Looks like Harold covered the subject well.
My day was a partner in a IH truck and tractor dealership from the 50' into
the late 60, when we got out of the business (couldn't make enough money as
an honest dealer.....)
As Harold said, the V-8 family of engines were very good. They were the
same engine used in the IH highway trucks, and outweighed Chevy or Ford by
at least twice and were HUGE engines. But, if you changed the oil and
didn't overrev them, they would last for ever. I remember at one time we
had five "school buses" that were used by the Civil Conservation Corps types
come in for engine replacement. They had been used a LOT off-road, all had
over 250,000 miles on them, and they all ran just fine when brought in. We
dropped in new engines, and away they went.
I used to have a '59 pickup with a 220 cu/in 6, that almost had 300,000
miles on it before it was wrecked by someone else. I had a '67 pickup with
the 304 for about 20 years that went a couple of hundred thousand, but the
body was falling apart.
Originally IH did "there own thing" and built a much better pickup, but in
the 60's the bean-counters started trying to make them compete with
GMC/Ford, and their bodies were JUNK! If the pickup has been garaged where
you don't get a lot of condensation on the inside of the sheet metal and
hasn't been driven too much in the rain or salt, it should be in good shape.
IH truck dealers do exist, and I think if you can't get parts through NAPA
or others, you can go to IH.
Because of the engine, they do make supurb tow vehicles for trailers full of
LBCs, but be aware that like LBCs, they do have rust problems.
Frank
former cornbinder driver
-----------------------------------------------------------
Triumph support vehicle?
In a message dated 11/7/04 2:01:20 PM Eastern Standard Time,
kinderlehrer@comcast.net writes:
<<
Basic parts such as brakes, gaskets and suspension are not too much of a
problem, unless you have found a torsion bar suspended pickup, last I
heard parts
were non existent.
The V8 engine family consists of 266, 304 345 392. Gas mileage will be
poor
for short trips/cold weather, these are heavy cast iron lumps that take
forever to warm up. Transmissions were Borg Warner then Chrysler Torque
Flight in
later years. Rear ends were Dana 44 or Dana 60
The biggest problem with these trucks is rust. The bodies consisted of
many
welded seams to catch moisture. The bodies were never dipped in primer,
inner
panels were bare steel that rusted from the inside out.
IH folded around 1981, the farm tractor division went to Case ( I think,
as
they were connected before folding) The light trucks ended in 1975, the
Scout
went on till 1980. The medium / heavy truck line turned into Navistar,
recently
it got the International name back. The Cub Cadet garden tractor
division
went to MTD. ( MTD owns lots if lawn equipment brands)
Harold
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