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Hi guys,heres a picture taken by my sister in Florida in 1982.The truck was in a dealers yard around the Orlando area.What make of truck it is I didnt know but clearly its not selling well because of the "make offer" sign on the windscreen.It has a Cummins Diesel as seen in the other windscreen.I have just found out its a Diamond Rio.Any of you most knowledgeable guys shed any more light on it???

PaulIMG-20250120-WA0018.thumb.jpg.51a1795919bcdef4331069605bf7220d.jpg

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I knew some of you would know!!! Iv had that picture since '82 and only last year found out it was a Diamond reo.Now I know its a Rogue.Clearly didnt sell well if the company went bankrupt.So did any survive?

Paul

Edited by cruiseliner64
39 minutes ago, Mark T said:

That's a Diamond Reo Rogue. Around 1974/1975 some oil guy purchased the Diamond Reo brand from White. They had all sorts of ideas for new models. Like The Rogue, The Royale ( big highway cab over ) my favorite The Raider ( their fancy truck with a huge radiator ) along with the normal C114 (?) models . The Rogue was aimed at refuse collection and city delivery type applications.  Sadly though, the company was bankrupt in under 2 years.  

 Loyal Osterlund and Ray Houseal bought Diamond Reo. They built trucks in Harrisburg Pa actually for quite a while as "Giant Trucks". I remember in the 80's JD Morrisey bought some with air cooled Deutz engines

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54 minutes ago, Mark T said:

Around 1974/1975 some oil guy purchased the Diamond Reo brand from White.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that guy in between white and osterlund. I think he was from down south

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27 minutes ago, Joseph Cummings said:

Oh yeah, I forgot about that guy in between white and osterlund. I think he was from down south

Carperet or something . He was some oil guy with lots of money.  Osterlund got about another 20 years outta Diamond Reo (Giant)  They were tough trucks.  Seemed like years ago, guys with Diamond Ts or Diamond Reos had lots of pride in them. They were handsome trucks.

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I was thinking that the Raider and Royale were built by white in the early 70's before White sold DR to the oil man?????

There was another construction company by the name of Kemp(??) that had a lot of the air cooled Deutz DR Giants. About 2018 - 2020 I saw one being used as a sign truck on the PA Pike.

Then after Osterlund, who was in Carlisle PA, went out of business a group of his employees continued to build some trucks in Harrisburg PA under the name "T-Line" into the mid 20teens.

Edited by Brocky
  • Like 1

Brocky

1 hour ago, Joseph Cummings said:

 Loyal Osterlund and Ray Houseal bought Diamond Reo. They built trucks in Harrisburg Pa actually for quite a while as "Giant Trucks". I remember in the 80's JD Morrisey bought some with air cooled Deutz engines

there were quite a few Deutz power "giant" barrel mixers here in Central Jersey back in the 80's tough trucks that were almost impossible to kill. 

when you are up to your armpits in alligators,

it is hard to remember you only came in to drain the swamp..

7 minutes ago, tjc transport said:

there were quite a few Deutz power "giant" barrel mixers here in Central Jersey back in the 80's tough trucks that were almost impossible to kill. 

Actually it was JDM. That was a division of James D Morrisey

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20 minutes ago, Brocky said:

I was thinking that the Raider and Royale were built by white in the early 70's before White sold DR to the oil man?????

There was another construction company by the name of Kemp(??) that had a lot of the air cooled Deutz DR Giants. About 2018 - 2020 I saw one being used as a sign truck on the PA Pike.

Then after Osterlund, who was in Carlisle PA, went out of business a group of his employees continued to build some trucks in Harrisburg PA under the name "T-Line" into the mid 20teens.

You're thinking of Hemp(t) Brothers. They had lots of Osterlund trucks . They were right there in the same area.  Lots of those Osterlund Diamond Reos had L10s in them too. They were popular in all types of construction trucks. Mixers, dumps,block trucks. They were popular around here, and it's not out of the question to see some form of Diamond Reo still at work.

5 minutes ago, GA_Dave said:

Interesting.  Here is a shot of the 1978 Ward LaFrance Patriot I used to own.  Note the shape of the cab face and the door window arrangement.

39 - 1978 Ward LaFrance Patriot P8D 4x4.jpg

I wonder who built the cabs. Diamond Reo first used that R series IHC cab, and then the white cab. They never made their own

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I have an original raider sales brochure. I’ll have to dig it out. Just based on observation the vast majority or Diamond Reo trucks I see that still exist are some type of vocational truck. Very few are tractors. I think they were marketed as a premium vocational truck. From what I can tell they were highly customizable and could be build to custom specs. I have even seen some 6x6 that were mixers. I’m not sure what White was thinking by buying Diamond T and REO then merging them into a premium vocational brand when they already had Autocar in that space. Too bad the folded. I always really liked the Diamond Reos from the late 60s to the 70s

13 minutes ago, Joseph Cummings said:

I wonder who built the cabs. Diamond Reo first used that R series IHC cab, and then the white cab. They never made their own

Did Sheller Globe make them ?  After White sold the division they were some form of the Autocar Drivers cab

7 minutes ago, 67RModel said:

I have an original raider sales brochure. I’ll have to dig it out. Just based on observation the vast majority or Diamond Reo trucks I see that still exist are some type of vocational truck. Very few are tractors. I think they were marketed as a premium vocational truck. From what I can tell they were highly customizable and could be build to custom specs. I have even seen some 6x6 that were mixers. I’m not sure what White was thinking by buying Diamond T and REO then merging them into a premium vocational brand when they already had Autocar in that space. Too bad the folded. I always really liked the Diamond Reos from the late 60s to the 70s

They bought Reo for the engines. 

9 minutes ago, Mark T said:

Did Sheller Globe make them ?  After White sold the division they were some form of the Autocar Drivers cab

Not sure who did the stampings and assembled the cabs. But yeah they were the Drivers cab. I swapped parts between them. Franklin Smelting had an A Car dump that I put 2 cabs on. I kinda think one came off of a white or reo

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