The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Folding signals

I have a 1933 1.5 ton truck that has a factory looking hole in the top rear of the cab for what I am told is a folding turn and stop signal. There were apparently operated via rope and pulleys inside the cab. By pulling the rope either a "turn" or "stop" arm would raise up or lower. My cab has the pulley hardware still intact, but the signals themselves are missing. Does anyone have any more information or possibly a pattern for this type of signal?

Thanks,
Greg

Your signal was not a Chevrolet option. No turn signals were offered in any of the 1930's trucks. Many outside inventors made lots of different add ons.

They are called semaphore signals if you want to search for some.

Thanks for the help. So far I haven't been able to even find a picture of a truck with signals like these. I'd like to find a good pattern from which to rebuild them.

Look to England. They called them Trafficators, and cars (at least) had them into the 50's. Maybe your truck was once owned by a homesick Limey.

The semaphores used on trucks were much larger than Trafficators and were mounted to the outside of the body rather than disappearing into slots in the body. Also, the truck type, IIRC, were only on the drivers side and indicated right, left and slowing in the same fashion as an arm signal. They were, in fact, an extension of an arm signal, as an arm signal could not be seen past the load. Some were lighted, others were not, but had reflectors instead.

Thanks Baldy! You are right, thay are mounted on the right side of the cab. Any idea where I could find more information about them?

Where are you with the drivers side being the right side? No idea where useful information can be had other than a Google search.

Here is a picture of what you are looking for. these are from my 45 GMC COE and 42 GMC 1 1/2 ton.-

turn signals

Thanks Oly!
The bracket piece looks very similar to mine. Do you know approximately how long the signals are?

the one on my 1939 1.5 ton parts truck is cone shaped about 1ft long and had a light in it some point in its life

I think I'll try and look around some swap meets for one. I haven't had any luck finding information online. Thanks for all the help so far.

Ask around at the NTHS or the ATHS these guys should be of some help.

I believe I have what you are talking about on my 46 Chevy COE. Mine is a little faded and has reflectors but the cable and all the hardware is intact and it works. Let me see if I can get a good picture of it posted.

Here's a shot in the dark. If you can find a patent number you can look it up at the US Patent office. Often times the diagrams are able to be viewed and downloaded.

Now I remember, I couldn't idenitify my carb so I ran the patent numbers and got some illustrations for it.

Here is the links to a couple of pictures of my truck with the folding turn signal.

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2992325860061479077JujPMx

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2111939290061479077MfouQx

I checked my folding signal and found it still had the Mfg. label on if interested send me an email and I will send the info back.