Semi Trucks of the 1970s
Semi Trucks of the 1970s
ITEM E514
A Coast-to-Coast Run Through the Last Great Era of the Big Rigs!
By Ron Adams
By 1972, there were nearly one million tractor-trailer rigs hauling every conceivable kind of cargo on America’s roads. Can you imagine the variety of trucks you would have seen at truck stops across the country? But the 1970s proved to be a decade of incredible change for the over-the-road trucking industry, and by 1980 fuel efficiency became a prime concern for companies. At this time, airfoils and other aerodynamic aids began to appear and trucks in general started to take on a similar look.
In this picture-packed book, Ron Adams has pulled together a collection of over 300 images that traces the evolution of truck design and use back to the earliest horse-drawn units right up through the early 1980s. Short introductory chapters cover the earlier years of trucking and then Ron takes you on a coast-to-coast tour of the 1970s, showcasing the huge variety of big rigs working the roads and providing detailed information about the trucks, trailers, cargoes, and trucking companies. In addition to photos and detailed captions, there are period articles covering early aerodynamic testing and also on advancements in truck design in the 1970s.
Semi Trucks of the 1970s features trucks from all makers, including International, Freightliner, Kenworth, Mack, White-Freightliner, Autocar, Brockway, Peterbilt, Ford, and Diamond Reo. This is a complete look at this evolutionary period in trucking history.
Softbound, 144 pages, 8.4x10.9 inches
Ron Adams seems to have an inexhaustible supply of vintage truck photographs. This compilation, initially published in 2019, includes examples from his own collection, other collectors, those attributed to a variety of truck and trailer manufacturers (some of which no longer exist), commercial haulers, and public utilities. While the title indicates a survey of Semi Trucks of the 1970s, the book initially offers some 40 pages of trucks starting in 1899 with an unidentified transition to the 1970s. The paperbound, portrait-format book provides some 300 black-and-white and 30 color photographs, usually two or three to a page. The book includes a marvelous array of manufacturers, including Autocar, International, Peterbilt, Mack, Kenworth, Freightliner, White Freightliner, Diamond Reo, Oshkosh, Ford, Marmon, White, Western Star, Brockway, Crane Carrier, and Hendrickson cab-over-engine (COE) and conventional models. Unfortunately, the brief, but generally informative, captions do not usually provide dates. In addition, while interesting, numerous photographs feature non-semi trucks—at odds with the book’s title. Oddly, the text includes two advertisements, as well as an article on streamlining, all dated 1955. A real bonus, however, is a reprint of a May 1973 Popular Mechanics article, “Giants of the road: Why they cost so much.”
Book Review by Robert Gabrick
