50 Years Ago

rusty6 · Feb 1, 2021

Another fiftieth anniversary in this photo. This was the road past here in February of 71. The 39 Ford was tall but there were still places you could not see over the grader ridges of snow. Graders back then were half the size and weight of today's. There were no 4 wheel drive pickups or cell phones. Occasionally the overhead telephone wires would go out of commission and we'd go without phone for a while. So I try not to complain much about winter these days.

Paul in MN · Feb 1, 2021

By 1971, Detroit was producing some 4x4 pickups, but maybe Jeep and IH were the dominant producers. I had been running a snowplowing service since 1968, but could not afford a 4WD truck, so I was pushing a Western plow with a 1963 2WD IH Travelall with a lot of concrete blocks in the back and tire chains. It was a tough truck even as a 1/2 ton model. I have had a number of 4x4 trucks since and still plow snow.

Thanks for the memories.

Paul in MN

rusty6 · Feb 1, 2021

(quoted from post at 19:22:42 02/01/21) By 1971, Detroit was producing some 4x4 pickups, but maybe Jeep and IH were the dominant producers.

Paul in MN

True enough there were 4x4 pickups available but nobody, and I mean nobody, here owned one. The only one I can think of was an old closed in Jeep that the local Cockshutt dealer had and he used it to deliver machinery sometimes. The average farmer was lucky to have even an old 2 wd pickup. Or more likely a 3/4 ton that was used to haul grain. Big hard old single 17 inch tires that were not too great in snow.

Bruce from Can. · Feb 1, 2021

We never saw a 4wd pickup around until 75-76 and
then it mostly wasn’t farmers that were buying
them. Farmers were far too practical to be spending
money on something as frivolous and showy as a
4wd pickup truck. But their son’s soon were buying
them. A one and a half ton dual wheel cab and
chassis, with a livestock rack could bang through a
lot of snow, and plenty of farmers had those. Most
winters through the 70’s our roads were tunnels as
well. Seemed to get a lot of snow through that
decade.

BillinCentralMO · Feb 1, 2021

Neat. Picture. We had that situation in Central Missouri in
78/79. Was like driving in a tunnel. Had to cut metal out of
back of the barn to get hay out. We had a ‘75 Ford F-100
4wd. But the snow was so deep only a tall tractor tire had a
chance.

Paul from MI · Feb 1, 2021

Remember our road after the blizzard of '78. snowed in here with two kids under 7, wife snoewed in in town with the oldest kid. Took me 3 hours to dig
the first 10' off the road with a tractor and loader. Not a fun time.

VicS · Feb 1, 2021

You guys. My dad had a 58 International 4x4. Neighbor south got a new 63 ford f100 4x4. I got a new 75 ford 4x4. Dad had a 76 4x4 by 76 there were dozens here in Southern Il. But there were a lot of oil wells being drilled and worked on. But those winters were bad. Neighbor had a old D6 Cat. Had a starting engine. We got it started and started plowing roads. It would drive thru drifts 8 ft deep that first day. But the next day wouldn't do it. Had to start digging. We drove across fields and avoided most big drifts till spring.

rusty6 · Feb 1, 2021

(quoted from post at 22:01:38 02/01/21) You guys. My dad had a 58 International 4x4. Neighbor south got a new 63 ford f100 4x4. I got a new 75 ford 4x4. Dad had a 76 4x4 by 76 there were dozens here in Southern Il. But there were a lot of oil wells .

Must have been oil money buying those new trucks. We didn't see any of that here on dollar a bushel wheat.

coshoo · Feb 2, 2021

We had a blizzard here in western Washington in '78, too. Maybe the same one! East wind started blowing and drifting snow, temp in the 20's. We were living in a mobile home, and the power went out about 8 pm. I started thinking we were in real trouble- no heat, driveway drifted in so we couldn't get out. Just then the phone rang- next door neighbor- he said "You guys better get over here." So Mrs. and I walked over, me carrying our 2 year old. We stayed with Charlie and Winona for several days. They heated with wood, had a cooktop on the wood stove, and to top it off, they were Mormons so had a year's worth of food. Sat around and ate most of the time, and I walked back home twice a day to feed my cattle. Not exactly "good times", but a good memory.

Harold Hubbard · Feb 2, 2021

At that time Dad and I were still plowing with the JD 1010 dozer, and the Farmall C with chains and a six and a half foot "Glenn Roger" brand snowplow. Bust them out with the dozer, then clean up with the C. We had a spread out route of paying customers, as well as our own farm to plow. It was a slow painful process to get around, especially with the 1010.

Three ski clubs, and a couple of lonely old ladies, "You must be freezing. Come in and have a drink." That made for some rough days.

The thing I hated most, was to get all dressed up for plowing, then feed cattle. By the time you finished that, you had worked up a sweat, then were cold and miserable all day, no matter how warmly you were dressed.

I'm still plowing a much expanded route, with a nice warm F-250. In fact I am about to go at it as soon as I finish breakfast.

Tony in SD · Feb 2, 2021

When I was in college in the late 70s, it snowed in mid October and stayed. And it kept coming. Most got caught with their hay still in the field as we did. So feeding cows was an all day job. When I came home for
Christmas vacation that year, Dad handed me a shovel when I got out of the car. Two weeks later I handed it back to Dad, got in the car and headed back to college. Felt so sorry for my Dad & brother. The good
news was that they didn’t have to milk cows. Because the last milk cow left the farm the same day I entered college as a freshman.

Kansasredneck · Feb 2, 2021

There were a few guys around SW Minnesota who had 4x4s when I was a kid. Seems they were the ones always getting stuck. Us kids with 2wd knew our limitations.

tractorkrum · Feb 2, 2021

In our area, years ago the milk trucks had V plows on their trucks to break the trails to the farms and into the farm yards. In 1964 we had some major snows. There were areas that the county took several
days using endloaders and cats to open sections of roads.

agonair · Feb 2, 2021

We had bad winters in '77, '78, and '79. I remember the township had a big Allis grader with a vplow on the front and chains on the
drivers. They welded a big I beam to the rear and had a D7 Cat push it through the drifts. The black smoke rolled out of the old
grader and that dozer. If the grader got to where it could bust through, the dozer would back off and spread the snow further back,
then would go shove the grader. They had heavy tarps on that ole CAT to keep the operator warm. Staying dry was another issue.
Temps would be at zero and WC would -25 to -30. I can still hear those ole girls groan.

Tom in TN · Feb 2, 2021

Coshoo,

I was in the Navy, stationed in Winter Harbor, Maine in the early/mid 1960s. My wife and I, along with out newborn baby, lived in a single wide trailer in the town of Winter Harbor. In about 1964 we had a major league storm. The furnace failed and I wasn't certain what we were going to do. About that time our landlord, who lived across the road from us, banged on our door and invited us to come to his house. He had a wood burning stove but even better than that, he had a huge fireplace in the living room. My family and I were invited to sleep on a couch in front of the fireplace. We stayed there for three or four days until the landlord and I were able to fix the furnace in the trailer. It was a delightful time. My wife and I still talk about the incident and the folk's kindness of taking us in.

SkipperII · Feb 2, 2021

I know that the fire department in Everson, Wa. has a plow on their water tender. LTI had plows, so that their milk trucks could get to the dairies. When I worked for the power company in Bellingham, we had a plow for our dump truck, so that our crews could get to outages in the North county.

dr sportster · Feb 2, 2021

The first 4 wheel drive was a 1946 Dodge Powerwagon

Bill(Wis) · Feb 2, 2021

The first four wheel drive car was built by a company in Clintonville, Wisconsin that became known as The Four Wheel Drive Auto company. FWD for short. In fact, FWD
cannot be used by anyone but them as it is their Corporate name. Or one of them. They left the automobile market around WWI and became quite famous as a maker of heavy
duty four wheel drive trucks used for many purposes, snow plowing being one of them. One of their founders split off and founded Oshkosh Truck. Also famous for
building heavy duty four wheel drive trucks. To this day. These trucks were actually all wheel drive owing to their center locking differential. FWD Corporation today
is mainly a builder of fire engines having purchased the Seagrave Corp some years ago.

Old weldor · Feb 2, 2021

The Marmon-Harrington company was converting Ford trucks into four wheel drive in the late 30s. I have pics I took at an early ford V8 club national
meet of some 38-39 fords with four wheel drive! The first factory built 4x4 ford pickup was in 1959!

rusty6 · Feb 2, 2021

(quoted from post at 22:04:09 02/02/21) The first factory built 4x4 ford pickup was in 1959!

International offered their first 4x4 pickup in the R series, 1953. But I never saw one in real life. I think it was well up into the mid seventies before I saw much sign of 4x4 pickups here. They would have been real handy on the farm in those times. Now you see as many in the city as you do in the country.

50 Years Ago

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