I wanted to take a brief look at trucks and early SUVs, some at work, some at leisure, and some just posing. It’s quite a mix, and to some degree or another the gallery shows a lengthy transition; from being solely work-horses to early lifestyle vehicles. With both interests occasionally mingling.
When it comes to these, a caveat; some don’t fit any automotive category that well. Some are just trucks, others are more wagon-like, and so on. But I guess it’s natural these practical machines defy genres. We humans just love to haul stuff; and work, home, and pleasure inevitably occupy their spacious cargo. Who can say where one begins and the other ends?
These are excellent (that early IH Travel-All with the fixed rear panels seems rare).
Would love to see some pics of Willys pickups and wagons (1946-1964).
Keep up the great work.
I don’t recall ever seeing a Travelall panel van either. I did see a few Wagoneer panel van/sedan deliveries from the ’60s, some with rare barn doors out back.
The newer Travelall woody is more how I remember these being used – station wagons for families that needed something even bigger than a Country Squire.
Besides Renault R8s, Montreal Police had some eclectic vehicles in their late ’60s/early ’70s fleet. Just before my time, so never saw these Travelall ambulances on the street there.
The gentleman beside the TravelAll could be an undertaker?
That makes sense. I was thinking maybe prison van, but an official vehicle would have more markings and a special license.
There’s one for sale in Virginia right now. There was another earlier this year with solid rear windows, but it appears that one is gone too.
Beautiful photos capturing a bit of Americana! I like the first one showing the early `60s Dodge D-100 pickup. That might be a `61-`62? The neighborhood behind the truck could easily be my street here in Omaha at that time! (Now I look out the window, and hardly a single original house remains. They’re all McMansions now!)
A bit newer – amber turn signal lenses didn’t show up until the ’63s.
I wish the lead Dodge photo showed a bit more of the license plate frame, to reveal the dealer name, but both the setting and the plate look like California to me. The more formal shots featuring proud owners and new-looking trucks are great.
That’s an Oregon front plate on the lead photo of the Dodge.
You’re right! Thanks.
Great pics, I want that Dodge!
Congrats on your good work Rich, something interesting each and every day!
I though D Stern was also appointed as co-editor, is he ok? seems like nothing for ages.
It’s just Rich.
Third photo from the top:
Is that the water bag hanging from the directional lamp for when the engine overheats?
First photo:
Is the lady holding the cat to keep the dog at bay?
Only good shot of me and my truck. An honest working truck, a 76, bought from Weber Chevrolet in Creve Coeur. Much better than my 74 Audi Fox, which did strictly urban and dating duties. Used the truck to bring supplies to the farm along the Cortuois in the Missouri Ozarks, and construction materials for the Edwardian we were rehabbing in Lafayette Square in South St, Louis. It was not yet habitable through the year, hence my suburban setting. I did not damage the truck while sitting on it. It was a tough truck. And, I was all of maybe 130 lbs at the time.
Looks like this may be about 1978, based on your hair and the truck.
I think that’s a 1957 4WD Suburban. I believe that 1957 was the first year that Chevy built 4WD trucks in-house, as opposed to aftermarket by NAPCO and others. If I’m right, that would make it one of the most expensive and low-production Chevy trucks for that year.
It’s a ’58 or ’59. Up to 1958, most all light duty Chevy 4X4’s were Napco conversions, starting in ’58 the Napco conversion could be factory installed, though many were still installed by dealers or truck equipment companies. It can be very difficult to determine if a ’58 or ’59 Chevy 4X4 was a factory or aftermarket Napco conversion.
Timely!
My dealer has given me a $70,000 F-150 for the week. It boggles my mind when compared to pick ups from my past. These wonderful old pick ups are like wooden Conestoga wagons compared to this new truck. Driving it is like piloting a jet plane. Everything is computerized. It does not look or act like it ought to haul a sack of manure. This week I also reviewed the new Tesla Cybertruck, which makes this new Ford look like – a Conestoga Wagon.
While the Ford is stunning, it also represents the apex of an idea we see on this page. The trucks I had were to be maintained by common garage tools and sometimes, creative desperation when you found yourself 20 miles from civilization with a truck problem. More than once, I used my bailing wire and duct tape to get out of a jam in my old trucks. I have riveted and screwed rusting steel into place when I found it dangling from underneath. Wire coat hangers might not be welcomed at Joan Crawford’s house, but how many of us twisted a few of them around a truck part needing temporary support? Like a war-time JEEP, pick up trucks were made to keep going in the face of reality. That is one of their strengths, and one of the reasons they became the best sellers in America today. The more sophisticated cars became, the more important it was for us to have a truck.
Today’s F-150 combines that sophisticated car with the Swiss-Army knife versatility of that basic pick up truck shape. This truck I am driving has a enormous sun roof and sits at a height that requires my 6’3″ self to climb into it like I am back delivering Pepsi in an eight bay 1987 Ford L Series. It does not feel like a truck. It does not drive like a truck. The Internet connections on this F-150 is stunning. I expect that soon it will demand that I connect the dash to my bank account, so that it can drain my accounts as it takes me down the road. The truck bed is composed of stainless steel. Yet this is where we are at the end of this epoch in truck design.
The new epoch starting this month is called the Tesla Cybertruck. Today, it appears that the idea of a pick up truck is considered the future. What Tesla did this month is unveil a vehicle that does what these old pick up trucks can do, but also do it at sportscar speeds, without a combustion engine, and with quality that had only been previously found on NASA and at pharmaceutical laboratories. The very build materials are revolutionary. The very manufacturing process is breaks every convention currently in practice. This Cybertruck will come down in price because creating them takes advantage of cheaper, faster and higher quality assembly. This is new from the ground up and manufactured from ideas never before implemented in vehicle manufacturing. There are a lot of folks writing about how this Cybertruck will not succeed – but they are basing their opinions on obsolete 20th century thinking. Tesla repeatedly breaks every mold and every standard – complaining about the range or cost of a Cybertruck is like claiming in 1908 that the new Model T isn’t as nice as the new Oldsmobile Curved Dash.
So – I read this post with a lot of longing. How I wish for a simpler time when bailing wire, duct tape and a wire coat hanger can get me to Goober’s Garage for a $40 dollar fix that’ll hold for another year. I see a future where a $70,000 truck is dependent on the internet, an electrical recharger, and some kind of laboratory innovation to stay on the road.
My problem with the Tesla truck is that it’s just downright ugly!! Don’t care how good it is otherwise, I wouldn’t own it.
I think the Cybertruck is revolutionary, but I am not sure if it is creating a new type of utility vehicle or represents an evolution of the current light truck market. From a commercial standpoint it has a lot of shortcomings but for personal use it seems quite appealing. Maybe the current light truck market will evolve into 2 distinct markets, commercial and personal use. Current full size light trucks do an amazing job of catering to both markets using the same basic vehicle platforms, that’s very efficient and economical.
Realistically, the full size pickup market has been highly divergent in the personal and commercial markets, and I would hazard to guess that the percentage of full size pickups used exclusively for personal use is very high. Realistically, a lot of commercial vehicle use has gravitated to vans.
It’s quite clear that the CT is targeting the personal market, which is plenty big to absorb Tesla’s production capability for it.
Another big factor is that a lot of commercial trucks are bought by fleets, small and large, but fleet buyers tend to strongly stick to one of the Big 3 because they can buy a wide range of trucks and other vehicles through a single bid/vendor. That’s precisely the reason GM (and Ram) went back into medium trucks, so that they could offer the wide range that Ford did.
I’m pretty sure that no F150 has a stainless steel bed. Maybe aluminum. Even the Cybertruck has a plastic (reinforced composite) bed, despite its stainless body panels. I have been reading and watching everything I can find on the CT for the last week and it is pretty revolutionary – for a truck. I saw a brief interview with Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering (ex-Honda guy) and came away impressed by his statement that they started with a clean sheet of paper, basing their design on first principles, not copying other trucks and refining existing ideas. Yeah, I do think it’s ugly but the more I learn about it, the more everything makes sense. When I get mine, I’ll pose for a picture with it, and our great-great-great-grandkids can comment on it at CC in 2085.
I’m quite fascinated by the CT. I was talking today with Stephanie, trying to decide what other production car had such a radically different design in its time. Maybe a good QOTD?
Another inventor – hmmmm
I think the car you just posted, the Citroen DS, would likely win that poll.
First picture with the dog pulling in to that driveway to ask that lady holding the cat directions is a hoot.
I recall Scout pickups being popular for snow clearing. Steinberg’s was a large grocery chain in Ontario and Quebec.
A BP service station near my parent’s home had a Scout for clearing the station’s lot.
I’ll take the one in image #4, please.
The real deal.
Oh my, that Travelall in the last shot is my dream car!!
The seventh photo with the man crossing the road from a GMC truck.
Is that the Canadian flag in the background before the Maple Leaf was adopted?
The Canadian Red Ensign flag was used before 1965, with the coat of arms prominently shown to the right, on the former Canadian flag. I don’t clearly see part of the coat of arms in the flag in the photo. As the coat of arms sits well below the Union Jack, part of it should be visible. Why I can’t say conclusively either way.
The licence plate colour or layout doesn’t seem to match a specific annual plate used by British Columbia, Alberta, or the Yukon, from the 1950s or 1960s.
Perhaps, Rich knows the source location?
It’s a California truck license plate. The scenery sure looks like the Alaska Highway or thereabouts, so the plate and the scenery suggest a big roadtrip, but I’m also puzzled by the lack of a visible coat of arms on the flag. Maybe the flag’s curled just right to conceal the coat of arms?
Even if the flag is curled, part of the coat of arms, should appear lower than the base of the Union Jack. The lower part of the coat of arms should be visible, as there is plenty of open space to the right of the Union Jack, that is visible. Also, the stripes on the Union Jack are usually very clear from a distance. They aren’t obvious here.
I agree – sure doesn’t look like there’s a coat of arms there at all.
The scenery sure looks like the Dawson City area – but I can’t find an exact match for the hills in the background.
I was looking at the signage visible to the right of the driver’s outside rearview mirror, wondering if I could recognize the sign design/layout to a specific state or province… no luck.
Using the image serial number, tried to locate it at Tumblr: tumblr_97cb49c7188b461803e137ed0b02e8e0_a3039e97_1280
Serial number doesn’t work using Google or Tumblr.
The oil that is sprayed on the road to keep the dust down, makes me think this is perhaps the Alaska Highway as well. A well-used road.
Do you think it could be a RCMP flag? If it’s a barracks or other facility, that might explain the official-looking sign as well.
Great research! Could be RCMP. Though the pattern and colour of the upper left rectangular area doesn’t seem to match.
As the flag is red, with the unique rectangular area in the upper left, guessing the flag is associated with Canada, and the Canadian Red Ensign flag, would be an accurate direction to take. Determining, if it is in Canada.
I think it would help if a reader might recognize this location and facility, to confirm.
Why Google maps is such a valuable tool. If only Google maps existed well before 2007. It is unfortunate that researchers didn’t have the technology/foresight to document the Earth with 360 degree cameras much earlier.
I do think how the flag is presented, looking like the Red Ensign, makes association to Canada a very good/strong possibility.
Very good guess, I’d say!
My grand dad had a blue Dodge D-100, slant 6 and 3 on the tree. His was a 65 like the green pickup in the first picture. I loved to drive it. If you easily shifted from low gear to second without the clutch it would bark the rear tires. I didn’t do it often as that was not good on the synchronizers. Love all these pictures. Simpler time and a saner time.
I’ll never stop loving basic work trucks .
-Nate
I’ve seen those Travelall vans used by funeral homes as flower wagons.