed.
My father was a Schneider driver in the 90s. His rig looked exactly like the one pictured. It was one of those rare double front axle transtars w/wind deflecting dome on the roof.
When home from his cross country travels . He would park it on the street in front of the house and it would block the view from our windows.
I loved riding in that rig with him