Today at a swap meet, I saw a Diamond T with a flathead V8. It sure looked stock. Was it? What a truck!
All I ever saw were flathead 6-cyls, usually Hercules. BTW, who's flathead V8? Ford, Cad, Lincoln? jack vines
No V-8s. Robert Gabrick's photo archive book shows a photo of a Hercules Diesel in a 36 or 36. That must have been a rare option. I've seen (online) a 50s-vintage Diamond T with an overhead valve straight six that was reported to be Nash motor.
I thought most of the lighter ones came with Continentals. Only V8 possibility would be late 50s big trucks might have had a LeRoi option. (not flathead though)
Hercules was their mainstay through the 40s in the 1-2 ton models, etc. They did use Continentals and Cummins in some of the big, big trucks in the 40s and 50s. I have a V-8 question. In 1966, Diamond T built what they called the Trend. It was a 24,000 lb GVW cab-over-engine with a plastic cab. It used a 327 cu in , 185 hp V-8. Who built that engine? I'm sure they didn't use a Chevy engine. Could it have been a Nash 327?
I looked through my books and don't have anything new enough to list the Trends, but from memory I think it was a Chevy 327. The small block Chevy had a lot of history in trucks even during the 348-409 era so it would have been a logical choice. A few years earlier GM changed the name of their diesel from General Motors Diesel to Detroit Diesel to facilitate an agreement to sell them to International, soon they were selling diesels to most of the truck manufacturers. BTW you are right on the Hercules/Continental question
Did some googling and found this on the ATHS forum. quote; "The Trend chassis according to Howard Fugitt who owns the Trend with a camper that was at Huntsville, is essentially a Chevy 1.5 ton . The factory engine was a SB Chev. ( I think the 366 ci engine was an option)" this is a Diamond Reo version, but Diamond T and Reo versions were almost exactly the same.
That is not what I wanted to hear. My guess was that White was uniting the independents who were being edged out of market by more mainstream manufacturers. Diamond T, REO, Autocar, and International all contributed to the late Diamond T and Diamond Reo marque. I would have guessed AMC to be in that camp more likely than big ole General Motors. So much for my theory.
White was a kind of nasty company over the years, they bought up many small independents and shut them down, finally by 1960 they owned and operated DT, Reo, Autocar, and Western Star plus had a sales and marketing agreement with Freightliner during the 60s. Thing started down hill after they combined Diamond T and Reo as Diamond Reo. After Diamond Reo was sold off they bought GMC large trucks and that left them without cash and they went under. Volvo bought them out, eventually spun off Western star (I think to Daimler) and Autocar became independent again, making Autocar the oldest truck manufacturer in the U.S. Before DT was bought out by White, IH and DT used each others cabs, but that ended when White bought Diamond T in the late 50s. I believe that International is the only class 8 truck manufacturer that is a U.S. company