The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Too fast in an old bolt.. white knuckles, brown shorts..

Going fast in a stock stovebolt was brought up in another thread, and I thought i'd bring it front and center so everybody would see it and share their experiences!

Fastest i've ever been in a Stovebolt is about 100MPH.. I was having my brother in law help tow home a 2 tonner (48 two ton) and he thought he'd kick up the speed on one of Western Nebraskas notoriously straight backroad runs.

Of course at the end of the run was a downgrade at the base of which was a curve.. I managed to get us slowed down around 70 as we hit the curve.

Thats about as white knuckled as i've ever been behind the wheel of ANYTHING.. let alone a 50+ year old truck with dry rotted tires and questionable brakes.

I haven't had BillyBob over sixty but my brother, JR, had him up to eighty when he owned the truck and he was towing a Jeep at the time!

He tells the story here:

Six days on the Road . . . or, at least a few hours

I'm on the highway once/twice a week with my Bolt and she plugs along at about 45-50 I think... speedo isn't working. It's kind of nice to just cruise along in the left lane and take some time to slow life down a bit. Now if I just had some tunes...

When I traded my '46 Chevy sedan for a '41 Chevy one-ton single wheel rear truck in Washington way back in '82, I drove the truck from Bellingham to McChord AFB in Tacoma; about 120 miles or so total...without a floorboard! I was looking straight down at Interstate 5 the whole trip. The old beast cruised right along at 55 mph in the right lane, and rode like a lumber wagon with no bed on the back! So between the speed, the bouncing, the questionable tires, and the non-existant floorboard (it was missing completely!), it was quite an adventure!

Not to mention no air bags, impact absorbing steering column, padded dash, or seatbelts!

I have no idea how fast I've had number seven, but then again, the spedometer's broken.

I would guess somewhere around ten or fifteen mph, though.

What? That's what you get when you leave it in granny gear 'cause you don't have any brakes.

Maybe 80-85. Speedo's a little off. First few times were scary but then I got used to it. Anybody that rides with me now usually starts digging their nails in seat at around 65 or so. Much fun. Not so bad now that I got the disc brakes and steering tightened up.

77 is tops for my '55 1st GMC.

Since we call any GM truck up through '72 a Stovebolt here, I once had my long gone '70 Blazer running down the highway at about 100. Mildly modified 350 with 3.08 gears. Going downhill.

I sold that one more than 25 years ago...

Had the 46 1/2 ton down the I-15 in SoCal at 75, on to then going East 52 3miles of 6% grade in high gear. Got some of those deer in the headlight looks from the 80's trucks lugging up the grade. Works for me. If it goes it has to STOP!!

Stock 56 235/ stock 41 4speed, close drive line, Patrick's 3:55 gears, and Disk brakes.

My 62 winds out around 60-70, no speedo,according to my friend who followed. I did have a lifted VW bug up to 85. The front end was all over the road. The fastest I've driven personally was 110 in a Mach 1 Mustang.

My white-knuckle experience wasn't with speed.

My Uncle had a 1960 Chevy 1/2 ton he had used at his sinclair fuel distributor company for years. It sat out beside the barn, registered, but hardly ever used. It was as yellow as the sun and you could still make out the dinosaur on the doors under a couple of resprays. My mom did the books and radioed dispatch to the 2 drivers out delivering fuel in the summer months when my uncle and aunt went on vacation. I lusted after that truck for more years than I did for Janey Fortier, my unbelievably georgeous next door neighbor. Its funny Janey was my first kiss and Uncle Alfred's (AJ to his friends) shop truck was the first stovebolt I ever drove. I've been in love with old trucks and Italian girls, her mother was an Italian beauty, ever sense.

My white-knuckle experience happened the summer of my junior year in college. I borrowed the truck while my mom was on duty and headed for the port of Oswego. That is where a friend was working unloading grain ships and doing odd jobs at the Port Authority. I went to get a load of 4 X 4 cribbing timbers so my friend Ed and I could make lofts for our dorm rooms back at school. The cribbing material was free, if you had access to the pile. Ed and I loaded up the old 1/2 ton with what looked like an appropriate load and headed off back home. We noticed right away the truck was sitting different and had a certain bounce to it's ride. We thought that meant it still had some suspension travel left and we were good to go.

It was only a mile or two later once we got out of town and away from traffic lights that what was really happening came to light. The truck's load was hanging a good way out the back of the truck. The rear wheels were only slightly ahead of the center of gravity. The rear end of truck was actually acting like a fulcrum and we weren't bouncing nicely down the road, the front wheels were actually lifting off the road as we drove. This light bulb moment came to us as we hit a dip in the road right before a curve. The truck didn't respond to the wheel and we were headed for the ditch. Thank goodness a light touch of the brake brought the front end down and we managed the curve. This continued on and off for the next 10 - 12 miles. By the end of the run it was at least predictable. The first time was kind of wild. A little like Janey.

Well that's it from, the soon to be frozen, Upstate New York.

Bill Schickling

My '59 Viking gets pretty scary at 45 mph when hauling over 4 ton of rock. It's the brakes that worry me. It always stops, but not very quickly.

I had a '63 Chevy Stepside with a 283, four-speed, and a low rear end. That old truck would fly. One night I was coming home late, and took the blacktop highway near to my dusty country roads. I was at about 80mph when I hit the first peaked hill and **chirp** left the ground. The next one produced the same results. The suspension sounded like an old rattley chain, but it was so much fun I went back two or three times!

Trying to keep up with Tony P, I once hit 50 MPH in the '49 1-ton. Yikes!

John

When we got the 54 halfton running we were all so excited we all hopped in and went sailing down the street, and down the hill to the hairpin turn at the bottom sort of forgetting that 50 year-old trucks don't handle turns too well. Actually thought she might flip over but admirably handled that turn in stride. Now back in highschool when I got the new 455ci into my Buick Skylark took it out to coast highway and made the needle bounce off the 120 at the end of the speedometer pretty hard. I think I must have hit 130 when it overheated and the main bearing spun. That's when I learned that a new engine deserves a new radiator, but at 16 you are allowed to be stupid.(Can't use that excuse now!) The fastest car I've ever driven was a split window Vette with a 327. One of the fringe benefits of being a Chevy mechanic was the test drives...

The old 55 has hit the century mark several times.Feels and handle as good as a new Caddie.

Had a 51 Chevy 3600 that we shortened to look like a 3100, put a 350 Crate motor in, a TH-350 and a nine inch ford with 2.73 gears... 110mph on the interstate just to see what she'd do... DEFINITELY could have gone faster, but when I did hit the brakes up there it became FRIGHTENINGLY obvious that there was NO WAY that you were gonna even slow down! It even had all new shoes, wheel cylinders, lines and master cylinder!!! YEEE-HAWWWW! Never again...

I have a 1965 GMC Panel 1-Ton 4x4. I was heading down the Columbia River Goerge at nightime. There was a long straightaway that lead to the bottom. I floored it. The speedo registered 100MPH and I thundered down the road. I pressed in on the clutch and coasted. The wind noise became lounder so I knew I was picking up speed.

I think my 4t6 hit 85 about 2 years ago.........on the trailer as I brought it home

Dan

i think i hit 45-50 this weekend in the '69 K20...292, stock with a straight pipe, 4 speed tranny..

got the floor mostly welded up, and just HAD to take her for a drive. threw the seat and gas tank in...and away i went!

got onto an old gravel road thats on our land, spun the tires in 2nd, hit 3rd, tires still spinning, 4th, still spinning and fish tailing on the gravel. gawsh it was fun.

tonite, me and my buddy, whose also my cousin, took her for a spin in the field. the lights work! but no doors...hahah.

nothing like hearing a straight 6 just gorling, and then that crackle when you down shift. ahh..i love it.

i'm 18. i'm allowed to do this. hahah.

.sam.

After I worked a bit in my first real job I had some disposable income so I bought a Miata. I took it on a road trip to see a friend and I bounced it off the rev limiter on a long downgrade on I-84 in 5th gear. That was 7000 rpm, 140 mph indicated (probably really 135). I decided to slow it down a bit and later that night I got a ticket for 87 in a 65. Later that month I had a sidewall separate on one of the rear tires, I don't know if the speed did it in or a curb. They were Z rated tires.

The fastest I've driven my truck is 70 mph, and it was pretty stable (I've refurbished the steering components). I suppose once I put the 3.07 axle in and fix up the brakes I'll just drive it at that speed.

I kept that car until I got sideswiped a couple of years ago, at 175,000 miles.