Reo trucks

Years back my dad and uncles owned a 1967 Reo Gold Comet tandem dump truck.
Had 16K front axle,38K rears on Hendrickson spring suspension,5&4 transmission.Powered by a Red Diamond 450 engine.Later in it's work life,it became a water truck after became to hard to certify for the yearly dump truck safety inspection.No maxi brake,just single brake chambers.Wedge brakes as well.Drove it many times and it sure made for a learning experience.Drop it in the basement,about 1200 rpm and it would get through soft sand that would bog down most trucks-except a Mack with a peanut differential:drinkup. Anyone have any stories/experiences with these trucks?

Dominion

The only Reo's I have any experience with were school buses. I started kindergarten in 1965 and at that time all the school bus chassis except for one V6 GMC were Reos. I can remember the Gold Comet emblem on the sides of the hood and the unique "frap" noise the 6 cylinder exhaust made when it resonated. I was too young to notice much else about them, I do remember on afternoon where the throttle linkage broke on my bus and the driver hay wired the carb at half throttle to get us home.

I guess when Reo stopped production our district bought IH buses and has pretty much since except one year they got 3 or 4 BlueBirds on the GMC V6 again.

The man I worked for when I was in high school had a late 1960's diamond reo .It had the in line 6 cylinder "gold comet"gas engine,5&4 tranny 34,000 rockwell rears.It was an ex-concrete mixer truck.It's pto was mounted on the rear engine housing,it drove off a pulley that was in between the crankshaft and flywheel using a flat cog belt.I think mack had a simular system at the time.The rearends were 6.50 ratio so with the trannys in low range it would crawl out of some bad places.You would hear a "sonic-boom" when the truck broke 50 mph.It worked great on off road job's.I do remember it had s-cam type air breaks with the spring chambers on the front drive axil.The rearends had seals behind the axil shaft flanges to keep the 90wt differential oil out of the wheel hubs so the wheel bearings had to be packed in grease.This was common on the older trucks.Most people done away with the axil seal and installed the oil type seal in the hub to let the 90wt oil lube the wheel bearings like the modern trucks dne interesting thing I noticed is for many years diamond reo,autocar,western star trucks used the white cab then installing there own hood.Anyone else notice this?Were these companys tied in with white?

25c said:

One interesting thing I noticed is for many years diamond reo,autocar,western star trucks used the white cab then installing there own hood.Anyone else notice this?Were these companys tied in with white?

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Yep. White Motors owned all three before going bankrupt and bought out by Volvo. However, Diamond REO was already discontinued and at the present time WS and what's left of Autocar is indepedent of White/Volvo control.

That makes sence stretch.I always thought there was a connection beween diamond reo,autocar,western star, and white.There were alot of simularitys in those trucks.We still have a few diamond reo's running the road in my area.My nieghbor runs a 1984 diamond reo "giant".It's a neet looking truck and is spec't out heavy.

I had the opportunity about 9 years ago to meet the man who owns the rights to Diamond Reo, my friend and I drove it to PA and went through the buildings where he has stored everything. We got to open up the blueprint files and look at all of the engineering prints for everything they had. They also had a couple of cabs, hoods, and frame rails from the last truck on the assembly line when they closed. Suprised to see that those frame rails were supposed to be going to Auto Spring in Winston-Salem, NC, the local Diamond Reo dealer that is about 8 miles from my house. They had a lot of parts and at that time they were still answering the phone and selling parts. My friend has not contacted them since, so I do not know what the deal is now. I would love to see Diamond Reo or anyone else come back to building trucks again, just to have an option other than the "cookie cutter" trucks out there now.

According to some research I did on Reo, the cab you're talking about here was designed by Diamond T and was also used by International and Reo.

A company I worked for in PA had 2 Diamond Reo single axle dumps. One was a 1973 and the other was a 74. They both had the 6 cyl gas "Gold Comet" in them and there was nothing remotely related to a "Comet" about them!!
They had 5spds with splitter. I think they topped out at about 52, 53 mph. They had spreader boxes on the back and we used them for chip sealing. We even rolled one of them on its side one day, brought out a loader, stood it back upright, filled it back up with oil and replace the mirror and was back on the road by afternoon with really no other damage to it.
They both were good old workhorses as long as you weren't in a big hurry!! I'll dig threw my picture box and see if I can't find something to scan and post for you all.

here ya go at the pete dealer in New Heaven CT

tonka said:

here ya go at the pete dealer in New Heaven CT

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Very cool pics! That first one looks maybe early 60's. Looks very much like the '62 White 4000 I used to drive.

Thanks for the replies,and excellent photo's.The one thing I remember was the chrome nosing around the rad like the green truck in the photo.The grill was painted though.If I remember the exhaust pipe was 3" diameter or maybe larger.The carbeurator was a Holley four barrel,with three gas tanks,saddle left and right with a center tank as well.The truck when new worked at the Expo 67 site in Montreal,and was purchased at auction by our company.It's still around here,so I'm going to see about some pictures and will post them.

Dominion:canada

I found a 87 diamond reo signal axle dump with a 240 cummins and a allison automatic trans mission the truck looks to be in good shape would this be a good truck

Here is a shot of my 1963 REO. it was specked as a dump w/38,000 rears and 12,000 front and had no front brakes installed from the factory, still has the wedge cans with safety chambers. 180 Cummins w/supercharger, 5X4spicer boxes, topped out empty around 60 MPH and full between 50 and 55 mph. 8 Yd aluminum box put the tare at a little under 16,000.
I still have it and some day would like to repower it with around 250 hp. as the 180 hp. just did not cut it.

I still have a lot of parts to keep it running along with a extra 160 hp Cummins that is turbocharged.

One of my brothers had a REO car back when I was a kid.......I remember specifically how well it performed on a hill and my brother always commented on it while we were pulling a local steep hill in my hometown.
I did not chase any links to this so most of you probably know that REO stood for Ransome E. Olds who is credited for creating the Oldsmobile car.
I do remember them as a popular truck long before they merged with Diamond T.Ron G

A couple guys that used to work for Diamond Reo still make trucks in the same building in Harrisburg, PA. I talked to them a couple months ago because they are doing some research on our truck.

Here is the website:

http://www.t-linetrucks.com/

Here is a pic of our 84' Diamond Reo Giant with a 400 Big Cam Cummins.

I have a friend who has an old Diamond Rio towtruck with a straight 8 cylinder. Will try and post some pics. Would love to find out some specifics on this truck. It is huge.

hear is a pic of my 87 diamond reo
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