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| IH K8 |
I've billed this as a K8 but I could be wrong. It might be a K6 or K7. This series dates to the late 1940's. The cab is the same is the pre war cab used on the "D" series, but the hood and grill are rearranged. This photo was taken in 1975 of my neighbors fire truck, and the exact model was not recorded. I have guessed that it was a K8 by the fact that a local grocery distributor (Hudson House) used to have a large fleet of tractors that looked like this pulling short semi-trailers. They were spec'ed fairly heavy for the time with the IH big block 372 (a predecessor of the 406/450/501 cu. in. model) with a 5 speed transmission, and air over hydraulic brakes on the tractor and full air for the trailer. The Truck speed limit of the day was 45 MPH and these were geared just under that.
I can't be sure that this was an old Hudson House tractor converted to a fire truck but it sure looks the part.