Out here, the farmers still run Brigadiers, Generals, and Ford Louisvilles. Theres something very nostalgic about seeing these rigs on the road today. Your email address will not be published. The
After completing the CAPTCHA below, you will immediately regain access to the site again. It is a full size cab with a single axel.
1975 GMC Astro 95 Cabover Truck - AS-IS - govdeals.com Its a FACTORY double bunk. Nine89-2five4-eight20eight Report Last Updated on: February 28, 2023 with 1979 GMC Astro Cabover - $4000 They are also becoming wildly popular at truck shows. Save $2,894 right now on a Chevrolet Astro on CarGurus. I believe that a gas turbine was optional in limited quantities, yet
I know the mechanics at the garbage company in Truckee/N.
1900 GMC ASTRO 95 For Sale In Boonsboro, Maryland They all share a few very obvious features that make them stand out, like a small seat in the middle that has a handle, a small door that is made of glass, and a small door that is made of plastic. The GMC Astro (also known as the Chevrolet Titan) is a heavy-duty (Class 8) cabover truck that was manufactured by the GMC Truck and Coach Division of General Motors from the 1969 to 1987 model years. So, in 1987, GMC sold the heavy duty operation to Volvo, and
Drove them back in 88 when I started driving with Schneider National.
GMC Astro Interior | Truck interior, Gmc trucks, Big trucks You had to jack the front of the cab up to get the valve cover off. Although Volvo GM would continue sales of COE trucks under the White GMC and Western Star brands (the WhiteGMC WH and Western Star Cabover; both versions of the White Road Commander II), the GMC Astro was never directly replaced by Volvo GM, Volvo, or General Motors. Equally memorable was a prop which sometimes sat near it: a Dixie cup which contained a spoon and was filled to overflowing with white glue, which had a bit of brown paint stirred in and was allowed to harden. The white cabooses have interiors that are usually made of glass. By the mid eighties, they were doing pretty well for themselves: theyd moved into a big new facility, had expanded their lineup to include such things as portable ice houses and their trademark line of peddle-boats, and of course they were still cranking out pontoons left and right. The cabovers black interior is also the most unique. Highly inconvenient. uplevel sound and CB systems. ASTRO 95. Interestingly enough, the people in the front office werent just strategizers and makers of budgets and blueprints. The neighbor has one Brigadier- a 1979 thats on its last legs. Did find the high-res original of that pic, but alas, no GPS information or other pictures for context. One of the other farms runs a fleet thats all GMC on the older stuff. The Ercoa advertisement featuring the paddleboat and bikini-clad women was exactly what I was hoping to see! Manual transmission with Hi-Lo. The reason? Many RVs even up to today use the same glass. Unless some ambitious individual comes along, chances are their next trip out will be their last. It seemed certain that these once-proud rigs would be fed to the crusher soon. Others say for every minute spent organizing and reducing clutter, an hour is earned All manufacturer names, symbols, and descriptions, used in our images and text are used solely for identification purposes only. Autocar will still sell you a new truck. These Astro cabs had (exterior) styling far ahead of their time, especially the ones with the smaller grille. In North America its the other way around. Id give anything to have one now. All three are currently relaxing behind the shop until my project backlog is a bit shorter. This is not one of them. 1995 Freightliner C.O.E. . The early COE trucks were also very cold, as they werent well insulated. The Astro was also GMs swan song in the big-truck sector, and it never sold in the numbers needed to keep GM truly viable. Ever since those got retired (replaced by conventional White-GMC or Volvo-White rigs) I've seen few to no Astros. In what would be a distinguishing feature of the vehicle, the Astro/Titan was produced with a wraparound dashboard;[1] the speedometer and tachometer were placed directly in the line of sight of the driver while most secondary gauges were placed off to the side, based on their level of use. time. The Road Commander cab has certainly outlived the Astro, granted only tangentially as the White/WhiteGMC/Volvo/Autocar/etc Xpeditor, further modified as the modern day Autocar ACX. I actually had to call Ercoa once working a claim on a boat. Just love the old school classics. This style of old semi trucks are incredibly maneuverable. (Ever the penny-pinchers, they opted to apply the same logo stickers to the trucks as they did to their boats.). Safety. They were once very common, particularly in fleet service. (first posted 2/3/2014) As one of the people whod been rallying for a Big Truck Week, I suppose its only fitting that I step up and post some. Manufacturer. White trailers with a big "Food Lion" graphic. I spotted this rig several weeks ago while taking a shortcut I rarely use, coming back from picking up a load of equipment bound for the office. You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed. From some of the old Overdrive magazines Ive seen, Ford was even worse for HD parts and service to the point they refused Fords advertising for years over it. Sleeper Cab. As far as I know this is a Bedford KM, the heavy-duty TK. The Astro was available as a 58 in BBC Day Cab, and a 86 in BBC
They are very similar at a glance.
1979 GMC Astro Cabover - $4000 | Cars & Trucks For Sale - Shoppok No wonder they were called Freightshakers! This was also used in the prototype
Thats probably half the reason I was brought in: I worked cheap, I was willing to horse around with their archaic equipment, and I could manage to keep a sense of humor about it.
Clifford, ON, comes alive on the Canada Day long weekend. 1976 GMC Astro day cab over semi, Big Cam 350 Cummins eng., 13 spd., 11R24.5, spring ride, sliding hitch, 711,344 miles, VIN TDC926V578511 - new batteries Carlisle, Iowa. Plus, I turned out to be a convenient source of labor for creating the coming years catalog, since their marketing department was no more by that time. I was really taken with the Astro cab. These gems were a challenge to drive without power steering. Its too bad they dont make them like that any more. By the time you had everything jacked up and secured you could barely work the transmission out of the narrow frame rails. 15,875 views May 7, 2017 158 Dislike Share Hunzolee 1.37K subscribers 1986 GMC Astro cabover day cab at. So they dumped their interests in such things as snowmobiles and recreational craft, going hard after that one market they felt was most lucrative. I can remember seeing many of the Astro tractors around until Kroger closed the Fort Wayne Indiana Distribution warehouse. It seemed the final nail in their coffin might have been the failure of a large chain of boat dealers, which happened to be one of their biggest distributors. I sold off the shop manuals years ago on the internet. The one thing that cabover interiors are best known for is the way they can camouflage some of their interior panels. However, Ive noticed a resurgence of interest in cabover trucks recently. I wouldnt be so quick to write the Road Commander off as an Astro copy, Larry Shinoda of Mustang and Corvette fame was the man behind the design. One summer day I lost one of the rear ends coming in off the highway. Great guy I understand hes still working on peddle-boat designs somewhere. To get in the sleeper bunk the driver of the rig must crawl through a hole.
The Titan had a 290 Cummins and 10 speed Roadranger and the A/C worked! And when I came on in 2006, things werent looking pretty. Modern cabovers are built with more structural safety features to protect the driver in the event of a crash. Mechanically sound. 1983 Freightliner COE Rig This gorgeous rig was on display at the Clifford Truck Show. Diesel (unable to determine engine model, but based on serial number would have a Detroit 8v71). Related >Trucker Culture and Professionalism A Salute to the Professionals That Move Us. Id suspect a lot of their business came from a few good dealers, and especially from operators of a small fleet of big rigs but a varied fleet of everything who would appreciate a one-stop shop where they could get heavy haulers to get the product out, pickups and vans for *their* service techs and sedans for the sales reps through one dealership and one contract. Also in common with GM products of the day Astros didnt age well, particularly inside the cab. ), But they couldnt just let the boats pile upthey had to get them out to the dealers somehow. The owner has done a terrific job in restoring the unit to its original condition. I wish I had shop space for those kind of projects, my wife gets annoyed when I leave a boat on our property for more than a few weeks. The cabover interior is unique because it is the only one that has a caboose. A few fleet delivery customers but mostly farmers who only used the trucks come harvest time. 1979 Peterbilt, 352 Cabover This Peterbilt has been beautifully restored by its owner! Theybring back good memories from the past from the days when theindustry paid truckers what they were worth and the professional driver was respected by the public. Nothing on earth sounds as good to me as a screamin Jimmy Diesel. It was a nice truck but harder to get into tight spots and I was partial to the cabovers. 4 head lights and double bumpers. Right on about the crappy service with GMC dealers. Had a fairly new one in for service, it had the largest sleeper size available, I think it was a queen size mattress, maybe king? It was pretty tiring crawling in and out of it and having to lie down to get dressed! The first 1,000,000 miles of my driving was in trucks like these. Back in the 70s when I started selling parts I had a few customers that ran the BowTie versions called the Titan and Bruin. Ive got several more for later on in the week, but hey why not start with the biggest? It doesnt have the sunshade, but otherwise it is a dead ringer. In the shuffle, Ercoa managed to grab the pontoon business and run with it. The same bolts held the fuel tank mounts on. Call or email for more information. Once you removed the enormous doghouse from the cab you could actually do the back 3 cylinders of an in-frame from the drivers seat. Oddly enough they still use what cabovers are left for boat transport. Since the length laws have changed so much to allow longer units on the roads, there are no longer the same advantages to this style of truck. (Wonder how many other people can say they own not one, butthree brand-new, never-used, 1991 model year boats?). In addition to the regular cab, a sleeper cab was available as an option. Cabover Truck - COE Trucks For Sale in Provo, UT: 0 Cabover Truck - COE Trucks Near You - Find Cabover Truck - COE Trucks on Commercial Truck Trader. You see a LOT of dilapidated Fords smoking their way down the road, somehow still going. The GMC Astro 95 (1969-1987) For more information on the last new Astro model, go see the Other Astro Pictures -If you have any, please send them to me, and they will be posted! That was all there was to drive at one time. We/I cant go anywhere without people coming out with cameras and cell phones to take pictures of my truck. Please email
Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. But every end is merely a new beginning. This 1974 model was one of the last trucks to travel down the assembly line before the company went bankrupt in late 1974. Learn how your comment data is processed. Because of the regulations for length, this style of rig was very popular in it's day. Im very familiar with TK Bedfords I drove them years ago. In 1930, another GMC truck made a similar journey from New York to San Francisco in just 5 days. In fact, this picture was used to create a cut-out on foamcore, which sat atop their reception desk when it was unstaffed. But as you can imagine, by this time there wasnt much left of them. Clean, classy, and very GM. After a short stint as an OTR driver and still holding my Class A CDL Id like to find a worthy GMC truck just to drive to one of the big truck shows. "[1][2] Available in a 48-inch BBC (bumper to back of cab) length, the truck was produced with an all-aluminum fully tilting cab. During WWII, GM supplied the US Army with more than 600,000 GMC trucks. Must have been a big Chevy truck dealer out there. (Bedford being a GM division.). On our channel we upload daily, our original, walkaround videos of Trucks, Busses and Commercial Vehicles. Cabover trucks werent particularly comfortable, back in the early years. The GMC Astro (also known as the Chevrolet Titan) is a heavy-duty cabover truck that was manufactured by the GMC Truck and Coach Division of General Motors from the 1969 to 1987 model years. So an auction was scheduled, and the companys assets were bagged, tagged, and sold to the highest bidder. Not surprising, given that it came from GM, although its predecessor, the Crackerbox (attached) certainly couldnt have spent much time in the Design Center. was a radical departure for GMC-it was completely cab-over engine, and
We opened the doors, bolted together 2 10 shelving beams, wrapped the beams with rugs for cushioning, stick them thru the cab hook up the hoists and gently reposition everything back in place. The auction would be my first, last, and only opportunity to snag one for myself. It represents the days of trucking we all long for, in todays world of trucking, that is so muddled up and complex with its mounds of unnecessary rules, regs and guidelines. Their heyday may have started in the mid 80s, but those boom years were fading away by the early 00s. They have that in common with a great many other big trucks. Three of the sixteen-footers were completed and used for testing and promotions; this catalog picture depicts the very same boat seen above, only twenty-two years earlier. made it able to slip through wind better than other COEs at the
8 model, until 1959, when the all-new H model was introduced. My Astro had an 8V71 Detroit and a 13 speed Roadranger. Is this the same model International Transtar? These rigs were once quite commonly seen rolling down the highways. It used a single hyd cylinder on the right hand side of the frame. What a mess. There are a few reasons this might happen: To regain access, please make sure that cookies and JavaScript are enabled before reloading the page. Numbers 1 and 2 could be done from the engine compartment. 1968 GMC ASTRO For Sale in Madison, Minnesota at TractorHouse.com. the standards the H series set, yet be more streamlined and beyond. Comfort. The funky hitch is called a stinger and its usually used on car haulers. A wide range of engines, which could be easily modified for alternative fuels such as propane or compressed natural gas, made the model popular in the school bus and police bus industry. Van Alstyne was one of the female designers mentioned in the book, Damsels in Design, by Constance Smith which came out a couple of years ago and which was mentioned on this site and on others. trucks or the Turbo Titan III program, please
Throughout the entire production run, the trucks were assembled in Pontiac, Michigan by the Pontiac Central Assembly facility. He told me that when he purchased one in the mid 70s he test drove a Pete 352 (COE) and got the impression that it had inferior build quality to the Astro. Tahoe where I used to work had a tough time getting to stuff on our Pete 320 LCFs. If I remember I bought it for only $2000 and was used just as a yard truck. In past years, it had been E.R.C.O.A., as in the Electric Reel Company Of America, maker of battery-powered fishing reels. In contrast to the Crackerbox, the cab of the Astro was lengthened nearly six inches into a 54-inch BBC length with two sleeper cab configurations available. Related > What It Was Like to Drive the Older Model Rigs. You always had to check the interior before flopping one of these things open, you never know what you may come across, but a coffee cup was enough to take out a windshield. The cabover is made of metal and the interior is black. We cooperate with some of the industry-leading names that use only premium materials and cutting-edge technologies in the manufacturing of their products. The blue cabooses have interiors that are usually made of plastic. To ensure long and trouble-free service life of your rig, use only high-quality GMC semi truck parts and accessories offered in our online store.
GMC ASTRO Cab, Misc Parts for Sale - vanderhaags.com They are also typically found on the rear of a car, but they can be found in other areas. The only other cabovers weve seen have a black, red, and blue interior. Her fleet of 95s did cross country turnarounds with two drivers, Indiana to California and back in 5 days over the Rockies, the drivers loved them. GM engineers began working on a new truck that would meet
Ever since those got retired (replaced by conventional White-GMC or Volvo-White rigs) Ive seen few to no Astros. The GMC Astro 95 was introduced
And so it was that I got my one and only surviving picture of the trucks at hand. So the length issue wasnt so important anymore. Heres the (much older and smaller) Bedford TK: There are folks who thought the Astro was a rip off of a Mack design from the early 60s. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. They are also usually found on the back of a car, but they can be found in other areas as well. time were adopting.
GMC ASTRO Farm Equipment Auction Results - 22 Listings - TractorHouse.com The black caboose is one that is used for a single person and the red caboose is used for a couple of people. Dan is hoping to use this truck in the summer to haul hay. The
On the sweeping floors it may be profitable. USD $1,018 . GMC Astro cabs were built almost entirely out of aluminum, with SMC fiberglass-reinforced plastic doors, and were offered in three lengths: the short 55-inch non-sleeper cab, a 75-inch sleeper cab and an 87-inch sleeper cab. Super-detailed engine, chassis and interior; CB radio and dual antennas; Astro . GMC. Heres a few pics of its predecessors. Bid History for 1975 GMC Astro 95 Cabover Truck - AS-IS Auction Start Date: 06/03/21 5:11 PM ET Auction End Date: 06/17/21 9:03 PM ET Asset ID: 1453 . Anytime the driver wants anything from the bunk, the process is the same. What was always fun was tilting any of these cabovers to there full tilt range. I have a 1983 GMC Astro cabover I had for a few years and slowly fixing it up when I have time to. The overall length of truck and trailer, back then, could only be a maximum of 65, from 1956 to 1976. The GMC truck in the fourth photo immediately reminded me of the cigarette truck barelling down the streets of Detroit in Beverly Hills Cop to the Neutron Dance soundtrack by the Pointer Sisters. I was assigned a 81 model with a 63 as a backup spare truck I cant speak to what other people have done for or against the GMC Astro 95s but I still have mine and it is the only one that I have seen anywhere. the past 3 years. Learn the dangers of a truck driver encounters when driving an Australian road train in the barren Outback and how trucking in Australia is so different from North America. You can read the full disclosure policy, which is pretty dull, but here it is. When it comes to clutter, some say its nothing more than postponed decisions. Could be theres more badges these wore.
Crackerbox: The 1959-68 GMC Aluminum Cabover Trucks The cabover truck is an icon. All were late 70s vintage cabovers with sleepers and rooftop air deflectors, painted white, with the obligatorylogo on the door. Cabover interiors use a different system from other car interiors in the same way that a car interior uses a different system. Related > Classic TrucksFrom the Golden Years of Trucking. The Astro 95 was the best-styled truck of its time, and one of the best ever. Werent the other two trucks Internationals? Gauges for the trailer air supply and pressure were
As a mechanic, I spent a lot of time working on this style of truck. It was the oldest design GMC had at the time, and still
Guess I did a better job than necessary, in this case! Single rear axle.
eBay Find: This 1977 GMC Astro 95 Is A Barn Find Big - BangShift.com Depending on when it was made its Road Expeditor II, an Autocar or a Western Star. One could update the grille and headlights and the Astro 2.0 wouldnt look out of place today in a lineup of new trucks on the dealer lot. later dropped from the lineup. The largest cabover trucks ever produced by GM, the Astro was introduced for 1969, replacing the 1960-1968 GMC "Crackerbox" COEs. Following the 1980 model year, Chevrolet exited the heavy-truck segment; thereafter, alongside the Brigadier and General conventionals, the Astro was marketed solely under the GMC brand.