VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 UNUSUAL 41 TRUCK

has anyone ever run across a 1941 EISENAUER FREIGHTER? it is a mind blower. built on a HUGE 41 chevy BIG truck. one look at it, and you know, grille, hood, body are 41 chevy but it stops there. what a car hauler this would be.
it had two front steering wheels. it had two, 235 chevy truck engines in tandem. it was built to run on the then new pennsylvania turnpike. the turnpike as i am sure most of you know, was built on a railroad bed. that is why those tunnels on the turnpike, are so huge. makes room for the old big steam engines.
well, the idea of the two engines was to get this behemoth up to speed, then cut one engine out, to save fuel.
it would be interesting if someone found one, to photograph it and submit an article on it, for our g&d. i have seen a sales brochure on this monster once. what a sight.
actually the idea of two engines, must have been somewhat successful, as in 1954, when gm came out with the greyhound scenicruiser, probably the most recognizable bus ever built. it came with two 4 cylinder diesel engines, one on each side in the rear. with the same principle. at speed one engine was manually cut off to save fuel. they kept it that way, till 1964, when they refurbished the entire scenicruiser fleet, and put v-8 diesel engines in them, and then painted a gold stripe mid bus to define it from the un refurbished models and called it a super scenicruiser. greyhound did a lot of experimenting, and i caught one super super scenicruiser experiment once in 1967, that had a 13 speed road ranger transmission coupled to of all things, a v-12 cummins engine, and it was a 5 pm local out of la going to el centro california. didn't like all that work one bit. lolololololol.
by the way, that is EISENAUER, NOT EISENHOWER. hope you all enjoyed this tidbit of long ago stored info in my brain. happy flint to one and all.
richie

Fascinating!! Thanks for sharing that bit of information with us.

Big Richie,
I think you told me about this some time ago. But I had forgotten. It was nice to read about the use of two-engine applications again.

Thanks for sharing your vast knowledge of obscure details of the old Chevrolets.
Best,
Charlie

38 chevy and charlie,
it is my priveledge to share my limited knowledge about this stuff.
thanks for the commentary from you both. hope others learn from this information, and are enriched by it.
the real kick would come, if someone in this great club, could actually find one of these monsters, restore it, and show up at a club event, as a car hauler. wow, what a hit that would be. happy flint to one and all.
richie

Here ya are! http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/11873/Eisenhauer-s-Five-Axle-Straight-Trucks

And the answer to "What happened to them?"

"Quick answer to your question. Lee Eisenhauer Jr. knows only of the fate of the truck tested at Aberdeen: After the military tested and rejected it, they sent it back to Eisenhauer, where it languished beside the factory for years until a farmer came by one day and bought it for the 6,000-gallon tanker on the back of it. Presumably, the rest of the truck was either cut up for scrap or still sits behind some farmer’s barn in northwest Ohio. Lee said he doesn’t know of the fates of the rest of the trucks Eisenhauer built."

So, you folks in NW Ohio keep your eyes open! Could be a "barn find".....

way to go richard. like i said, what a dang monster this truck was. i suppose if they had painted it orange and black and hung a pumpkin on it at halloween, coulda sure scared the bejeebers outta everyone!!!!!!!!! lolololol
i suggest everyone go to follow the link richard put up. these computers are just amazing as to what you can find on them. thank you richard.
happy flint to all.
richie

Not to change the subject but when I was in the service I once road in a personel carrier that had two 235s. One on each side a each one drove a track.

You are almost correct. The M113 was driven by two 135's through a single transmission.

The correct starting procedure was critical. You started the engine that had a generator and then started the other engine by a starter or through the transmission.

When we first received these for testing we discovered the slave receptacle was wired backwards, so when you attempted a "jump start" from another vehicle it would demonstrate what the combined power of each unit would destroy when the connection was made.

They were designed to float and move under their own power in the water. It was critical that the "splash board" was deployed when you entered the water.

In freezing weather we would remove the side cover to the engine that had the exhaust manifold exposed. I have seen the manifold red almost end to end. By removing the side cover it destroyed the operation of the cooling system for the engine.

The M113 was actually fun to drive. I enjoyed driving them and any other armored vehicle in our unit.

So that's what that thar big o'l thang in my barn is....Wonders will never cease.....ED...Ohio