Big truck question
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Big truck question
I have a truck calender with a '39 1.5 ton with a factory pick up bed. In the discription of the truck it mentions that in 1939 ford offered a twin engine cab-over tractor truck. My question is has anyone hear ever seen one or has any other info. Im just curious, I looked for some info on the net and came up with nothing. Thanks in advance for any help. 
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The twin engine was actually made by an aftermarket company. It was made by a company called Grico, which converted Ford trucks for heavier use. The Grico Twin-Motor Tractor, as it was called, used 2 239 CI flatheads. One was in the stock location, and the other was mounted in a box behind the cab. That second engine powered it's own drive axle, so the truck had twin rear axles. The engines could be used individually or together.
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The manufacturer said they could be run together through single contols to keep them synchronized. I'm sure the truck had to come to a complete stop for the engines to be run together at the same time. I just wonder how many of these were made, and how many, if any, still exist.
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I was digging through a book I have here on truck history. There is only 1 mention of the Twin-Motor thing. I have another book, a very rare book, called Hildy's 1947 Blue Book of Special Equipment that lists various aftermarket firms that modified Ford trucks when new. In this book, Grico makes no mention of the Twin-Motor setup, so perhaps this was a very short lived conversion, maybe the War brought an end to the Twin-Motor conversion. The only pic I have seen of the Twin Motor was a front 3/4 view of a '39 Cab Over. The truck had dual rear axles, and a metal box with some louvers mounted to the frame right behind the cab, but that's about it.
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Thank you that is some wild stuff. I guess by that time diesels were starting to come into there own and the factories were starting to make bigger gas burners such as GMC and so on.
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Twin Engine Ford Trucks
GIRCIO made the Twin Engine FORD Trucks--Henry Ford built the WW11 B-24 Bomber & the GIRCIO twin engine Ford cab over was used to Tow the finished B-24s out of the Factory--I inquired on the {FORD BARN} & a few Ole FORD Guys replied w/ Info & Photos--ONE was Towing a New B-24 Bomber & another showed a Wider than Stock regular Cab w/--an extra Wide Hood & an added piece in the Windsheild--hauling Lumber?--w/ Twin Rears!--& pretty well Beat Up?--as it looked like it had hauled many loads? I saw ONE in Pittsberg,PA out behind a Steel Mill--a 39 Big Ford w/ twin rears--I tried to take a Look! but Couldn*t open the Dam HOOD! so I Dono? what? the Engine Compartment looked Like?--but there were Two Oil pans where only ONE should Be!--it was Exactally like the Reg Cab shown on the Ford BARN 39 Ford Green in Color!--Ole JIM--
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From: Duff, Tn.
Guys go to http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/bernard_johnson.htm I seen these trucks on there and thought It was a homemade job or something. Check it out and see if it is any help. Joe
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Joes52f6, those are some neat machines there. Not quite the Grico Twin Motor. The Grico conversion had a seperate engine mounted out behind the cab and dual rear axles, and were V8s. Still those are some impressive machines, 2 engines sharing one bay, appears to be a pair of flathead 6s.
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From: Duff, Tn.
Yeah I just noticed earlier that they was a little different from the description you guys had, but I wondered if ford might have went solo on these two engine trucks? I just wondered how long these trucks would have lasted before getting faded out so to speak?? JOE
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Seems more like these were attempts by Ford (and other makes I am sure) to get into the heavy hauling market. They seemes to have been around a short time, looks almost as if WWII was the last of some of these extreme engine setups. Diesel I'm sure was soon found to be able to get the job done, with out the huge amounts of fabrication and costs of running a truck on 2 engines.
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From: Duff, Tn.
GMC coe trucks in the 60's and even 70's used a v-12 gas engine in there class 8 trucks and from what i heard got better mpg than diesels but in the 70's they was having there gas shortages and such so they justed faded into the background as well. It would be cool to see trucks like these though, pain to drive i bet! JOE
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my step-father was an independent trucker in the 50's and hauled steel with an International KB7 and it had a gas engine of about 400ci and he got about 4 mpg with it loaded. All the truckers called Internationals "binders". I suppose because IH made harvesters etc.