The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts The Tanker Has Landed!

Some of you guy's will remember a bit back I was inquiring as to the weight of an old tanker truck as I needed to move it. Since then I bought some property just 4 short miles from the location of said tanker. So the deal was done and the tanker came to my place today!
I told the tow company in detail what it was they were picking up and that they needed to send their "Big" rollback as in the one they send to pickup the little rollbacks when they are broke. But instead I think all they heard was Maw maw maw. Maw maw maw. Maw Tanker truck maw maw Big. Because the guy shows up with the BIG Rig tow truck. Needless to say I was a little annoyed especially when we had to break out the chain saw to get it out of the yard. Either way amazingly the rear tires were up on the tanker and it towed the short distance just fine.
Pictures start HERE just hit next to follow her home.
MONGO

Cool. I love the way that wrecker could lift and pull the truck so easily. I need a big rig like that!

yes, I would say that Tow Truck was bordering on overkill.

Isn't it funny that no matter how you tell someone something, they only hear what they want to hear.

But hey..we love pictures and that's two nice truck in one photo.

Nice truck, those old tankers are cool.

Mongo,

It takes a REALLY big truck to make your new, BIG truck look so SMALL!!!

I have always loved old tankers, so I wanna know more:

What did it originally "tank"?
Intact? Pump still there?
And most importantly - what will you do with it? Restoration? Irrigation? Just couldn't resist?

Looking forward to more photos!!!

-Michael

COOOOOL mongo....just plain cool.

Mike: The current plan is to swap some tires on the front that are up and clean it up enough to keep the city from getting grumpy about it. Eventual plan will be to make it a runner and enjoy, It might get some water hauling duty at our farm some day. Now that it's up out of the weeds I'll be climbing all over it to determine it's overall condition and get a game plan together. I have a 52 chassis that's a runner bought that it may get swapped onto.

I have dreams of building a vintage Sinclair station on my property to work on my trucks in so It will likely get painted with a white/green or two tone green color scheme. I'd like to find some pictures of a similar truck painted up for Sinclair for inspiration.

The tanks appear to all be intact, I'm going to get them checked and degassed as recommended by one of the guys. While the tow truck had it up in the air I got a pretty good look under it and their appears to be a PTO driven pump under there. The doors to all the storage/hose area's are pretty much rusted shut so I'll be soaking the hinges down good before I poke around in there too much but there does appear to be a chain drive? hose reel in the one on the drivers side.

More pics probably in the coming weeks when I get a chance.

Thanks Alvin.
Mongo

great addition to the family. its a keeper for sure. look forward to seeing more pics

oh man that is great. love the ole tankers and sinclair is one of the sharpest brands to recreate. i have plans for a esso station myself. you know that big wrecker was envious of the tanker it was hauling..

Congrats! Cool old truck. Do you know what make/brand of tank body is on it? I work at Progress . Truck tanks like that were there mainstay from the 20's to the 90's. Now it's mostly aluminum, some stainless and very little carbon steel.
That is cool!!

Huzzah, Mongo! Another one saved from a trip to China!

It actually looks silly behind the Pete, though ...

At least Mrs. Mongo can't blame THAT one on Scott and I ...

Great truck
John

No clue what brand the tank body is, I originally thought it was a 1000 Gallon tanker but after opening my eyes to the "CAP 615" Painted on the back and the labels on each tank of 205, 150, 155, and 105 I realize it's actually only 615 which makes more sense considering it's a 4400 truck. The only tag I've found so far says "Continental Oil Co." and lists the capacity, it makes it look almost like it was built by CONOCO? Did they build their own tanker bodies ever? I stopped tonight and took More Pictures The new one's start about page 3. Interesting hose reel mechanism and some cool stickers on the door and dash.

Thanks John, yeah another saved! It's funny about the towing all said and done I'm just happy it's safely moved over to my old truck compound where it can be appreciated.

So looking through the gallery and searching I'm not finding any other fuel tankers, surely I'm not the only bolter with an AD Tanker, come on speak up guys? Surely Spanky has had one at one time or another.

Mongo

Mongo, did you see the little tanker at the Reunion last Sept?? I know its small but some of the small ones are the same as the big ones....only smaller

Riding the School bus everyday we go by a house that has an old tanker something similar to the one you have but maybe a 60's model. I plan to go by one day and find out the "scoop" on it. It has been there for some time but looks as if it was just driven in and parked. I can only see the back of it.
.....now thats all I need, a BIG bolt! Victoria would probably send me to live in your truck compound

Keep up the good work. Keep'em working, keep'em rolling.

Pakrat47 has a '48 with a tanker body on it. His is different than yours though. I'm guessing maybe a little older.

Nice truck Mongo and great pics.
Those trucks were way before my time so I was just curious what the dial thing was on the left hand rear door. I see it was numbered in intervals of five but what for??
I'm sure it's something simple that I should know but just looking for someone to enlighten me on this... Thanks!!

Alright, Mongo . . . Now you've got me hooked.

Trying to figure out how this truck was originally used? 4 tanks would seem to correspond to 3 grades of gasoline, plus diesel. But then, when this truck was made, did we even HAVE unleaded gasoline? Much less, three grades? Or maybe we had three grades of leaded gas, and the lead doesn't figure into it . . .

And, it just SEEMS too small to service a gas station - 150 gallons ain't much to a filling station. Or maybe they just filled all the tanks with one grade? But then, why four separate tanks?

So then I think, fleet fuel truck? The hose reel makes sense for that, just stick a nozzle on the end. BUT, it still has the larger hook-ups on the rear . . . why? And would a fleet vehicle need 4 different types of fuel?

It's not marked as an airport truck, though I could see that maybe. . . Or home heating fuel? Hose reel isn't long enough . . .

OK, then we move to: What was stored on the two shelves? The clasps seem to indicate something that was pulled on and off regularly. But it doesn't seem like that's where the larger hoses would have mounted . . . Boxes of motor oil? I'm grasping at straws here . . .

Somebody, PLEASE school me . . . otherwise, I'll have to track down the original owner in Colorado!

-Michael

You also had home heating oil and, in those days, even kerosene. Plus, the storage tanks on the farm in those days were not nearly as big as the ones now. So a couple hundred gallons might have taken care of more than one delivery.

And Brent, as far as that dial thing , I'm not totally sure...but I think it's a hold over from the days before they had pumps with meters on them. From what I've been told, they used to draw off the fuel or kerosene into 5 gallon cans and carry it to the storage tank. That dial was how they kept track of how many gallons they had delivered.

The shelves could very well have been for boxes or 5 gallon cans of motor oil delivered to the farm.

Nice truck glad you got it ! ED H

Rich is correct about the dial - its a meter or counter for tracking fuel delivery one 5 gallon bucket at a time. A truck like that would have been used for farm, home and small business delivery: 2 grades of gas, diesel, kerosene and/or home heating oil. Notice the faucets at the rear behind a relatively weak bumper and no overturn guards or rails on top: definitely pre-DOT. It is cool!!

Also notice it looks like 4 individual tanks banded together. A friend of mine whose an old guy in the truck tank business thinks its a Morrison Brothers built in Dubuque, Iowa. They are over 150 years old and still in business, but they no longer build truck tanks. Have fun with it KC.

what a score! i had a 56' LCF that was a fuel delivery tanker and ended up giving it away because of cost to move.

That is a neat looking truck. That tow truck is killer big though.Like someone else said, it makes the tanker look small.

I'll have to try to get a hold of Morrison Brothers to see if they have any historical docs I might be able to peruse. I've got word out to a buddie to scare up an old silver book to see what it says. Also gonna hit up the local ATHS guys when I get a chance or go hit their library.
Saturday I swapped some better tires over to the front to make it look a little less "inoperable" as the codes guys say. I noticed the front drums are stuck so when I get time I'll spray them down hook it to one of the other trucks and do the old tug and dodge to see if I can break them loose.

Pics with the fronts off and my new Big Bolt Jack.
Towmotor Big Bolt Jack
Front wheels off

Mongo

Nice Fuel Delivey Truck Mongo. I have owned one, that looked almost identical to yours, but can't remember who the Tank was built by.

Hey, Nice truck. What are your plans for the truck. A complete restore would be nice. I am working on My 1946 chev fire engine. I have found out that unless you have the $$$$$$ and the time it's going to take you a while. Go easy and have fun. dispintments will come but they can be over come. Slow and steady and the outcome will be great !!