Tow Worthy: 1947 Autocar C50 Truck
Early heavy-duty trucks in running condition are a bit scarce, and often have suffered the test of time. Thankfully this Autocar C50 truck is a very solid project, that is running and driving. A classic truck looks great hauling a classic boat, car, trailer, or even camper. Featuring a clear title, this Autocarcan be yours for $7,500. Take a look here on craigslist out of Shreveport, Louisiana. Thanks again to Ikey for sharing another solid prime example of a not so common machine.
The flathead 6-cylinder engine is a runner, but no other information is really provided. I would assume the engine underwent a tune-up, fluid check, and fuel system check. One technical element that was mention is that the truck needs fuel tanks and tires. Hopefully, the brake system and cooling system have been sorted.
The interior centerpiece is the unique angled pyramid-like dash. Needing some minor attention, like a reupholstered seat, and maybe one single color of paint inside, this truck otherwise doesn’t look too bad. Although for many, the interior is perfectly functional as is. Hopefully, the electrical system is functional, along with the gauges in the dash.
There are lines for air brakes running off of the back of the cab. I am not sure if this truck hasn’t been updated with newer drivetrain parts. The diamond plate rear fenders are a nice addition, but obviously seem like a newer idea than 1947. There is still a single brake light/license plate light indicating your movement to drivers behind you. If this Autocar is as ready to drive as we would all hope, I think this could be a sweet project to tow your classic of choice with, even drawing more attention and questions at the meets. What would you tow behind this truck?
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Comments
Well, Brian, if your intention was to bring a smile from ear to ear to this old trucker, mission accomplished. While a bit before my time, WAY before actually, I’m not THAT old,, this is pretty cool. Autocar or “Carcar”, we’d call them, was huge during the war. They provided most of the real heavy duty stuff, tank movers and such, so had a glorious reputation. I read, this was Autocars own engine, a 501ci producing 127 hp. I’ve never seen a carburetor like that, almost looks like propane. Have to bring out the “big guns” and maybe geomechs knows. Set of “clubs” ( probably a 5 and a 3) will keep you busy. Diesels were just around the corner, but many still preferred gas motors, and they got pretty big. I’d leave it alone,( paint it, of course, green with black fenders,,,no?) and pull a small dropdeck for your other toys, that can’t handle the road, or a gooseneck RV, but I can tell you, pulling a light load, this truck, depending on the rear axle ratio, should do 80 no problem. What a great find, made my day, and it’s still early!!
Oh, one more thing ( in my best Columbo voice), lose the 10×20 widow makers!!!( 11x 22.5 tubeless bolt right on to those hubs)
Oh c’mon Howard, you know that Dayton never made widowmakers. You’re thinking of Firestone RH 5° wheels. These appear to have the lock ring style rims. FYI tubeless rims are also available for Dayton wheels.
I love Autocars. A friend’s dad worked for them when we were kids. We used to see them with the front of one up on the back of another , being delivered. So cool and beasty from what I hear. There’s one in Fairview Village, PA in orange with classic tags.
I just saw this article on the 47 Autocar. I’m a previous owner to this great truck and sold it to a collector in Baton Rouge La in the mid nineties. The truck is a C90T model, the heaviest conventional tractor made by Autocar in 1947. It has a 4 speed primary with a 3 speed auxiliary, everything including the engine was produced by Autocar except the auxiliary trans is a Spicer. I was the third owner of the truck and know the history from new . It was bought new by a pair of brothers that owned a produce company in New York City and it was used to haul produce locally, so had lots of hours idling but low mileage. Second owner had a Chrysler dealership in Roscoe NY and rented it to a movie company to be in a movie that was about strikes and union busting that I was told starred Sylvestor Stalone in it. The movie company painted over the original green cab with yellow fenders to a dark red. When I bought it there was a rare 1946 LaCrosse tandem axle drop deck trailer that went with the truck. The person I sold it to bought both but he wanted the trailer to haul a 1946 Peterbuilt firetruck on. I always wonder what happen to the truck. I had the carb professionally rebuilt . I cleaned the sattle tanks, new brakes and I put new tires on her. She ran like she was new. If there was a way to contact the new owner I would really like to know what the plans are for it’s future. It deserves to be restored and driven, was fun to drive. Thanks for listening
Joe, the movie you’re thinking of is F.I.S.T. Good flick. Underrated. Right wing nightmare. Watch the movie and you’ll see the truck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAndBxYrTBE
A bit older, but reminds me of the truck in the TV movie “Duel”, which harassed Dennis Weaver in a 4 door six cylinder Dodge Dart.
Hi Fred, that was a 1955 Peterbilt 281.
I think that was a Peterbuilt…
There is no “U” in Peterbilt.
U’re write…
Maybe he’s relying on a flawed memory of watching the movie, instead of Googling it & making a snotty comment.
Its was a V8 Valiant , but yeah , it does have some resemblance to the truck !
Sweet Autocar and at a great price. Gas mill, twin stick and air brakes…whats not to love. Nice single stage paint job would be cool, lovin that dash! good luck and stay safe! Good point Howard about the widow maker wheels. Hated changing them, one unsafe thing that has gone away.
cheers
GPC
Those widowmaker wheels. We fixed lots of flats and changed a lot tires with those wheels over the years. Never had a problem but we always used a chain or put the bucket of the front end loader over the rim to contain the rim/ring. I do remember at work one time when there was a loud boom from the gas station right behind us. We saw this huge cloud billow out from the garage door and in it were about four Hutterites (mechanized Amish) running for their lives. They were filling a tire and the rim blew out. It went straight up and completely destroyed one of the roof trusses. One of the boys was just reaching over to remove the air hose and check the tire pressure when it blew. Lucky for him he lost a bit of flesh off the tip of his finger…
I’ve got an International that has “widowmakers”( or Split Rims as they’re known in the UK).Never had a problem apart from finding someone to work on them – most tyre firms won’t!
When I was working in the auto wrecking business we one day decided to clean out all of the ancient truck tires and wheels that had accumulated at the back of the yard. There were a few of these Daytons. Trying to break them down was pure futility. The split rings were rusted in place and the rubber was petrified. We handed them off intact to our tire buyer/recycler. Let someone else deal with them. I could not get over how heavy each tire and wheel was. Completely miserable to deal with but they look cool.
You would not want to get run over by one. It would mash you in half while churning you insides everywhere. The stuff of nightmares and horror movies.
Never had a ring pop on a split rim. But then I’ve only fixed 4-5000 of them. Fix em. Roll em in a cage. Air em up. Put em on.
Had a 1 inch air impact wrench come apart on me once. I sat down and ponder the meaning of life for a few minutes.
While in highschool, I worked at a general repair shop that was also a Firestone tire dealer. We repaired hundreds of tires on split ring rims. One night after school, one of our regular customers came in with a fertilizer spreader truck with 2 flats. He was in a hurry. My buddy ( a classmate in school) and I each took one wheel/ tire and were racing to see who could be done first. We didn’t have power bead breakers – either using a sledgehammer with a wedge on one side or a slide hammer breaker. When the tubes/tires were patched we were about even in putting everything back together, using “whips” ( 3 foot long extension hoses with a gauge/regulator built in, you could dial what air pressure you wanted and walk away), when my buddy noticed his snap ring hadn’t fully seated. He probably had 35 – 40 psi in it when he hit the ring with a 3 pound hammer. The ring blew off, breaking his wrist and taking the hammer and ring 20 feet into the air. If he (or I) had been leaning a foot or so in the wrong direction we wouldn’t be around to tell the story. The boss bought a tire cage after that.
I know you’ve heard this story, but I pulled rail cans out of Chicago for almost 5 years, and they used tube-type on all the trailers. One could bank on several flats a week, and the RR would fix them BEFORE you left the yard. So one night, picked up a trailer, wasted tire ( someone dragged it in flat and didn’t say anything, very common) so I flagged down the tire man, he began changing the tire. I watched from what I thought was a safe distance( maybe 20 feet) , he was just airing it up on the ground, when KABOOM, I bet it blew that ring 30 feet in the air. Could have took my head off. When I got home, I told my ex-wife about it, all she said was, “I’ve had a rough day too”,,,
Widowmaker wheels, NOW I get it. Those &%$#@! split rims! First time I ever heard that term. Thank you Geomechs. I too, had my share of them, but on Ford F series trucks.
Away back then, (’60’s), when all the hoists were in the ground post type, we would always lift a hoist up a foot or so, and slide the split rim under it, and then lower the hoist on the tire, so if the lock ring blew, it wouldn’t go anywhere! I never has one blow on me, but I’ve heard of guys getting cut in half leaning over the tire at the wrong time! I’m sure getting rid of them saved a lot of lives!
When I worked at the scrap yard, one of my jobs was to change the truck tires, they had a lot of flats. The trucks had split ring rims, so I guess they were not technically “widow makers” but it always made me nervous when it came time to inflate them. But I’m still here.
Hey Ikey – I thought they were one and the same?
Finally, a real live TRUCK! A few years before my time but I remember when these were still running. There were lots of these running throughout the oil patch around Kevin and Oilmont, and Cutbank. The ones I remember the best were diesels, usually powered by Cummins H160 to the NH220, and there were a couple running HRS6’s. On cold winter nights, they ran at a fast idle all night long. This carburetor threw me for a loop at first but it looks like a ‘Teapot’ or Two-Storey carb, similar to the one that fed the IH V-line engine (I think White and Mack used it too). They had a lot of vapor-lock problems with those and they just put the float chamber up on top to keep it away from the heat. Ford flatheads and even the Y-blocks also had numerous problems which led to the development of the 2-Storey. I might add that back in the day, you often saw those trucks with the sides removed from the hoods. That was to alleviate the vapor-lock problem, not to mention getting increased airflow through the rad. A lot of heat generated in those engine bays…
My 1st HD truck, an IH R190 tandem dump truck, 450 gas, had a problem with vapor lock. The lead man said, “next time that happens, try peeing on the fuel pump”. Then we’d take it to guys like geomechs, EWWW, what the heck is that???
You guys are just too kind. I thought it was bad getting a “honey wagon” in for a new clutch, and I had to deal with ‘Urinary Vapor Lock’ too. Actually the worst job I ever had was a tandem tank truck filled with molasses. It was about 30 below and the truck blew a steady bearing out. We got the truck into the shop and proceeded to remove the shards with the ‘blue wrench.’ Things started to warm up and so did the molasses which expanded and ran out the top where it flowed down the side of the tank and dripped on top of us. It took a couple of days to get that molasses out of my hair. But there was still a job far worse than working on the above. I’ll maybe tell you about it later…
August 1968 100+ degrees. Flat on both inside duals on a flat bed loaded with crates of dead, half dead and soon to be dead chickens. Chicken sh*t and rotten eggs on the 300 degree concrete. Feathers fallin like snow. 2-3 day old dead chickens in the hot sun creating a unique odor. A bottle jack, lug wrench and cheater pipe.
Yes, I seriously questioned my career choice.
Driver said they going up north to Campbells Soup Co.
Been 52 years since I’ve eaten chicken noodle soup.
Working for a pool water delivery company in the 80’s and they would buy old milk tankers and we would tiring the outside skin off and weld the inner tank!! The owner brought two to the yard! It was August and really hot! The cut two holes in the outer skin we hooked a chain through the holes and started peeling the outer skin off between the two layers was supposed to be insulation but what came out was rotted milk and maggots by the thousands!! The smell was so bad most of us were puking!! The guy in the backhoe closed his windows and the door and started scooping buckets of maggots up and dumping them on the other side of the yard!! We used scrapers and gasoline with rags and had to get the tar off the inner tank used to hold the insulation in place before the outer skin was put on!! It was by far one of the worst work days I ever experienced!!!
This is a really cool truck and I would upgrade it and just keep the original body and dash!! Those old rims do look cool but I certainly wouldn’t want to use them!! I would probably put some hub/pilot on this and a Cummings diesel and call it a day!!
Could someone explain that carb for me?
It’s actually just a typical carburetor. Most of them have the air horn in the top with the float chamber around it but this outfit chose to route it through the side so the floats would likely be around the one end. Basically they just put the float chamber up top. Drilled passages fed down to the throttle plate the same as a regular carb. Your idle screws will still be down there. The accelerator pump is usually up top in the float chamber and it feeds the jets the same as all the others…
It’s a Holley 885 JJSG, with governor. (military version of the 885 “teapot”)
This baby makes a Hummer look like a toy. Love it !
Hahahahaha! You guys are a hoot! Not one of you knows the difference between locking ring and split rim wheels. What’s even more hilarious is not knowing the difference between dish and cast spoke wheels. This place is nothing more than a petri dish for inaccurate colloquialisms. Nobody here really seems to know what a “widowmaker” wheel looks like. All I hear here is stories and wives tales.
I have seen guys get maimed when the rim came apart when inflated. I’m sure the other guys have also and its no laughing matter. Why dont you either enjoy this forum like the rest of us, or stick your coloquialisms in your petri dish and leave.
Mainly because people get killed from inaccurate information, that’s why. If you want to perpetuate it, go right ahead, I can’t stop you. But somebody might get hurt or killed because they took your word for gospel.
I worked in a fleet tire shop, I’ve just about seen it all so don’t tell me.
Not everyone knows exactly what the proper terms are for certain items (do you call an adjustable end wrench a Crescent wrench?) but most of us know how to respect certain parts of a vehicle. 47+ years working on anything from a 30cc chainsaw to an 8000 HP Blackstone may have given me a crushed hand and two bad knees but that taught me to respect things that are heavier and stronger. I may not call it the right name but I still know what it is and what it can do. I joined this site because it’s been a great place for like minded gear heads and friends to share a few stories. It’s our virtual coffee row. You’re welcome to join in and most of us will take some light hearted criticism. But most of us got enough ridicule elsewhere…
It might be sort of hijacking the comments, but I was just about to ask if someone could explain all the differences, especially in terms of which wheels are safe and which are not.
If I ever get a classic/antique vehicle it will be an old mid or heavy class truck. I’ll leave all the cool old tri fives and cool old muscle cars for others. That said learning a little more would be greatly appreciated.
If it were closer and I’d consider this great old truck. All the old truck drivers in the area would love to see me bring this grand old lady to the Monday night ice cream runs! Being standard I wouldn’t have to let my girl friend drive it. At least not until she had me teach her how to handle the gears.
Not hijacking at all. Tube type tires get a bad rap, but honestly, they aren’t time bombs waiting to explode, we used them for 75 years. While many places may not work on split rims, like Walmart, most tire shops still do. Not the end of the world ( unless it’s a steer) A flat with a tubeless is so much easier, a quick plug and you’re on your way. Like I said, you can get tubeless rims that will fit on these hubs, but you’ll need new tires, as well. They don’t make 20″ tubeless. The trans is more than just a “standard” shift, it’s an unsynchronized unit, meaning, you need to match the gears with road speed, if unfamiliar, THAT will be your biggest obstacle. But I agree, you’ll wow the old timers with this.
Hahahahaha! BR is a hoot! Dazzle us with your brilliance and tell us the difference between a lock ring rim and a split rim and save us all from horrible injury. I’ve known the difference probably before you were born. I call them both split rims. But I just be plum full of them there inaccurate colloquialisms.
Then you’re pushing 80 and have had your own service station and boat yard, dealt with training employees, wrenched on everything from a 3HP Briggs & Stratton to a 16,000 HP EMD 16-710 quad, to a 17,700 HP @ 124 r/m. Sulzer RT-flex50C (LIcensed Chief Engineer). My whole point is accuracy. BS’ing around the coffee pot is great, I enjoy it too, but you don’t know who is just lurking, and going to take misinformation seriously enough to apply it. There is a certain responsibility here. Brent, apparently you don’t know the difference between a split rim and a locking ring wheel, otherwise you wouldn’t ask – just Google it. And while you’re at it Google “widowmaker” and see what you get. It won’t be a Dayton.
So if you care to be irresponsible and not taken seriously, then carry on.
The “widowmaker” term is also applied to Kawasaki two-stroke motorcycles of the early 1970s, in particular the 750cc H2.
While context is important referring to a machine or device as a widowmaker implies that extreme caution is foremost. Nothing to argue about.
E.J. Potter, The Michigan Madman (god rest his soul) defined his own “Widow Maker”.
Language is a fluid thing.
I come here for the stories of rotted milk, maggots, and puking …
I could tell you about the odor from a dead groundhog in my shed, but…
Geez, I always thought widow maker was kind of a generic term. Should we call Dayton type snap ring wheels Ball Buster’s instead? My ’67 Chevy C50 wrecker has Budd style wheels that split in the drop center. What should they be called? I always considered them to be “split rim”, but can they be called widow makers? I’m really sorry, I’ve maybe been calling them by the wrong slang terms for 40+ years.
” My ’67 Chevy C50 wrecker has Budd style wheels that split in the drop center. What should they be called? I always considered them to be “split rim”, but can they be called widow makers?”
Those ARE the split rim “widowmakers”. To be more specific they were made by Firestone and the model was RH 5°. This will be stamped on the inner ring. The outer duals are the ones to worry about, the fronts and others will blow inwards.
1st of all, not sure why you are getting so bent out of shape on the rims, we’re here to have fun, and maybe find a great deal, it’s not a test. And 2nd, I can disagree with you, the outside duals, on trucks I drove, have the ring on the inside. It’s the steer tire that had the ring on the outside. You can see that on this truck.
Howard, some of us have been trapped inside for way too long this spring.
EMD 16-710 is 6000HP not 16000 just saying for accuracy.
@Hankthecrank – EMD16-710G’s I worked on were 4,000 HP ea., and I said QUADS.Please show me one with 6,000 HP.
I know a fella in real life with that nick, for sure you’re not him, because he’s forgotten more than you’ll ever know about EMD’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_710
@Hankthecrank: Here’s mine, show me yours. Even the 20 cylinder engines don’t have 6,000 HP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuF6wYfPR7s&t=57s
Maybe it,s me but i would put money into making it road worthy pulling trailers again. If a trailer somewhere from THAT period, which probably would be IMPOSSIBLE BUT YOU NEVER KNOW UNTIL YOU LOOK, UPGRADE IF SOMEONE HAS THE CHEESE TO SPARE, AND A BEAUTIFUL CATCHY PAINT JOB, A GOOD COMPANY NAME,, BACK FROM THA DEAD TRUCKING MAYBE LOLOO, IT WOULD BE A REAL ATTENTION GETTER, SOME SHORT HAULS MAYBE BY AN INDEPENDENT DRIVER HEY,,,POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS ON THIS OLD PRO HERE,
Hey Harrison, I thought of that a long time ago. I approached several trucking companies I knew of or worked for, and said, if you have a picture of “old #1”,( and most trucking companies do on their wall) I’ll find a truck, make it look like ol’ #1, as a display out front. It fell on deaf ears.
Apparently there is a club for those devoted to restoring vintage tractor-trailers. I was coming back from Salisbury, MD. and passed a vintage GMC “crackerbox” and trailer done up in Preston 151 livery. I got on the CB and complemented the driver…you don’t restore those from online catalogs.
As you might know, I hang with HoA and geomechs for the go to on stuff I know less than nothing about.
In my limited “split rim” experiences, folks called always called split rims…….widowmakers. Whenever I would look at a truck to buy that had them, I swear I would stand 6 feet back. They scared the livin hell out of me mostly from stories by the older guys when i worked in service stations as a kid. I wouldn’t change them. And they still do. :) To me a two piece rim was a split rim, But then like I said I just followed the older guys.
The old car internet is a funny place. Its brings together all sorts of folks with interesting life experience who sometimes use different terminology to say the same thing.
Most of us can suss out the real from the bs…so it’s probably best if we don’t start pointing fingers cause we might have misunderstood what someone was saying. Not to mention its awful easy to mistake tone in typed comments.
We dont need to sound like a certain individual in a large building painted white, who may have been hit in the head with an exploding split rim.
Well said, pal. I’ve found terminology is a regional thing. Someone, say from, oh IDK, Sweetgrass, Montana, might refer to something someone in say, Phillips, Wis. may have a totally different term for, but we know what we mean. Chances are I’m not going to buy anything featured, it’s the stories the vehicles conjure up, is why I’m here. Peace.
I can see Jesse now, shaking his head, THAT’S why we don’t feature these often, angries up the blood of you old coots”,,,( and Josh is probably laughing), :)
Maybe we need to have some feathers ruffled to keep the blood pressure up. I hope they feature more old trucks. As much as I sometimes hated standing on my head to work on them, if I had the wherewithal to buy one of these and fix it up, I wouldn’t hesitate. This ol’ coot (old fart to my daughter and grandkids) still has some life left in him. Lots of us have stories to tell and we need featured trucks to help bring up those memories.
yeaj geomechs!! I myself think one of the coolest looking trucks is the GMC Crackerbox. Would love to see one come up, fix it up and let that 2 cycle oilburner sing!! Love em all, B model Macks and everything else. Stay safe and good luck!
Cheers
GPC
I like the Crackerbox myself. Never had a lot of do with them although we did have one in for an injector change and a tuneup. Had another one that wiped out the riser bearing in the governor. Those 2-strokes can hit an astronomical speed. Both were 6-71s and it was rather comical to see most of the engine protruding out the back of the cab. Of course to see a J9500 with the same engine and having most of that engine inside the cab was just as strange. You just fixed them and sent them out the door. But they were all designed to serve a purpose and they did that well…
I hope for more trucks too. I spoke with Scotty G., he says finding info on older trucks is extremely difficult. Models, power , there were a lot and not much written about them. Kind of the unsung heroes of our transportation world. Paolo makes a good point, most of these require a lot of space and special ( BIG) tools, something many don’t have in this day and age. Over 2/3’s of Colorado residents rent for living, most, like me, have no place to tinker( fact is, it’s forbidden in my apt. complex)
As far as the “F” series GMC, ( aka Crackerbox, literally, because the cab looked like a box of crackers), if you had to spend any time in one, especially Detroit powered, (and most were) that attraction would change toot-sweet. Here’s a pic of my ’85 Pete 359 day cab. I was going to make a motorhome out of it, I saw’r a guy that mounted a small travel trailer( sans wheels) on the back of one and looked really neat, but the project went stale, and I sold the truck to a friend with a towing business. Besides, after rattling around in one for 35 years, I just didn’t want to do that for retirement.
You know, the Pete 359 and the KW W-900 were probably the nicest trucks to work on. So many others started to cram things in where they didn’t belong. When they came out with the ant-eaters, all hell broke loose on the entire lot of them. If I could afford it and had the space I would love to have an early 80s 359 with a 3406A PC. They were great trucks…
As long as we are dreaming, there are several old trucks I would love to have. 49 needlenose Kenworth, mid 50s Pete, 65 Freightliner single, Dodge L-1000, Dodge C800 Dodge Big Horn, any Diamond T.
The only things stopping me are the work space, heavy duty equipment and tools and big truck knowledge and skills. I know just enough to get into trouble with which I don’t have a problem. I can imagine the consternation on my street if I started using a greasy Peterbilt 281 as a grocery getter.
I can picture this,with the 5th wheel gone…and a pick-up bed that matched the girth of this awesome old beast…;-)
engineering has come a long way since then, Rest0mod. Take the seen and graft it onto a mofern cab/chassy that hasa 12v & allison. /OR/ drop those between the rails here & change over to modern axels etc…
The 5th wheel could switch out to rec vehicles (travel trailer, toy hauler, etc) or work (hay, live stock, residential moving).
I think BR was into the sauce…
Hahahaha. That was the problem. I was NOT on the sauce.