In the early seventies my Motorways highway career got into gear. And there were Freightliner cabovers, Internationals binders and a conventional Kenworth unit at the terminal. I liked the freightliner cabs the best. My first schedule run was to Fleming at 11 pm where I switched with a Winnipeg driver... I was in high heaven! No log books yet and semi-trailers weren't allowed on the highways at night on weekends in the sixties and early seventies. I think all the Motorways Freightliner cabovers at the time were 250 Cummins Diesel's, with a 10 speed roadranger transmissions. A relatively small and simple engine too maintain with an electric to manual fuel crossover. You learned in time how to make it work for you... it's lugging potential in tenth gear(ten speed road ranger transmission) was remarkable! From a coffee shop standstill the snappy 10 speed tranny's always made you a winner in the quarter mile, but in a few miles the 18 geared owner operator trucks would whoosh past! With such little power in a crosswind pulling a load, top speed would be just under 50 mph. It beat pulling by horses though, but made for an extra-ordinary long night to Edmonton or Calgary. However, mother nature usually felt sorry for us I guess and she would sometime give us a tail wind for the ride home! A few of the senior drivers had mirrors positioned on the driver side of the freightliner cabovers for height clearence I guess. One night in the mirror I noticed the exhaust flame coming out of the smokestack. I swore it was a foot long, I got scared and backed off the pedal... Harry would tell me the next day not to worry about it! I believe in the early eighties, Motorways switched over to a complete Ford fleet... but still Cummins(350's) and the 10 speed Roadranger trannys with a bulldog low gear! The deep reduction would be used for heavy beer loads. The miniature metal cabover and trailer in this display I got from Richard many years ago... he has a collection of trucks, as well as Gerry. I photographed the unit in front of a white background... with my software program I was able to paste the truck and trailer nicely onto a photo of an interesection I had.
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The Smokestack Scare
In the early seventies my Motorways highway career got into gear. And there were Freightliner cabovers, Internationals binders and a conventional Kenworth unit at the terminal. I liked the freightliner cabs the best. My first schedule run was to Fleming at 11 pm where I switched with a Winnipeg driver... I was in high heaven! No log books yet and semi-trailers weren't allowed on the highways at night on weekends in the sixties and early seventies. I think all the Motorways Freightliner cabovers at the time were 250 Cummins Diesel's, with a 10 speed roadranger transmissions. A relatively small and simple engine too maintain with an electric to manual fuel crossover. You learned in time how to make it work for you... it's lugging potential in tenth gear(ten speed road ranger transmission) was remarkable! From a coffee shop standstill the snappy 10 speed tranny's always made you a winner in the quarter mile, but in a few miles the 18 geared owner operator trucks would whoosh past! With such little power in a crosswind pulling a load, top speed would be just under 50 mph. It beat pulling by horses though, but made for an extra-ordinary long night to Edmonton or Calgary. However, mother nature usually felt sorry for us I guess and she would sometime give us a tail wind for the ride home! A few of the senior drivers had mirrors positioned on the driver side of the freightliner cabovers for height clearence I guess. One night in the mirror I noticed the exhaust flame coming out of the smokestack. I swore it was a foot long, I got scared and backed off the pedal... Harry would tell me the next day not to worry about it! I believe in the early eighties, Motorways switched over to a complete Ford fleet... but still Cummins(350's) and the 10 speed Roadranger trannys with a bulldog low gear! The deep reduction would be used for heavy beer loads. The miniature metal cabover and trailer in this display I got from Richard many years ago... he has a collection of trucks, as well as Gerry. I photographed the unit in front of a white background... with my software program I was able to paste the truck and trailer nicely onto a photo of an interesection I had.
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Nice article, thanks for the information.
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