The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk How many miles does your bolt have?

I have a 1951 3100 that has 00841.3 miles on the odometer it was last on the road in 1978. What is the average milage of a truck this age? I know back then people didn't do the traveling that we do now a days so I was wondering what was average for the old days. Is it likely that the odometer has flipped? It seems like 100841.3 is too high and 841.3 is rather low.

100,000 miles was a milestone when your truck was built. And a lot of maintenance was involved to get it that far. That would include a whole bunch of point filing and resetting in between point changes, spark plug resetting and changing, about 10 valve adjustments, a whole bunch of oil changes, among other things. Your truck must have been well cared for.

It would be hard to figure an average but you can bet most didn't make 100,000.

and you know how long the warranty was..

I would bet that most 216s had at least one block rebuild and two head/valve-jobs within 100K miles.

I had a 1948 3100 in 1969. I was told by the machine shop that it had markings on the crankshaft from 2 prior rebuilds. I have no idea how many miles were on it (but, I can be sure it would be less than what one might expect on that truck in 1978, or in 2013).

Yes, I think that truck's odometer has "flipped". But, you'll never know unless records were kept.

The warranty was 90 days or 4,000 miles (whichever came first).

Oh yes, if anything went wrong (a proven defect in a part), you had to pay to send the part back to the factory and pay for return shipping.

roger that..

I"m thinking the odometer had been broken for a long time, somebody turned it back, or that isn't the original.

45000 and some change. I'm guessing it went around at least once.. Wait... That is the original mileage. I am the 3rd owner and have the records from the original owner. My truck came from Watseka, IL and was on a farm most of it's life...

Gave me an excuse to look at the documentation that came with the truck..

nice

should be able to get a rough guess on mileage/use by examining wear on various areas, start with the interior, like rubber pedal pads, seat spring condition, especially driver side, steering wheel wear spots, etc - also look over the suspension and the condition of things under the hood .... if it really only has 841 miles it should look pristine everywhere, with over 100,000 everything will be worn out or have been replaced ... as indicated above, might have broken a speedo cable early on that wasn't repaired, or you might find after driving it awhile that the odometer is no longer registering

Bill

My '38 has 82000. It spent 81k of them on the farm in North Dakota.

mine 1950 3100 has 56,000 mile on it, not sure when the motor was rebuilt as it has a tag on it, lost my motor last weekend, so having a 235 built to drop in it around august

My 49 1/2 ton has at least 128,580 miles on it now. When my dad bought the truck in 1974 it was showing about 97,000 miles. He remembers it turning over to 00,000, he liked the idea that was a new truck again.(HA HA) When he gave me the truck in 2005 it was showing about 22,000 miles on it. When I was trying to get it to pass air care I had the head and side cover off and it was very clean inside, also there was no ring ridge and the bores were shiny. I cleaned the tops of 2 pistons and there was no numbers on them. It is the engine that came with it in 1949( numbers matching the plate on the drivers door post).

mine has 37000 original miles

The 48 1-ton showed 42,000 in the speedo when I replaced it, I have a little over 200 on the new gauge.

The 53 1/2 ton has abour 1/4 mile on it now....lol....hopefully soon will be adding to that.

Betsy has 85,812 which was moistly put on by DAD .In OCT 1971 we dropped in the 235 because on the last load of coal the old 216 started to knock and smoke real bad. Found the bill from the salvage yard for the new(old) replacement motor in Dads papers $43.00 cause it ran and credit of $4.00 for scrap motor.

When i got my 54 in 1983 it had 55,000 showing but the speedo was cable was broken. since July of 2008 i have put 18,000 on it. After thinking about it for awhile i remembered i had registration slips for some of the previous owners and in 1978 it had 47,000 so the mileage when i got it may have been close. it changed hands 4 times in 6 years, some of the slips had no mileage listed. one did have the guys social security #.

My 53 has about 68,000 on it. It stood still since '83. I rode in it in the early 80's and the motor was struggling. I know the previous owner pretty well and am sure that it has never had any major work done to it, not even a valve job, until I got ahold of it. By then the valves were pretty well shot. Oh and the block was mildly cracked. All the rubber is good and worn. In fact the whole truck is good and worn.
I would guess that if one took a new truck and drove it on gravel for 50,000 miles it would show a lot more wear than the average truck of today, which roll mostly on freeways or asphalt.
Karl

My '53 6400 Firetruck has 18,000. miles on it.

Going off the paperwork that I found in the glovebox, my '55 had around 236000 on it when I got it. I've put about another 20000 since I rebuilt it.

My 66 C30 has 82,00 original miles on it spent most of it's life in a cemetery before I got it was last inspected in 1978 when i got it it had about 52,000 miles on it.

Dave

How about 103,540 original miles on my 56 Stepside.

[img=http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/43/engine1m.jpg]
[img=http://imageshack.us/scaled/thumb/832/0820121057.jpg]

It does have fresh paint!!

We put 265,000 on our '69 suburban 250 cid with nothing but routine maintaince. It was still running great when Dad accidently dropped a nut down the carb. Amazing how quickly it found its way down to the cylinder before we could shut it down, and how much damage it did. The new short block went another 165,000 with nothing done to it when we sold it. By then all the chasis mounts had just about rusted away. Dad never lugged the engine or rev'ed it above 3000 - usually kept it at 2000.

96889.1 is what it's reading right now. All original? No telling. Should be though. I think I'm the 3rd owner. The second owner might have put 100 miles on it max. He did have the engine rebuilt, so I know at least that part's done. I can't wait to put my first mile on it.

Can't remember,you'd need to ask Denny Graham,he's got the odometer now!