Conrad Vogel's 1961 GMC 1/2-Ton

July 2000

From Conrad:

             The mighty Ruen Farms 1961 GMC 1/2 Ton Pickup! Used and abused, with the wrong hood (it's a 1963 hood - my uncle Warren smashed the original 1961 hood by dropping an engine on it...), but the truck is definately worth saving.

             This truck was bought new with it's custom paint job (the same paint as its twin: a 2-ton GMC 4000) by my grandfather Vernon Ruen from the dealer in 1961. The dealer is still in business and has found all of the original paperwork for it as well as all of the other farm trucks (mostly GMCs) for me. It's one of the trucks that I got to drive around at my family's Seed Potato farm here in northern Idaho. We used to "smooth" out the bumpy fields by not changing the shocks.

             The GMC 305 V-6 has seen better days, but it's mostly all there, and the 305 engines were hard to kill. The V-6 weighs in at a paltry 850 lbs as compared to a Chevy small block V-8 at 550 lbs.

             This truck isn't really in bad shape considering it's tour of duty. No one wanted her, and I jumped at the chance to keep a little bit of family history alive (as well as local history - our farm started in 1911, and out of a town of 450 people, someone from just about every family has worked there through the years.) It will be restored back to it's former glory in the upcoming years, now that I'm accumilating a few parts trucks (My wife just loves me).

            I've started up a database of '60-'66 GMC truck Vin numbers - if you have a vin number (along with color, body style, etc.) email me with the info - it'd be much apreciated.

Conrad Vogel

          Conrad's got a few trucks in the Gallery ... TWO 1940 ACKWX 6 x 6 ... a 1948 COE Loadmaster ... a 1962 GMC 3/4-Ton 4 x 4 -- Editor