Re: '60's 1500 Series Truck Questions/VIN listed

[Howard R Pletcher <n9ads@domain.elided>]

On Sun, 21 Feb 1999 02:02:43 -0800 MikeIIDC@domain.elided writes:
>Well, after 12.5 hours driving around Northern CA looking at several
>IH's that I have known about for some time, I have arrived home with a
>few questions.
>What exactly was the 1500 series made for in the 60's.  I had found one
>that used to be a service truck for a towing/garage company, and went
>back to look at it.  Right now it is simply sitting out in their lot, as
>it has been for the last five-eight years.  It is in pretty good
>condition as far as rust goes, but is, of course, faded.  I had
>originally planned on checking into it as a parts truck for my wrecked
>'68 T'all.  However, after checking it out, I am a little intrigued.
>It currantly has a utility bed on it, but when I was looking at the ID
>plate on the door, I could have sworn that it said WB: 156.  It did not
>look that long.  Is this an optical illusion created by the utility
>bed?  Knowing that my '68 T'all has a 110" WB, and the crewcabs I have
>recently been lusting after  have 164" WB, this doesn't appear to be a
>156" WB!  Perhaps they changed out the rear body?
>This may be also, because it also said on that plate that it was rated
>with a maximum GVW of 15,000 lbs!  Was this designed to be used as a
>wrecker?  I can't imagine what you could put back there to need this
>much support!
>Regardless, once again, I am intrigued!  So if I got this, could I put a
>regular bed on it?  Did they come in a size to fit this WB?  Also, it
>has the BIG rim front tires (20" rims, maybe), like an old fire truck.
>I kind of like this idea-makes the front stand up nice and tall.  The
>owner of the garage assured me that this was a 4WD, but there was no TC
>shifter that I saw anywhere.  Did IH make full-time 4WD for certain
>uses?  Did they make them that rode on these taller tires?  Of course,
>they also assured me that it had a 345 or 392 in it, and it has one of
>the old straight 6 cylinder engines, though I don't know what size.  The
>rear axle was a dually, of course, as I would imagine anything rated to
>this weight would have to be.
>I am assuming that it is not geared too highly, as it was probably made
>with much more grunt than speed in mind, but could it be made into a
>good tow rig?  I would think it would be ideal for this, if it would go
>fast enough to get you anywhere!
>So, to those of you with the knowledge, the information, and the books
>with the info in them (I implore you, John Landry, Howard Pletcher, and
>Scott Satterlund, among others), could you please look up the VIN and
>tell me anything you could find out about this beast?
>
>VIN:        SB341877C
>
>I don't know the year, though they thought '64.  I was thinking that one
>of the "7"s in the VIN meant it may be a '67.  It was definitely of the
>'63-98/9 style.  Had the grille with the rectangles, but the bigger
>ones, not the smaller ones like my '68.
>
The 1500 was sometimes called a 1 1/2 ton truck, not that that meant much
when a 3/4 ton could carry 6 or 8,000#.  It was basically a light line
that was trying to be a Loadstar--a pickup cab on straight frame rails
with big axles and wheels for the 13-15,000 GVW they offered.  They
probably aren't rare, but production was probably only a thousand or so a
year.  They came in 2 wheelbases, 132 and 156".  Usually they had a large
box or a dump body on the back and you piled them full.  It certainly is
suitable for use as medium-duty wrecker.  The Advanta today would be a
similar sized truck.

There is no hidden info in the serial number.  It does tell you it was
about the 341,376th truck built at Springfield since the start of the
B-Series when the SB series of serials started in 1959.  It does tell me
it was built before the 13 digit VINs started  in Oct., 1965.  Your
grille description says it is a 63-64 C-1500.  An IH 6 cyl. was standard
with the 304 and 345 V-8's optional (I don't think the 392 was an option
in those years.)

4WD was not an option on the 1500 that I know of, but there apparently
were some built on special order, so if this is 4WD, it is rare.  The
only full-time 4WD that IH produced was a version of the Transtar called
the CO-7044 Unistar which was built for pulling doubles over the Rocky
Mountains.  Full time was experimented with in light trucks when the Big
3 offered it in the early '70s, but was never adopted.

A pickup box was not available.  However, since I've seen dually boxes
adapted to Loadstars and cut-down Kenworths, it's possible.

I'd expect a truck of this size with a relatively small engine to be
geared for 50-60 mph max.

Keep it up, Michael.  Perhaps you will be the first one of us to have one
of everything IH built!     :-)

Howard Pletcher
Howteron Products Scout Parts

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