Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 7, 2022 9:27:54 GMT -6
I just noticed today that we have no thread started about farm trucks... I've had a few good, old, farm trucks in my life and thought I'd take some time here today to write a little about a few of them. One was a 1955 Chevy, ton-and-a-half hay truck, with a 17' foot flat bed. I drove that thing many a mile, hauling hay and firewood. I remember one time, as I was driving it to haul some hay over in Wagoner County, I noticed smoke boiling out from under the hood and pulled over to see what was going on. I was not prepared for what I saw when I opened the hood! There was an old bird nest on top of the engine's exhaust manifold. The truck had a straight six in it and that bird had built a nest in the worst possible place; it was just below the oil bath breather and had caught on fire from a leak in the exhaust manifold where part of the gasket was missing!
Lucky for me, there was a water can on that old truck and I was able to douse the flames before the oil inside the breather had a chance to boil off and explode! That was a close one, but it did no real harm to the truck as a whole. It had spared the plug wires and the old engine started right back up.
One of my farm trucks was an old 1965 Chevy half-ton, it wasn't nearly as tough as the old '55 but it was a lot more nimble and a lot more fun to drive. I remember hauling a full-grown bull to the sale barn in the back of that thing one time, and him stepping through the old wooden bed on the way there! What a day that turned out to be. Why do you reckon they ever put wooden beds in the back of pickup trucks for? The bigger question is how did they ever get away with it?
One of my old farm trucks was a 1961 Ford F-100, it never was much of a truck, but we did a lot of work with it nonetheless. I remember that thing getting hung up in 2nd gear once, while I was driving up Depot Hill in Tahlequah. It was just a little bit West of the original Reasor's grocery store. I believe the real name of that street might be Choctaw Avenue, but back in the day, there was a train depot there and all the old-timers just called it Depot Hill. I imagine it had that name, long before pavement ever arrived in Tahlequah. You know how people are when they start slinging asphalt around ... first thing you know, they start calling the old dirt roads such things as Boulevards, Promenades, and Avenues.
Depot Hill had a fairly steep incline and the car ahead of me had decided to brake abruptly to make an unexpected right hand turn. Unable to downshift, and unable to take off from a dead stop on a hill, in 2nd gear, I killed the truck and got out to see if I could fix it. I reached under the hood, flipped the gearshift lever into the neutral position, but had failed to scotch the wheels well enough and the truck took off backward, back down the hill, with the hood still up, and me chasing it, trying to get the door to open so I could get back inside! Luckily, it was hot summertime and the window was rolled down, so I reached inside and steered it off the street into the old Reasor's parking lot, narrowly missing the cars that were parked there.
Though, all of those trucks were good to reminisce about, out of all of the old farm trucks I've had and retired through the years, the one that Dad used to have, stands out the most.
A few years ago, I inherited that same old farm truck. This Spring, it's 42- years-old. It's not really what I'd call a truck though. It's a base model, 1980 Jeep, CJ5, manual shift 4-speed, with a 4 cylinder engine, and no frills whatsoever, no radio, no power brakes, no air conditioning, only two seats, and not even a top. My dad bought it new to use on his farm. It was strictly a utility vehicle. It was in service from 1980 through 2007, pulling stumps, hauling rolls of barbed wire, bundles of fence posts, log chains, picks and shovels, post drivers, axes, sledge hammers, steel wedges, fence stretchers, chainsaws, vet supplies, and about half the time, doing all those things while pulling a trailer loaded with rocks or firewood.
It had a hard life and served its purpose for 27 years before the transmission finally gave out sometime around 2007. That's the way it came to me back in 2015, stinking dead, with a broken windshield, and sitting on a trailer with four flat tires. It's got a couple two or three good dents in it, both the front fenders are crumpled, and there is a crumple in the driver's side of the tub where it was high centered once on a downed tree, but no obvious rust, and a few good dents don't effect it's appeal much.
After looking at it every day, sitting in my yard getting rustier, for the past 7 years, I finally took some time to start repairing it this Winter. I've been working on it off and on for a couple of months now. So far, I've replaced the dry-rotted tires and rusty rims with new ones, overhauled the transmission, dropped in a new gas tank, replaced the fuel lines, fuel filter, fuel sending unit, and carburetor.
Next, I'll tear into the brakes, replacing the master cylinder, and then, I'll get busy working on the clutch. Maybe, some day, I'll actually get it to running again.
This thing has been a workhorse all of its life. I've pulled tractors out of the pond with it, skidded enough 28' foot oak logs out of the woods with it to build a log cabin, chased cows in it, fixed many a mile of barbed wire fence, and taken it on many hunting and fishing trips.
This is the first time it has had tires that were not dry-rotted in about a decade. The last time I drove it was back in 1998. If I ever get it going again, that will really be something.
Lucky for me, there was a water can on that old truck and I was able to douse the flames before the oil inside the breather had a chance to boil off and explode! That was a close one, but it did no real harm to the truck as a whole. It had spared the plug wires and the old engine started right back up.
One of my farm trucks was an old 1965 Chevy half-ton, it wasn't nearly as tough as the old '55 but it was a lot more nimble and a lot more fun to drive. I remember hauling a full-grown bull to the sale barn in the back of that thing one time, and him stepping through the old wooden bed on the way there! What a day that turned out to be. Why do you reckon they ever put wooden beds in the back of pickup trucks for? The bigger question is how did they ever get away with it?
One of my old farm trucks was a 1961 Ford F-100, it never was much of a truck, but we did a lot of work with it nonetheless. I remember that thing getting hung up in 2nd gear once, while I was driving up Depot Hill in Tahlequah. It was just a little bit West of the original Reasor's grocery store. I believe the real name of that street might be Choctaw Avenue, but back in the day, there was a train depot there and all the old-timers just called it Depot Hill. I imagine it had that name, long before pavement ever arrived in Tahlequah. You know how people are when they start slinging asphalt around ... first thing you know, they start calling the old dirt roads such things as Boulevards, Promenades, and Avenues.
Depot Hill had a fairly steep incline and the car ahead of me had decided to brake abruptly to make an unexpected right hand turn. Unable to downshift, and unable to take off from a dead stop on a hill, in 2nd gear, I killed the truck and got out to see if I could fix it. I reached under the hood, flipped the gearshift lever into the neutral position, but had failed to scotch the wheels well enough and the truck took off backward, back down the hill, with the hood still up, and me chasing it, trying to get the door to open so I could get back inside! Luckily, it was hot summertime and the window was rolled down, so I reached inside and steered it off the street into the old Reasor's parking lot, narrowly missing the cars that were parked there.
Though, all of those trucks were good to reminisce about, out of all of the old farm trucks I've had and retired through the years, the one that Dad used to have, stands out the most.
A few years ago, I inherited that same old farm truck. This Spring, it's 42- years-old. It's not really what I'd call a truck though. It's a base model, 1980 Jeep, CJ5, manual shift 4-speed, with a 4 cylinder engine, and no frills whatsoever, no radio, no power brakes, no air conditioning, only two seats, and not even a top. My dad bought it new to use on his farm. It was strictly a utility vehicle. It was in service from 1980 through 2007, pulling stumps, hauling rolls of barbed wire, bundles of fence posts, log chains, picks and shovels, post drivers, axes, sledge hammers, steel wedges, fence stretchers, chainsaws, vet supplies, and about half the time, doing all those things while pulling a trailer loaded with rocks or firewood.
It had a hard life and served its purpose for 27 years before the transmission finally gave out sometime around 2007. That's the way it came to me back in 2015, stinking dead, with a broken windshield, and sitting on a trailer with four flat tires. It's got a couple two or three good dents in it, both the front fenders are crumpled, and there is a crumple in the driver's side of the tub where it was high centered once on a downed tree, but no obvious rust, and a few good dents don't effect it's appeal much.
After looking at it every day, sitting in my yard getting rustier, for the past 7 years, I finally took some time to start repairing it this Winter. I've been working on it off and on for a couple of months now. So far, I've replaced the dry-rotted tires and rusty rims with new ones, overhauled the transmission, dropped in a new gas tank, replaced the fuel lines, fuel filter, fuel sending unit, and carburetor.
Next, I'll tear into the brakes, replacing the master cylinder, and then, I'll get busy working on the clutch. Maybe, some day, I'll actually get it to running again.
This thing has been a workhorse all of its life. I've pulled tractors out of the pond with it, skidded enough 28' foot oak logs out of the woods with it to build a log cabin, chased cows in it, fixed many a mile of barbed wire fence, and taken it on many hunting and fishing trips.
This is the first time it has had tires that were not dry-rotted in about a decade. The last time I drove it was back in 1998. If I ever get it going again, that will really be something.