Wheels of time White History

[james j neiweem]

The last three issues of Wheels of time have a good history of the White motor company. Some very interesting history on the reasons why they went bankrupt. I would say it would be nice to see the same coverage of Mack's demise but I think KS has covered that. An interesting statement was made that the B model Mack was a contributor to Whites demise. I think

the H F and R also contributed. Other factors were the recession, not converting the Diamond-t cab over to a White nameplate (5000 & 7000 were flops), going to the Autocar cab about ten years to late, getting into the farm business, not incorporating diesels into the White line up earlier enough, loss of the Freightliner franchise, not putting enough money into Autocar to compete with Mack construction trucks and keeping aging CEO,s and chairmen

to long

[Joe Ditchkus]

I enjoyed the articles about White Motor Company in WOT. I agree the White 5000 (wrap your a$$ in fiberglass) was a flop. I do own a White 5000 with a 220 Cummins radiator tilts with cab. By no means was the White 7000 (Japaneese Freightliner ) a flop. It was used by many Eastern and Southern Fleets. If you go by fleet usage I think by seeing all of them in use up to the late 1980's it was very successful.

[bullhusk]

I always liked White! How the hell they are not around today is still a mystery to me! 

[Joe Ditchkus]

Ernie the dreaded V-word.Volvo they took out some great names in trucks White, Autocar GMC and still trying their hardest with Mack.

[Red Horse]

Here is a shot of "66/67 4564 I drove in like 67/68 in Geneva, NY.  Not me in the shot-  Second shot is the same White sometime in 1970.  I was the Terminal mgr in Rochester then and Geneva was a satelite terminal I was responsible for.  Same driver in first picture (Dick Nielsen) was headed out with 7600 of gas and some guy comes bouncing over a RR crossing in an International straight job with an ice cream reefer box.  Truck I guess had "loose tie rods"- going too fast on tracks, looses it and hits the White head on.  Guy in binder gets thrown out (minor injuries!) but Dick had to pound out rear windo to get out as doors were jammed shut!

 

In any case 4564, NH-250, RT-910, Velvet Ride.  a good fleet truck IMO in its day.  Not as good though as the R 237's which by 1970 were our typical 3 axle tractor. And that was more of a case of the 237 being a better motor than the NH-250.

[j hancock]

Like the first picture, not so much on the second.  Glad it wasn't worse for the drivers.

[dockmen027]

On March 4, 2016 at 9:53 AM, Red Horse said:

 

 Would this White have been part of the Mobil Oil fleet?

 

[mrsmackpaul]

that would have been a fairly rare truck down here with the butterfly bonnet (hood) almost all had a fibers glass tilt bonnet down here

 

Paul        

[Red Horse]

14 hours ago, dockmen027 said:

 

For sure!

[dockmen027]

9 hours ago, Red Horse said:

For sure!

Pulled gas out of Mobil Albany in the '70's, they had a few R-Models and Whites but mostly the long nose Louisville Fords with 8V71's. First Class Terminal compared to the rest.

[Red Horse]

31 minutes ago, dockmen027 said:

Pulled gas out of Mobil Albany in the '70's, they had a few R-Models and Whites but mostly the long nose Louisville Fords with 8V71's. First Class Terminal compared to the rest.

Thx for the compliment.  I was the terminal manager there from late 70-until 74.  Had two LT-9000's with 8V-71's.  One of them had those round Donaldson "banjo" mufflers that sat below the frame-guys in the shop said they had to take the stock vertical mufflers off to fit a 3" Blackmer pump and the discharge piping..  If you liked screaming Detroits you would have loved that Ford!  I left that job and became the division "motor vehicle supervisor" as the job was called.  Staff job - I bought  Fords and Macks while I was in that job. 

Great bunch of guys in Albany-at this point in my life you remember the good ones!

[dockmen027]

7 hours ago, Red Horse said:

Thx for the compliment.  I was the terminal manager there from late 70-until 74.  Had two LT-9000's with 8V-71's.  One of them had those round Donaldson "banjo" mufflers that sat below the frame-guys in the shop said they had to take the stock vertical mufflers off to fit a 3" Blackmer pump and the discharge piping..  If you liked screaming Detroits you would have loved that Ford!  I left that job and became the division "motor vehicle supervisor" as the job was called.  Staff job - I bought  Fords and Macks while I was in that job. 

Great bunch of guys in Albany-at this point in my life you remember the good ones!

I remember Mobil having a different pump setup on the tractors, instead of the suction being on top of the frame next to the discharge crossover, it came out the back by the taillights so they hooked one of the four inch gravity hoses to it. Lots of neat equipment, single axle tractors pulling trailers with hose reels at the rear, etc. Didn't the R-Models have cut bumpers with Chevrons (no pun intended)

 

I started going in there with a trailer in 1974 for Amos Post, there was a guy in the tower that wore glasses and always chewed on a cigar, worked days. Don't remember his name but he was always nice to me being I was a rookie then....

[Red Horse]

2 hours ago, dockmen027 said:

I remember Mobil having a different pump setup on the tractors, instead of the suction being on top of the frame next to the discharge crossover, it came out the back by the taillights so they hooked one of the four inch gravity hoses to it. Lots of neat equipment, single axle tractors pulling trailers with hose reels at the rear, etc. Didn't the R-Models have cut bumpers with Chevrons (no pun intended)

 

I started going in there with a trailer in 1974 for Amos Post, there was a guy in the tower that wore glasses and always chewed on a cigar, worked days. Don't remember his name but he was always nice to me being I was a rookie then....

Hah! that guy chewing the cigar was Al Silva- I'm sure Al is now dispatching loads and pulling meter tickets in a better place!  And I remember the Amos Post tanks-didn't the "A" form like a drill derrick??  Boy have things changed- when I was there we had 102 people-that included about 10 people in satelites at Fort Edward, Schnectady, and Whitehall.  we had everything gas, diesel, No 2 heat, kero- Av gas, No 6, couple of asphalt grades , transformer oil-yes the stuff that is costing GE millions today to clean up- as well as lubes.

But Albany was Socony land-remember the big 4 story brick building that is now Exit 23 truck stop property?  Years ago that was Mobil's central repair shop for NY State and Vermont. " In the day" I don't know how many mechanics worked there but the mens room had about 20 toilets!.  Paint booth was on I think 2nd floor and elevator could take trucks to roof.  In the summer they would rebuild fuel oil trucks and in winter they would rebuild road oilers!  By the time I got there it was dead storage for the lube plant production-building that was next door.

As far as cut bumpers-yes in mid 70's we started cutting the bumpers-with the "hazard stripes" on them.

[Red Horse]

D-027- about the pumps? Yep- pull a 4" discharge hose off one of two meters , hook it up to one of two direct 4" discharge lines, crouch down and hook up to 4" pump suction line that was snaked over rear axles to rear crossmember.  then 3" discharge lines that "t'd off pump to street and curb side of tractor.  We did a lot of "transport" work to small jobber accounts that did not own their own transports.

And a "big tank" back in the days of 73,280 max GCW was 7600 gallons!  Today in the 80,000 lb states most tanks are 9000 if not 9100 or 9200.  And of course no meters.