Here are some pics of the Tanker truck I have. It's a 1954 GMC Texaco tanker truck 302 cu. in. 5 spd. 2 spd auxiliary transmission. It was originally a hydromatic and I think that's why it has the reduction transmission behind the main transmission. It's a really solid truck,5 window cab, runs decent could use a carb rebuild. Definitely a good project. I have never seen another tanker quite like this one, the fuel delivery is on either side of the truck and the rear has a cargo area where most tankers deliver out the rear.
I sure do like that truck! Amazing it had a Hydramatic. What’s the rear ratio? Sounds like it could have been high, to need a step down gear box ? If that 302 has a List-660 2194100 Holley like my 54 450 GMC fire truck, I got a rebuild kit from Carb King a while back. Very good quality and service, of course. Is it a Tennessee truck?
~Charley 1954 Chevy 3100 with 235 261 project engine “Ole Blackie” Follow along in the DITY 1963 Chevy half ton stepside short box 230 1954 GMC 3 ton 302 And several more Chevy camper and work trucks 1979 1987 1996 1931 Packard car, 327 i 8 auto
Cool truck. That 302 must have been installed later. Being a 350 series, 2 ton, a 248 was standard, and a 270 was optional. The 302 was standard in the larger 3 ton 450 series, and 3 1/2 ton 470 series trucks
Spanky Hardy Collector Of Fine Old G.M. COE Trucks & Antique Holmes Wreckers
I'm pretty sure the 302 is a replacement. Probably at the same time the 5 speed was installed. According to the PO the truck came from California, how it got to Tennessee is another mystery.
What drove the pump? PTO on the brownie, or was it solely gravity dump?
I can see why they would have repowered it. A fleet I cared for had a '51 450 dump truck with a 270 and it was painfully slow. Had a 5 speed and 2 speed axle. 10.00 x 20 rubber.
I drove tanker for years, often delivering 10K gal. truck-and-trailer loads to bulk plants that still used similar trucks for local delivery, some of them Texaco. Hoopies we called them. Lots of farm tanks are 10 feet high for gravity feed and so had to be pumped into.The PTOs on our big rigs ran off the brownie so you could pump in 1st, 2nd or third gear on the main box, depending on what product you were pumping. Often there was nobody around when I arrived so I had to figure out their plumbing and find the right key from a 6-inch ring hanging in the cab. Sometimes our pump and sometimes theirs. And some of these plants dated from the 1920s. There's only one of those left so far as I remember. Being short on seniority, I usually drew a truck powered by a 270 hp Cummins, which was just a 220 with a smoke kit (turbo). It was about as fast at the 270 cu in GMC but with a lot further to go. Fifteen-hour days back then. Occasionally, I would be weekend-relief on one of the Union-oil tenders and these were new Petes with 350 Cummins and 13-speed Roadrangers. It was almost like a paid vacation.... cut more than an hour off the trip over the hump.
The local ex-highschool community center has an AD 450 tanker sitting out back that they haul waste motor oil for the heating plant. It has a 2-speed axle that's stuck in low range so it's pretty slow but they don't go far with it. It's faded yellow so I think it may have been a Shell Oil truck. Same body as yours, including the pintle hook. How would you like to wrestle full oil drums in and out of the back? I used to drop them on end onto a truck tire but it still took 2 guys for safety. About 500 lbs. each. Some places had an oil-drum hand truck but you still had to get them onto the ground. We loaded them with a fork lift with special barrel arms.
1951 3800 1-ton "Earning its keep from the get-go" In the DITY Gallery 1962 261 (w/cam, Fenton headers, 2 carbs, MSD ign.), SM420 & Brown-Lipe 6231A 3spd aux. trans, stock axles & brakes. Owned since 1971.
I think those tank wagons with the cargo space in the rear were specced by Texaco. My father started in the gasoline business in the mid 1930's. I grew up in the business. I am now 80 and still selling gasoline. Except for these Texaco tank wagons, I think everyone else had drops and meters in the rear. 55 gallon drums could be loaded on either side. It was probably 15 or 20 years after this thing was built that I saw a drum being handled with a fork lift. The side compartments were low enough that drums could be loaded from the ground. Texaco had to load from a dock. And putting 4 drums of motor oil behind the drive axle made the steering axle pretty light. Very few tank wagons survived because most of them were destroyed when news came out that the EPA would make tanks that once had leaded product in them almost impossible to get rid of. I have GMC several cab and chassis. If I ever found a tank similar to the ones we used 60 to 70 years ago, I think I would buy it.
The tank company I worked for from 2001 to 2009 built tank bodies like this one for almost 80 years before it was bought out and closed. That type of open storage area in the rear is called a Barrel Boot, at least by Progress Industries. That’s a cool old truck. Congrats!
