Autocars - Volvo Era - on the road trip

Original White Autocars are pretty rare, but even the late model Volvo Autocars are seldom seen, but I keep my road trip eyes open.

This semi with dump trailer was taking at lunch break at the Tim Horton's /Shell at the east side of Moncton / Dieppe, NB. Note the skid plate - once an Autocar trademark.

A twin steer dumper near Quebec City was idle for the last weekend of the construction holiday. It does not wear the Volvo diagonal rad bar (it may have been removed).

The rad, headlight frames and even the famed monogram were nicely picked out in red.

Volvo built nearly identical trucks without the Autocar radiator/grille, such as this pristine straight operated by Miller paving, also seen in Moncton, NB. It normally tows a draw bar trailer carrying a roller.

Volvo produced Autocar branded trucks from 1981 to 2001 before selling the trade name.

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Atlantic Truck Show, Moncton, NB June 7,8, 2019

All the major brands were represented, but not all were photograph-able due either to the tight spaces or the masses of people around the exhibits blocking the view. Apologies to Peterbilt and Volvo- their displays were just too popular!

I found most of the trucks on display indoors fairly unexciting. They were obviously demos and thus few had any custom paint schemes and there were no dramatically new models that I had not seen before.

Autocar

Freightliner

Navistar International

Kenworth

Mack

Western Star

It was a different story outside, where the trucks were supposed to be secondary to trailers or cranes or truck bodies, but they were real working trucks, and they were all Western Stars!

Then there was the parking lots where there were some real finds:

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Classics old and new

A recent road trip turned up a couple of classic brands.

It is a long time since General Motors produced a full line of trucks from Class 8 on down. Since they agreed to sell their remaining heavy truck line to Volvo in 1986, they have only built mid-range GMC trucks, up to about Class 7.
In their heyday however they had a good share of the Class 8 market particularly when they replaced the "Crackerbox" Jimmy in 1969 with the GMC Astro and Chevrolet Titan. The trucks were very modern looking, contained novel ergonomics in the cab and eventually included Cummins and Cat engine choices in addition to Detroit.

The GMC Astro was always the more popular, and GM eliminated the entire Chevrolet truck line in 1981 - mostly because Chev dealers wanted to sell and service cars and not to be bothered with heavy trucks.
The GMC Astro continued in production ending with the 1987 model year. At that point, after a few years of White GMC, (using the White cab) they changed over to Volvo designed trucks.

This GMC Asto carries a Nova Scotia Antique Auto plate - and so it should - and  appears to be in mostly original condition.(The big rad was introduced to accommodate Cummins and Cat engines)

As Volvo took over White in 1981, the parent of Autocar, they phased out the classic model in 1987 and the WhiteGMC replacement in 2000.  However another company bought the Autocar name and the White Xpeditor cab in 2001 and began producing an Autocar branded truck again - this one strictly for the vocational market - with the Xpeditor low cab forward.

They have since expanded the line with more models and variations, including a military refueler.

Likely from the Greenwood, NS air base, this refueler was outside the fence (but not AWL) for service. It also looks fairly recent, so is by no means an antique, even though Autocar is the oldest North American truck brand still in production.

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Road Report - more classics

A trip through Central and Northern mainland Nova Scotia on Labour Day revealed a few classics still on the job:

This nicely rebuilt C series Ford was once in fire service (some of the gold leaf survives on the cowl) but the doors have been so well repainted there is no outward sign of what department(s) it served. The conversion to carry a dumpster box includes hydraulics and appears to have been done very professionally. (Truro)

 Although it has a 9000 hood, I suspect this Louisville started life as another model. Not many 9000s would have been built a single screw. (Stellarton)

Some Autocars are hard to kill. This dual steer dumper appears to be a daily worker even after all these years. (Elmsdale)

 Nova Scotia's Department of Transportation has extensive shops for rebuilding and maintaining their trucks, so perhaps it is not surprising that this Comfort Cab version Western Star is still on the road.
(Milford, Hants County)

The only thing classic about this Volvo is the colour. Day and Ross, once marketed itself as "The Big Orange" but in recent years has gone to factory white (oh so boring) for company trucks. Perhaps an o/o took it upon himself to go for tradition. Normally there would also have been some black trim too.
(Stellarton)

 Probably a bargain here for someone. This GMC C8500 is a little too big to justify for my driveway, but it would be fun to give it a try. (Stellarton)

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Road Report - Classics

During the month of August, always on the search for unusual trucks, I didn't see much until the drive home through New Brunswick. I did catch a few in Quebec however.


Pristine Mack restoration:

Badged as a Superliner, it lacks the golden bulldog, but with the R model cab and notched sleeper, it is a classic - and sounds good too. The RW (for R Western) as it was called was built from 1977 based on a Brockway prototype, and was probably never equaled until the arrival of the Titan.

Always on the lookout for working Autocars, I saw two, but only caught up with one. Both were late model (White GMC / Volvo era), twin steers.

I have shown this one here before - it is used by a foundation contractor, so does not accumulate much mileage, but was rebuilt in the last two or three years, and is still looking good.

On the way through New Brunswick, I saw a few "used iron" lots where it seems the oldies have come to roost until a buyer shows up:

Early set back with White/ Autocar cab is much used but appears to have life left in it.

Parked nearby was this 1982 Metalfab pumper tanker built on a GMC 7000 series commercial chassis.

The tank capacity is a large 1200 (imperial) gallons, and dates from October 1982.

Further down the road in Fredericton, I struck gold - at least for White GMC /Volvo fans:

 The finest looking White GMCs were these short lived models, with tombstone rad, particularly with the low rise integral sleeper.

White contributed this COE cab, which was continued for some time into the Volvo era. This former New Brunswick Department of Highways unit, was likely shop built. 

A great hi-rise plow with spreader body, was likely a Highways Department unit originally. It covers all the bases with White GMC on the rad with Volvo bar and Autocar on the hood.

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Atlantic Truck Show 2017

The place to be to see the big rigs was the Atlantic Truck Show at the Moncton Colosseum, June 10 and 11. My flying visit June 11 took in most of the sights. Some highlights:

The Freightliner Western /Star display took up most of the ice surface area, but there was much more to see in other halls.

Western Star
Celebrating is 50th anniversary, Western Star pulled out the stops and brought in some stunning looking trucks.

The Bandit 5700XE stood tall next to its more traditional stable mate.

Wedged into a tight corner Big Red 6900XD deserved more space and more attention.

 Larochelle used a Western Star to carry its plow and spreader body.

Freightliner
The other part of Daimler Trucks North America was also front and centre:

Their new Cascadia model shared the stage with several other models.

Volvo

 

 Volvo certainly put on a shine show, but it seemed to me that they devoted more space to their other brand:

Mack

 

 
Although not part of the Volvo Mack stand, this interesting unit was also on display: 

 Beautifully restored 1947 Mack stake side was a marked contrast to the big rigs.

Kenworth

Kenworths were shoehorned in but impressive even so.

Navistar International

 

There were lots of Internationals at the show, but almost all of them had their hoods open  when I was there, so were not photo'd.

Miscellaneous
A few other eye poppers stood out:

 A pristine GMC, complete with chrome grille was a reminder of  days gone by. 


Autocar

 

 Autocar's history since the bankruptcy of White Motor Co in 1980 has been quite different from Western Star, but at least the name is still around.

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