Sunday, March 28, 2010

Chev / GMC Tilt Cab

Never as popular as Ford's C-series tilt cab, its main competitor, Chev/GMC's L series steel tilt cab managed to stay in production from 1960 to 1981 (some sources say ca. 1984)
Most of my photos of this type are fire apparatus, so here's a sampling............
Onslow Belmont, Nova Scotia, GMC (taken 1993)

Just repainted Chev (taken 1988)

GMC- King tanker pumper, Chester Basin, Nova Scotia (taken 1987)

GMC King, Sussex, New Brunswick, with extended cab (taken 1986)
A beautifully maintained Chev, St-Aime des-Lacs, Quebec, (taken in 2003)
GMC Thibault, near Sorel, Quebec (taken in 2007)
GMC? Chev? Thibault aeriel in its second incarnation as a bucket truck, seen on the Quebec City waterfront (taken in 2007) Note the cab is set higher, and there are fender extensions to accommodate a larger engine.
1972 brochure

5 comments:

  1. very like the uk,s gm bedford tk/km truck which ran from 1960 to 1982 weights of 7.5 to 32tons and engines gas and diesel 4/6 cyl and v6/71 detroit diesel engines.

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  2. My Dad drove a 68 Chev Cabover that he converted from a smaller 1960 International Cabover for his business "Hoods ". I was 10 yrs old and loved riding in it.

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  3. In my community, there were at least two refuse trucks that used a GMC L-series chassis. They both had a Leach standard (not 2R) Packmaster. One of them had a 16 yard body and the other had a 20 yard body. There might have been a third truck like the other two I described.

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  4. Just for the record, the community I was mentioning that had these trucks is Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. These trucks do not exist anymore. However, a number of communities in my area had similar refuse trucks. Nearby, North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow) had a working example of such a refuse truck until 1986 or possibly 1987. It had either a Leach standard Packmaster or possibly a Leach Sanicruiser body (20 yard).

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  5. My dad still has one of these trucks, a GMC L 4000 on his farm that he has used to haul grain for over 40 years. It is a late 60s model and had been traded in the early 70s by a local lumberyard that had a whole fleet of them.

    It was only three or four years old when dad got it but it had already had a hard life and been in a few fender benders He got it for practically nothing because NOBODY would buy it because it had the Toro Flow Diesel. Dad bought it figuring that the price was cheap enough that when the Toro Flow self destructed he could put a gas engine from the junkyard in it and still come out ok.

    He has been driving it for 40 years and has had to do absolutely nothing to the Toro Flow diesel other than routine maintenance and oil changes.

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