Sleeper Cab. But as you can imagine, by this time there wasnt much left of them. I would bet my paycheck that the truck and trailer were originally owner by Old Dutch Potato Chip Company. I might have even worked on this one. It seems like there must be hundreds of RV, boat, etc manufacturers that have shuttered or consolidated in the past 2 decades. (Wonder how many other people can say they own not one, butthree brand-new, never-used, 1991 model year boats?). ASTRO 95. Upgrades to the truck's suspension improved its handling and ride, as well. A 60 Detroit and a 10 speed trannie under the hood. It had chrome bumpers, a chrome grille, and a single chrome exhaust stack, but the gas tank was steel, as were the wheels. Sometimes you needed a prybar to get the rear cab mounts back into there saddles. The only parts in stock were routine maintainence and some high wear items. Related > What It Was Like to Drive the Older Model Rigs. We like the way they roll. A collection of trucker tips from million milers and experienced drivers. I was really taken with the Astro cab. A larger cab provided more interior space and greater comfort for the driver, and larger windows allowed for better driver visibility. The California Air Recourses Board made me put a 2002 N-14 engine in it and a super large catalytic converter/particulate filter, but it dynoed super clean and the Astro 95 can be used until 2027. Ive had the pleasure to drive an LTL-9000, and the misfortune to drive a Brigadier. EnterpriseVander Haags Inc Sp Spencer IA. 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. American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others, Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment, Big Truck Outtake: GMC Astro 95 It Makes Me Want To Go Boating. Special Series. the cab was made of aluminum. I dont think Id ever consider trying to restore one. I may well have been the only guy in the Yellow Pages who knew what they meant by thickwire.. The new model has replaced the line of C/M 90/9500 trucks. . I liked the little window in the passenger door. Im retired now but own a few Detroit powered 73 GMC 9500 10 wheelers to fool around with. I would sleep across the doghouse in my cabover. Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. The same bolts held the fuel tank mounts on. Here we have a 1983 GMC Astro. (c) 2000, Evan McCausland. Of the seven, five were sixteen feet long, and two were seventeen feet. 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. Guess I did a better job than necessary, in this case! Thanks for visiting my page! Radhe Gupta is an Indian business blogger. 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. trucks or the Turbo Titan III program, please Gmc astro Sleeper on HeavyTruckParts.Net. Theres a bit more thought put into them now but wrap around dashboards are still the norm, the fake wood is still with us though the 2011 International I was driving was covered in the stuff. In the period from 1978 to 1988, General Motors offered the GMC Brigadier, a heavy-duty class 7-8 short-hood truck available in straight-truck and semi-tractor configurations. The Kenworths had dog houses big enough to sleep on. The next year I was put in a brand new leased 1979 GMC General. There are distinct niches in the trucking industry where trucker pay is above the average wages paid. Search our large inventory of New/Used GMC ASTRO Cab, Misc Parts for sale. When the shop was sold and moved out of town his land lord offered him 300 bucks to clean out the space. [1] In 1972, the Detroit 12V71 became available as an option; though rarely ordered, the V12 engine would remain through 1978. Visibility. Drove these trucks for years. Enjoy our hassle-free online checkout or call to speak to an expert. The left front cab mount failed, the cab has swung around to the right some and landed on the motor. The others weve seen feature yellow and blue interiors. In fact they were as cold as hell! But somewhere down the line (perhaps in the early eighties) they acquired another line of business: building pontoon boats. In a surprise win, I ended up with both the seventeen-footers and one of the two unfinished sixteens for just a few hundred dollars. Visibility was not very good and made life tough in some of the tight spots in the old cities and towns I delivered to. And so it was that I got my one and only surviving picture of the trucks at hand. Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: Yugo When Was The Last Time You Saw One? This model was designed to have a higher cab, bigger rad, and a larger engine, than its predecessor. 15,875 views May 7, 2017 158 Dislike Share Hunzolee 1.37K subscribers 1986 GMC Astro cabover day cab at. Your email address will not be published. Every downturn claims some, Boats and RVs are big discrentionary extras subject to consumer confidence. Since 1966, General Motors has been manufacturing a line of buses based on a traditional cowled chassis. Alongside a 702 cubic-inch GMC V12 gasoline engine, the truck was available with the Detroit Diesel 6V71 and 8V71 engines. and they will be posted! I always wondered if the design of the original small grille on the Astro 95 was supposed to suggest an air intake rather than a radiator grille. It took a while for me to warm up to that oneI thought it was tacky when I first saw it, but apparently the secretaries got a kick out of watching peoples reactions. I drove a COE for the first ten years or so of my driving career. Most kids wanted to go to the beach, but my favourite thing was to head for a truck stop! Cabovers werent necessary dangerously. Oddly enough they still use what cabovers are left for boat transport. In addition to the regular cab, a sleeper cab was available as an option. 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. 1900. In 1976, another 9 of length was allowed, for a maximum 75 allowance. You are visitor number to this page! Those old White Freightliners would just rattle all the time. I am trying to see if by some chance this trailer is still in existence. Want to learn the language of the truck driver? Dan is hoping to use this truck in the summer to haul hay. Tahoe where I used to work had a tough time getting to stuff on our Pete 320 LCFs. They are all different shapes and sizes, and are also all designed to fit different people. The Astro was available as a 58 in BBC Day Cab, and a 86 in BBC They are also typically found on the rear of a car, but they can be found in other areas. A few fleet delivery customers but mostly farmers who only used the trucks come harvest time. To make matters worse this truck was built without power steering! Ive never run a General, but the Brigadiers dont seem to hold up nearly as well as the Fords. Its a FACTORY double bunk. The large carriers who were the big buyers of cabovers, switched over to the conventional style rig, and the bottom rapidly fell out of the market for them in North America, thus the fall in popularity of these trucks. You could get Cummins and later the 3406 Cat, but the vast majority had 71 and 92 series Jimmys in them. This went on after the HD line was sold off. As much as I enjoyed finally getting to climb around on the trucks, I was actually there for another reason. Many RVs even up to today use the same glass. And you see a lot of Brigadiers out here too. And 35 years ago no computerized support systems. Previews will consist of visual inspection, and vehicle can be started. I love my truck and it will be around for a long time to come. GM engineers began working on a new truck that would meet Today, you can still find a fair amount All were late 70s vintage cabovers with sleepers and rooftop air deflectors, painted white, with the obligatorylogo on the door. I was a little concerned about the pieces that were twisted on the right front, yea they looked fine but I couldnt see taking a chance on this happening again. An Australian truck driver talks about the REAL BAD BOY big rig trucks that run through the Outback of Australia. Thats an Isuzu Bedford the TM was a heavyduty TK with a double bumper, I saw one of those on Sunday a dead one they are too low powered and small for todays applications. Tires are good. No; the Astro was unique to GMC and Chevrolet (Titan). Please email It was hell. These two galsno idea who they aremade frequent appearances in company literature. Needless to say, everyone there knew their products VERY well. And so came the companys latest investment, circa 1987: a fleet of new-to-them tractors with brand-new trailers. For some reason most of the few I saw were rag-tag owner-ops out of Quebec. There was no coming back after that. 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. The faster you repair your semi-truck, the faster it gets on the road and keeps on moving your business forward. As far as I know this is a Bedford KM, the heavy-duty TK. The old semi-cabover A series was replaced by the all-new H I know the mechanics at the garbage company in Truckee/N. MN. He ran one as an O/O for a few years in the mid 1970s and then again as a company driver for Thrifty-Payless Drug stores in the early-mid 80s. My Mom ran a truck leasing operation in the 70s-90s (NationalLease/LendLease) and back in the 70s when the 95 came out it was a VERY big deal. They were legal and they got the job done. I drove many 10s of thousands of miles in the late 70s. They were mostly Astros, these older small-grille versions, in dark blue. Also, by the end of the 1970s, Astro's dashboard had been slightly The top speed was right around 60 mph, the speed limit those days was 55 mph so many trucks were geared to keep the top speed down. GMC Astro had a windshield that seemed to come down to knee level! Find the 9 highest paying truck driver jobs in 2022. 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. In the shuffle, Ercoa managed to grab the pontoon business and run with it. 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. 1982 Marmon COE A 110P, with the rare option of a V-grill and V-bumper, which is known as the VIP package. I had a Grand National at the time and it was very tempting for me to consider trading it off for one but I didnt want another car payment so that was that. The Pete 362 cabover launched in 1981 featured cab suspension as well as a wraparound dash that I worked on, which may have been subliminally inspired by the GMC. Because of the regulations for length, this style of rig was very popular in it's day. As a mechanic, I spent a lot of time working on this style of truck. These are gold nuggets for the new truck drivers! GMC ASTRO INTERIOR FOR AMERICAN TRUCK SIMULATOR - YouTube 0:00 / 0:57 GMC ASTRO INTERIOR FOR AMERICAN TRUCK SIMULATOR Caterpillar D8N 701 subscribers Subscribe 1.2K views 11 months. A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. They were once very common, particularly in fleet service. 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. GMC Astro 95 Cabover T/A Road Tractor, ; Vin# TGH928V900010, Special Plate- AC122503, Manual Trans.- NO TITLE . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The dealer I worked at had a large rural customer base. The gmc astro cabover features a black interior with a white caboose. I read somewhere that Larry Shinoda had a hand in designing the Astro 95. These rigs were once quite commonly seen rolling down the highways. -If you have any, please send them to me, It was a nice truck but harder to get into tight spots and I was partial to the cabovers. 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. We could only make about 59 mph but I was cool and comfortable as I cruised the highway. Anyway, I drove one when I was 12 years old around the lot, and I will never forget that dashboard of that windshield, or how sharp of a turn it could make. Thats a nice one! [1] Although Detroit Diesel had developed a gas-turbine version of the GMC Astro in the early 1970s, fuel-economy concerns would keep it out of production. The Only Old School Cabover Truck Guide Youll Ever Need, Old School Cabover Truck Photo Collection, The Clifford Truck Show Best Cabover Collection EVER, What It Was Like to Drive the Older Model Rigs, Trucker Culture and Professionalism A Salute to the Professionals That Move Us, 1980 International Transtar Eagle Model Review, The Peterbilt Cabover Truck Photo Collection, The 5 Best Semi Trucks of All Times A Trip Down Memory Lane. The GMC Astro was offered in single or double rear axle configurations. The trucks, however, were not so lucky. With their squared-off styling and strange proportions, GMC's aluminum cabover trucks of 1959-68 quickly earned the nickname "Crackerbox.". 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. It is neither inferred nor implied that any item sold by TRUCKiD.com is a product authorized by or in any way connected with any vehicle manufacturers displayed on this page. Comfort. Used. I was only supposed to keep the Titan until the Astro was fixed but I couldnt go back to that noisy sweat box now. I knew a guy who worked in the service department at a Caterpillar dealer, and he said that some of his customers wouldnt hesitate to come right over his desk if they got the slightest inkling that he might be causing some delay in getting their equipment back into use. economy. Is this the same model International Transtar? Sleeper Type: CAB OVER: Part Info (877)238-5030 Request Info. USD $1,018 . What a mess. The truck was still in warranty, the service rep didnt want to replace all the parts we planned on replacing. I actually had to call Ercoa once working a claim on a boat. Its Hall-Scott gas engine was still running well, but the truck just was too slow to be competitive in the late 1960s, and it was actually driven to its resting place in the woods at the local wrecking yard, where it sat for years before being scrapped. No operation of the . The sleeper provided ample room and comfort, and air conditioning For over a century, GMC has been offering a wide range of commercial and military grade vehicles, as well as genuine auto parts. They were quite popular, particularly with fleets. The last GMC B-Series left the assembly line in 2003. There are folks who thought the Astro was a rip off of a Mack design from the early 60s. William C. Durant established General Motors (GM) as the holding company for Buick on September 16, 1908. The Some truckers wore full length snowmobile suits in them, just to stay warm! So, in 1987, GMC sold the heavy duty operation to Volvo, and My Astro had an 8V71 Detroit and a 13 speed Roadranger. Wild dashboard, what a shame that there isnt really any use for these old beasts once they get on in years . Planning to exit the medium-duty truck market, General Motors canceled the production in 2009. The red caboose is made of metal too. In 1909, GM purchased the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company founded by Max Grabowsky in 1901 that designed some of the first ever commercial vehicles. So the length issue wasnt so important anymore. Thanks for the history of the company. (Ever the penny-pinchers, they opted to apply the same logo stickers to the trucks as they did to their boats.). None were roadworthy, only one was able to be started, and perhaps worst of all, no titles could be produced for any of them. The GMC Astro 95 was introduced
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