Archival beauties

[sohner]

Shortly after World War 2 my father who served in the Marines was given the opportunity to purchase surplus military equipment for something like two hundred dollars a truck. My Grandfather ( Roger F. Sohner) saw this as an opportunity so he purchased several trucks and Jeeps. This one is a Burma Jeep (Navy cargo carrier)from 1943 made by Ford. It was weapons recovery vehicle with the ability to front load with a fifty thousand pound winch and it also could back load itself with an overhead I beam. The front wheels could have a set of dual wheels installed for heavy loads.( hard to steer) A very cool design. Stay tuned for some more of the way cool trucks that were picked up after the war. Life after the military.

 

[Mahk_Adams]

Nice Robert!

Thanks.

Keep 'em coming.

 

[easyphloem]

Makes you just want to go and fire up the old 85lb chainsaw and two-man that tree down!

That is a great looking truck, how long did it last?



SZ

 

[sohner]

My Grandfather had the forsight to mechanize the industry on the West coast. This is one of the first Aerial lift buckets ever on the west coast. He believed in getting the job done as easy as possible. Sometimes it took a mechanic to ride with the truck just to make sure it operated properly and would return back to the shop.Ha Ha!!

 

[sohner]

Some of the trucks remained in service for several years. On the average ten to fifteen years. We kept some of the trucks well into the eighties. Parts became an issue after a while and reliability. The modern area phased most of the vehicles in oblivion.

 

[sohner]

This was my first Crane truck. We unfortunately turned this one in for scrap metal. Bad choice . She was a beautiful rig. When I was growing up I used to go out and sit in this truck for hours on end just pretending. If you wanted to find me just go out and look through the trucks in the yard and you'd find me hiding out behind the wheel shifting gears. A lot of double clutching. This was a GMC from 1943.
As you can imagine one of my favorites. What a hunk of metal!

 

[Colin]

Cool truck. I've made em pop a wheelie or two.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

I love to see the ingenuity of mechanics to adapt a vehicle.

Keep the show going Robert!

 

[sohner]

You like ,so I'll show a few more of that era. Many of the custom designs were from my grandfather's thinking. He also liked to change the truck beds to stay current with the seasons's and the job task at hand.

 

[sohner]

Sometimes you think your seeing the same truck but we had at least six differtent rigs from the same era. This rig had a tower that was powered by the hydraulics from the truck. Difficult to explain but way cool to operate. You would turn a valve on the basket and the platform would raise up to forty five feet. When you ran out of material in the truck tank the tower would slowly come on down. My grandfather and my father are in the basket. The truck weighted a lot but it had six wheel drive so no problem. What I would do to have this rig today but of course I coudn't affort to license them in todays market nor could I afford the gas!

 

[Gareth]

Awesome.
I get pretty nervous up in a boom (even with today's technology). They must have been pretty brave back then.
Good photos.

 

[sohner]

Men, simpliy, were happy to have a job and proud to take the risk of the times.
We must continue to blend yesterday's history of knowledge with the technolgy of today.

 

[sohner]

Who works this hard anymore to fill up a truck? It took three guys with a pitch fork. Not bad considering !
Always a joy to come across this old time glimpse of the past. More to follow!

 

[zaphod1798]

And we think we've got it hard!!! THOSE guys look tough! Thanks for these glimpses Sohner

 

[sohner]

A couple of different shots. Hydraulics for the lift and air for the tools.

 

[sohner]

One more.

 

[sohner]

A lonely man at the end of his lift...

Powered by General Motors !

Some of the first rigs to operate in the state for Line work.

 

[sohner]

The beginning. Oh how life evolves. One job at a time. Put it on the ground and pick it up and dump it off. The times are a changing?
Grand-Pa is on the left and his Partner Dwight Bailey on the right . It all started somwhere, for somereason?
Imagine!

 

[sohner]

The first spray rig for the business.

 

[sohner]

Driven to the point of maddness! The handy work..