RESTORED 3-TON MODEL OLDEST KNOWN TO EXIST
In 1909, a Nevada mining company ordered one of the 104 trucks built that year by the Packard Motor Company in Detroit. The three-ton stake truck cost a whopping $3,850 and hauled ore until the mine was abandoned. The truck was left behind in the Nevada desert.
The truck hadn’t travelled a lot of miles, but it logged a lot of hours as the mine’s workhorse. It had been jury-rigged by the miners to keep running, and through a combination of heavy use and sand penetrating all moving parts, it was completely worn out.
The old truck was later rescued and found its way to Montana, where it proved to be too much for an antique truck restorer. Enter Vancouver’s Paul Carter, who trailered the dilapidated remainder of the truck home to restore it to the way it looked when it left the factory. That would lead to a five-year restoration process that required manufacturing many of the parts.
Packard built approximately 40,000 trucks from 1905 to 1923, many of them sent to Europe for use during the First World War. The earliest trucks had solid rubber tires, featured a chain drive, and were the heavy haulers of the era.
Carter’s three-ton model is the oldest Packard truck known to exist. It is an exceptionally rare piece of trucking history.
Although the dry desert was kind to the truck in that there was no rust, many parts were missing, completely worn out or fixed badly. Miners doing field repairs had used pieces from tin cans to shim the crankshaft bearings to keep the truck running.
Carter and friend Peter Trant set out to rebuild every part of the truck to put it into a new condition. There would be many challenges, including making many of the mechanical and chassis parts from scratch.
For example, the large aluminum cover plate for the rear transaxle was broken in half and destroyed by previous unsuccessful welding attempts. It was not salvageable. The restorers used the pieces to form a pattern to cast and machine a new cover plate.
Every aspect of the restoration was agonizingly slow, including using patterns taken from an unrestored 1911 Packard truck in Washington state to recreate the forged iron hardware support system for the seat.
Good fortune smiled on the project when antique car enthusiast Roger Brammel saw a photo of the original Eisemann magneto that was missing from the truck. He came up with the exact model among a hoard of vintage auto electrical bits he salvaged years ago when Vancouver’s Hoffmeister Electric closed down.
It takes a global village to do a historically correct restoration to the most exacting detail. The radiator core was manufactured in England and master craftsman Gordon Madson in the eastern U.S. rewound the magneto and ignition system.
Ted Plaviak built the truck deck and stake sides out of solid twoinch white oak, procured from a Quebec sawmill, in his Powell River millwork shop.
Veteran sign painter Bruce Carter hand lettered the Packard name, along with carrying capacity, in authentic script on the truck body sides. Victoria pinstriper George Apted made several trips to Carter’s shop in South Vancouver to replicate the striping lines that were originally applied at the assembly plant.
A major challenge was rebuilding the original wooden spoke wheels. The spokes could be saved but the wood rims had to be completely redone to fit the spokes. Particularly difficult was rebuilding the rear wheels; each one was equipped with two solid rubber tires and weighed 500 pounds.
Six solid rubber tires were manufactured and fitted onto the steel outer rims by the Overman Cushion Tire Company in Canton, Ohio. Most of the truck parts, including the frame and suspension, were powder coated in Packard blue and cream, the original colours. The results are breathtaking.