History 200 horsepower

And that’s the bragging number…

 

Would that be the total? The truck and everything on it added together?
In the era of an 85 HP flathead V8, 200 HP was a pie in the sky number.

 

Yep, all totaled together.

40 hp towing that trailer!

 

Neat !!!

 

As long as were adding numbers might as well call it 200 HP @ 11,000 RPM.

 

Great old photo.

 

Throw in a couple of the same era motorcycles as well and if they were all parked in my garage I’d be a very contented man!

 

COOL PHOTO! It's all in the gearing, slow but it worked.

 

The truck has double-sided whitewalls!!!

 

My dad's buddy had a late 40s or very early 50s IH 2 ton farm truck (back in he mid 60s). It had the 2 speed rear end, and a very low 1st gear in what I think was a 5 speed trans. When it was loaded with grain, heading towards the shipping barges, it had a top speed of maybe 50 mph on flat ground (probably took as long to stop it from that speed as it did to get up to it), but when it hit those steep hills along the IL side of the Mississippi River, with the rear in low and the trans in low, it would chug along up any hill. Dad and I rode along a few times. Sounded like an old tractor climbing those hills, (chug, chug, chug, you could feel every cylinder fire!) You probably could have gotten out and walked faster then the truck was moving, but it always kept creeping along up those hills. By the time we got to the barge station turn off, I think we had a line of cars a mile long behind us. A trip that would take less then an hour one way now was at least a 2 hour trip then. It did pretty good coming home, when it was empty.

Funny the things that trigger a memory! Gene

 

My grandpa told me stories of going over the Grapevine in his '24 Model T. He even installed a 4 valve Rajo head on it but it still wouldn't pull the long grades. He had a board that he'd wedge between the seat riser and the low pedal and just walk along side of the roadster.

Every time I go over the Grapevine I think of him in that Ford, especially when I see parts of the old highway.

 

Looks like they are all sitting on chocks, not tied down.

 

That's probably fine. Top speed with that truck pulling that load was probably about 7.

 

I see the rear wheels of everything on the trailer are propped up to keep them level, that might help keep them from rolling off the trailer.
Its pretty obvious that set up is for pretty level ground, it couldn't possible climb too many big hills. Might have been a simple photo opt or engineering step (Someday maybe? or Look Henry, if we add dual rear axles and more HP to our trucks, we could haul 4 instead of just 2. ) as well.

 

I think propped up so the bumpers cleared? Truck probably has the aux trans also. I wonder what total gear is? In low I'm guessing about 45 to 60:1. About 5 tons on the trailer.

 

That is what I think too.

 

In October of 1957, we moved to Oklahoma from Ventura, California. The main vehicle was a 1937 Ford ton and a half, with four foot side boards loaded down with a 1934 WC Allis-Chalmbers tractor and other things, pulling a four wheel trailer with four foot side boards, loaded with all of our stuff.
Right outside the LA area on old Rt66 there was a hill that was 17 miles long! My Dad had that truck in second gear on that four speed and had that 85 horsepower flat head running 3000 rpm via the Sun Tack he mounted in the center of the dash. Six year old me asks my Dad if we were going to make it? We did , it took us a couple of hours to make it !






Bones