Know anything about 1960s-1970s GM Big Trucks ?

Question: Are we limited to only a single image per post ? I could have sworn that I used to be able to include several images in a single post.

I have old Polaroid photos of the truck but they are stuck together from a basement flood several years ago. 

Those cab marker lamps in the photo are not original to the truck as the chrome base and amber glass, (and later plastic) Yankee, Vis-A-Vis, or Truk-Lite styles were original.   

The H/J-series (H=single; J=tandem) were 93-inch BBC.

So it was a "dead tandem" as in front axle live and rear axle an idler ?

I may be wrong, but I never knew of a factory original dead tandem; all I ever saw/drove were after-market or homemade creations.

They might have carried a bit more weight, but they were helpless in the least likely situations, such as pulling out of a parking lot onto a highway and the drive axle end up spinning in the air when the drive wheels get to that low spot where the parking lot meets the built-up highway; such could get one killed if he was crowding his luck trying to beat oncoming traffic and get stopped right in front of them.

I drove a dead tandem L8000 Ford dump truck with 3208 Cat and 5 and 2 and hardly a day passed that someone didn't have to pull me out, usually on almost level ground.

The air bags on that one would push down the dead tandem, but there was no second set of airbags to lift it up clear of the ground.

Most of the leaf sprung dead tandems had no means at all to raise or press down the tandem.

Many homemade ones were designed such that when empty, the dead wheels didn't contact the ground.

A lot of the homemade dead tandems had no brakes whatsoever on the dead axle.

You have given me another quest = to find out if dead tandems were ever a factory option.

If it were an aftermarket kit, I imagine the front axle had a "hump" to clear the driveshaft.

I have seen more than a few homemade dead front axles that were drive axles with the hogs-head and cover removed; the driveshaft went through the opening.

Wooden plugs were driven in the inside end of the tubes and either the bearings were packed in grease or plugs and vents added on each side so they could be "wet" axles.

The reason dead front axles were used, instead of the dead axle being the rear one, was to keep from having to stretch the frame.

Quite often, when a longer frame was needed anyway, a dead rear axle was included to prevent the truck rearing up on steep hills or when a moving load shifted to the back, such as liquid or livestock.

I have seen cattle rear up a truck on a bad hill; and, if the livestock bed were open top, the front cattle would climb over the backs of the ones trapped against the tailgate and escape; or, on a stout closed top bed, a heavy truck or tractor would need be chained to the front end and pull it back down, hopefully before the cattle trapped underneath smothered to death --- they smother pretty quick.

We have a lot of really steep bad hills around here. 

Had my Share of GM 500 and 600 generally 630 series Round Grills that had Gas Engines, inline Sixes that SWILLED gas.  Actually had a soft spot for Gull Wing 9500s with 8v and 12V Detroit Diesels, horrible to work on but sounded cool.

Had a customer years ago who had a Mack with this setup on it.  Belts were a pain to replace after picking up a rock between pulley and belt. Usually broke the belt.

This actually a 1947 Ford  off Ford Trucks .com

Can Laugh, that has VACUUM Applied Brakes not Air Brakes.  Size of chambers dead and usually Dead giveaway.

B-Model 1960-1966

7500 = 1963-1978

9500 = 1966-1978

And a bit of bewilderment on the SRA versus tandem story; I see tandems even in the lower numbered medium dutys.

I am fairly certain that a 7500 could very well be a single axle; can a 9500 be SRA as well, or are all 9500s tandems ?

One would think somebody would have documented all of this ages ago --- someone already did = 6066GMCGuy; I guess nobody else saw a need compared to the massive amount of information he had gathered in one place.

The top link was the good one; it goes nowhere now; that link comes up all over the web and is a dead end.

Thanks for the forum link.

I may have already made mention of it; my mystery truck is single rear axle and has Dayton wheels.

I just now was looking at a 1966 9500 tilt hood and a 1967 9500 with butterfly hood; both of these had the single back glass.

According to that, I am beginning to believe that butterfly and tilt hoods were options as well as the three back glasses as I see them overlapping in year models as well.

Does anyone know what it took to determine whether 7500 or 9500 ?

Other than being SRA, this truck looks plenty heavy duty enough to be a 9500.

I remember it being a pretty good truck as it never really gave problems I know of. Other than rebushing the rear suspension, never did anything to it myself. Seems it needed king pins but if so, I didn't do the work. It had painted pinstriping that was nicely done, stainless mirror brackets with heated mirror heads, and an air drivers seat. Also had chromed lock rings, (steer axle) wedges, and center hub caps on the wheel hubs. Always assumed it was never a fleet truck citing these items.

The nuts don't look like proper hub-pilot nuts; I don't see any flange-washer.

Of course, that don't mean a thing as I see plenty running around with entirely the wrong nuts and then people wonder why they bust so many wheels.

It would also be interesting to see if it had proper long studs for Aluminum wheels, or short steel wheel studs with barely a thread holding; I see that a lot as well.

I run into a lot of dual Aluminum Budds bolted on the short studs and there is barely half-a-thread caught in the nuts; a lot of chrome nut covers get sold just to hide their sins.