Memories for us old truckers

[cuttin edge]

This Pete was mine it was old and definitely not Slow.

Truck Shop

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I have never seen a bunk like that on a Pete. Was that factory?

 

[Truck Shop]

You are truly talented Truck Shop. That's kind of ironic that somebody with an artistic streak is a mechanic as well, usually it's either artist or mechanic. Right brain, left brain thing comes to mind.

Really I think my talent came from my dad. He was quite an artist for a guy that only had an eight grade education. Ran a sign shop for years after WWII and was a pro at gold leaf work.
He created hundreds of pen & ink drawings, Eisenhower, Lincoln and prominent WWII generals. He finished his military years in the south pacific and while there he did allot of
B24 bomber nose art. When crews could find someone with sign art ability they took advantage of it. After he passed away and going through his personal collection of photo's from the
war we found photos of nose art with dates. Some of you might remember Vargus girls in Playboy Magazine. Vargus had nothing on my dad when it came to painting nudes.
The picture below is the only clean one I can post. I had to copy this from the web, my oldest brother has my dads photo's and won't let any of his family have any of them.

Truck Shop

 

[RZucker]

I have never seen a bunk like that on a Pete. Was that factory?

Vintage aftermarket Mercury sleeper. That is one of the largest I have seen. Used to have a friend that drove a mid 60's KW that had the standard 36" sleeper in polished stainless. THe rest of the truck was "Shocking Orange" and I mean bright.

 

[cuttin edge]

Vintage aftermarket Mercury sleeper. That is one of the largest I have seen. Used to have a friend that drove a mid 60's KW that had the standard 36" sleeper in polished stainless. THe rest of the truck was "Shocking Orange" and I mean bright.

I worked for D&N truck lines when I was in highschool. I had no class 1 licence but he had me driving all over the province. At the time he had 36 units. 30 Pete's and 6 KWs. I learned to drive in a 359 hauling a flatbed. To this day I can't look out the back window to back up a truck, I have to use my mirrors. I had a love for the 359s, I even liked the 379s

 

[Truck Shop]

I have never seen a bunk like that on a Pete. Was that factory?

That sleeper has created allot of argumentative conversation. I have had people tell me that Mercury never made a sleeper like that. That it was a northwest built Willard or Hood sleeper.
But I talked to the man who originally bought it, he worked for Brown Line in Mt. Vernon, Wa. He told me it was a Mercury and he bought it in 1964 and never installed it. In 1967 he
sold it to the original owner of the 66 Pete who I bought it from. I was the second owner of the Pete, third owner of the sleeper. There was a tag inside the right side box but it was a
screen print tag and all you could make out was Calif in print. Mercury sleepers were built in southern Calif. I sold it to a person that was going to install it on a early 60's KW.
That never happened, it ended up a dog house or kennel then later I was at the local scrap yard and saw it smashed for scrap. Too bad.

Truck Shop

 

[Truck Shop]

This old A-Car was one tough looking truck. This one is a 1965 ,335, 13sp X 4 on RS380 suspension with SQHD's. An old logger with bad aluminum rails and cab floor boards are
rusted out. I was looking at saving it but for the price basically your buying hood, fenders and grille. Finding good windshields for these Kelowna cabs is getting pretty hard.

Truck Shop

 

[Metalman 55]

Here is an old GMC, around a 1953 model I think that my father owned during his early years in business. Dad & granddad made the deck up & mounted it on the truck & he used it for several years to move his Allis Chalmers HD6 dozer around on.

 

[Shimmy1]

That sleeper has created allot of argumentative conversation. I have had people tell me that Mercury never made a sleeper like that. That it was a northwest built Willard or Hood sleeper. But I talked to the man who originally bought it, he worked for Brown Line in Mt. Vernon, Wa. He told me it was a Mercury and he bought it in 1964 and never installed it. In 1967 he sold it to the original owner of the 66 Pete who I bought it from. I was the second owner of the Pete, third owner of the sleeper. There was a tag inside the right side box but it was a screen print tag and all you could make out was Calif in print. Mercury sleepers were built in southern Calif. I sold it to a person that was going to install it on a early 60's KW. That never happened, it ended up a dog house or kennel then later I was at the local scrap yard and saw it smashed for scrap. Too bad.

I sent just a pic of your truck to my uncle, asked him what brand sleeper this was. He texts me this: "I don't know. Not a popular one. Brown made one like that, and a couple other places in Washington that looked similar." I'm not trying to make anybody wrong or right, just seems like nobody really knows for sure.

 

[farmerlund]

If I comment on this tread, does that make me old? My truck is one year older than me. I still have the 1968 Kenworth W900 that I learned to drive truck in. 855 cumimins set a 340HP, 13spd and torsion bar rear suspension. No power steering and aluminum frame. It had a small sleeper on it for years. When we repainted it years ago we took it off and made it a day cab. Used it till the mid 90s, now it is stashed in a shed. It has a even serial number 110000. always thought that was kind of cool, plus easy to remember.

 

[Shimmy1]

Anyone here ever heard of an Aeroliner? Hinges look identical to yours, Truck Shop.

 

[Truck Shop]

I sent just a pic of your truck to my uncle, asked him what brand sleeper this was. He texts me this: "I don't know. Not a popular one. Brown made one like that, and a couple other places in Washington that looked similar." I'm not trying to make anybody wrong or right, just seems like nobody really knows for sure.

Your not making anybody wrong or right, I'm just going by what the man told me who bought it new and Amil Pasco the man who bought that Pete brand new.

Now for the rest of the story about that Pete.

My mom and dad divorced in 66 I stayed on the dairy farm with my mom and sister. I would once in a great while go to Ellensburg to see my dad and hitch a ride with the milk truck driver to get there.
On one trip in the milk truck we were headed from Pasco, Wa to the Arden milk plant in Moses Lake, Wa. when we came up along side a mauve with a black stripe Peterbilt. That Peterbilt! I was eleven
years old at the time. It had the square shack on the back then. I thought that was the coolest looking thing on the road. Twenty two years later I became the second owner. That truck lived between
Ellensburg and Cle Elum . Where I ended up living for 25 years so it was easy for me to keep an eye on it.

Truck Shop

 

[RZucker]

I sent just a pic of your truck to my uncle, asked him what brand sleeper this was. He texts me this: "I don't know. Not a popular one. Brown made one like that, and a couple other places in Washington that looked similar." I'm not trying to make anybody wrong or right, just seems like nobody really knows for sure.

Actually, the shape and construction of that sleeper does resemble some of the trailers that Brown trailer in Spokane Wa. built in the 50's.

 

[Truck Shop]

Yes I've heard of Aero Liner they were distributors for Willard and Hood plus there own brand. And allot of those sleeper manufactures used those same hinges.
I will add that there were only fifteen of the sleepers like the one my Pete made in 64. Told that by the man who bought it. And I really don't know why he would
have lied to me, what would be the point. And see this sleeper causes all kinds
of conversation.

 

[RZucker]

Your not making anybody wrong or right, I'm just going by what the man told me who bought it new and Amil Pasco the man who bought that Pete brand new.

Now for the rest of the story about that Pete.

My mom and dad divorced in 66 I stayed on the dairy farm with my mom and sister. I would once in a great while go to Ellensburg to see my dad and hitch a ride with the milk truck driver to get there.
On one trip in the milk truck we were headed from Pasco, Wa to the Arden milk plant in Moses Lake, Wa. when we came up along side a mauve with a black stripe Peterbilt. That Peterbilt! I was eleven
years old at the time. It had the square shack on the back then. I thought that was the coolest looking thing on the road. Twenty two years later I became the second owner. That truck lived between
Ellensburg and Cle Elum . Where I ended up living for 25 years so it was easy for me to keep an eye on it.

Truck Shop

Wow. the Arden milk plant,,, haven't thought about that for a long time. When I was 5-6 years old we lived out just past the U&I sugar mill and I remember going home in the dark and seeing that milk plant all lit up, seemed that it was mostly glass. It was a Safeway Milk plant recently. I haven't paid attention for a while and don't know if it's still operating. I do know that Milky Way transport's yard is right on the back fence.

 

[Shimmy1]

Hey, Truck Shop. The buddy my uncle called posted this pic on Facebook. Man by the name of Cam Lavin. He claims it's a TruckTrailer. He also posted two more of a TruckTrailer sleeper.

 

[Truck Shop]

Wonder where he got the photo of my old sleeper. That photo had to be taken at the shop I worked at. The scrap yard was one block down. And I guess if it's a truck trailer it's a truck trailer.
But I find it funny that I'm the one who owned it for years and I am told I didn't know what it was. Don't know any Cam Lavin. What's really odd is the interest people have in this sleeper. It probably
still smells inside I passed allot of gas in there.

Truck Shop

 

[Truck Shop]

This is what the truck ended up after I removed the shack

Truck Shop

 

[Shimmy1]

Well, this Cam guy is pretty sharp on old trucks. He has apparently been on Modern Marvels on the History Channel talking about old trucks, and also has many build records on microfiche.

 

[Shimmy1]

Truck Shop, please don't think I set out trying to be the hero of the day here. I sent a pic of your truck to my uncle to see if he knew for sure what brand bunk it was, and he ended up being FB friends with this Cam Lavin guy. My uncle has been driving truck for over 40 years, has almost 5 million logged miles, he's my go-to guy on anything I'm unsure of. He is going to message Cam and ask him how he got the pic of your shack on the ground.

 

[Truck Shop]

I do know who this Cam Levin is. I had a conversation June of last year with him on ATHS forum about that shack. He said then It wasn't a Merc and was positive about it.

Truck Shop