3An article of mine in the October 2022 issue of Farm Collector focused on how loaded farm trucks were a “block in the road” due to their slow travel. An explanation is necessary to define the vehicles described. The large over-the-road trucks – basically semi-truck/trailer outfits – saw their situation change fairly rapidly as progress was made. Some of that carried over to the trucks used by agricultural America, but the change came slowly.
Due to the vast multitude of small operators, there was no central clearinghouse of smaller truck issues. The fact that at least 50 state units had some control (and in some states, even smaller governmental units had some authority) produced little uniformity. Basically, the average farmer was responsible for his truck when hauling products on the road.
Understanding the lingo
At this juncture in history, an additional definition of trucks is necessary. At least through the 1950s, there were basically three types of vehicles: automobiles, pickups and trucks. No explanation is necessary for automobiles.
Pickups, on the other hand, were 4-wheel commercial vehicles with a cab (usually a two-person cab) and some kind of bed on the back designed to haul loads. The basic pickup had a box with sides and a tailgate.
Trucks were considerably larger than pickups. They usually had some form of flatbed (sometimes with sideboards) and were equipped with dual rear wheels to support heavy loads. When pickups began to be used mostly to transport people, the term “truck” lost all of its previous meaning.
Today, any vehicle that isn’t a car is often listed as “a truck.” SUVs are trucks, off-road vehicles are trucks. (In the 1980s, the Subaru Brat, a tiny Japanese vehicle, was advertised as a truck. It was hardly large enough to be a car but it did have a small open space behind the cab where two people could sit.) In my articles, a truck is a large, rugged, dual-rear-wheel-equipped cargo hauler.
Two lane highways slowed traffic
Those of us in the west have had our share of experiences following old, slow trucks on the highway. However, this author did not realize how much greater that problem was in the country’s more populated areas. My one extreme experience occurred when I followed a farm truck through the hills of West Virginia. Maybe I should say I followed, and followed, and followed the truck that day.
Driving a high-powered automobile through the beautiful countryside could not have been more frustrating. As a young man trying to quickly get to a relative’s place in Pennsylvania after I graduated from college, I assumed that my car’s performance would allow me to blow any other vehicles off the road. Boy, was I wrong!
That was in the 1960s, when construction of the interstate system was just getting started. Today we expect to have multi-lane highways between a state’s major cities. Back then, “good” highways were available for travel, but they were all two-lane and obviously conformed to the geography of the area.
West Virginia’s many hills meant that roads were rarely straight for a very long distance. It was only in those areas a person could possibly pass, if there was no oncoming traffic, but there was always some. For the better part of an hour, I never had an opportunity to pass a farm truck that was traveling at least 20mph below the posted limit. I couldn’t figure out how it could be going so far, so slow.
Left-hand turns didn’t help
Before someone takes offence at my mention of West Virginia’s roads 60 years ago, please note that they were as good as those found in other states of that time and the scenery was fantastic. Have you noticed how you miss out on the beauty around you when you are frustrated? Amazingly, the countryside’s beauty has stayed with me all these years even more than my frustration at my slow travel.
All that discussion prefaces the fact that the truck did eventually turn off. I was so up-tight I don’t even remember which way it turned. I do remember that, due to oncoming traffic, both the truck and me (and a dozen cars behind me) had to come to a complete stop before the turn. Then I covered the miles before me as quickly as the fairly crooked road allowed.
Of course, the truck turned left. A right turn would not have stopped traffic. However, those of us behind the truck had no idea of where it would turn (or even if it was going to turn) because, in those days, most trucks had no way of signaling. Today’s blinking rear signal lights that indicate a turn would not become universal for trucks for another couple decades. Even after the signals were mandated by law, old farm trucks often lacked the electrical equipment needed.
Introducing the trafficator
Informing those behind a vehicle of a planned turn was a problem from the first days of motorized vehicles. The entire bulk of the large turning vehicle is between it and those behind. The driver’s intentions are almost impossible for others to determine. An added complication is that the turning driver can’t see if there is a vehicle behind him. As road rules developed in the early years, the leading vehicle has the ultimate fate of those behind in his hands. Until he makes his move, others have to wait.
That has been a world-wide problem. European cultures addressed it in automobiles with “trafficators.” Built into the driver’s side of the cars, small arms folded into a slot when not in use. When a turn was to be attempted, they were swung out so those behind knew what was about to happen.
Like everything else in the automotive world, that simple and successful concept fell prey to modernization. Before the blinker turn light concept became universal, fancy European cars had amazingly elaborate trafficators as part of their style. Not only were they beautified, they were also mechanized, using electric motors to extend and retract, and they were illuminated.
Trafficators never caught on in the U.S., maybe because roll-down windows made it easy for the driver to stick out his arm. Hand signals were universal for a long time. I don’t know when driver’s education began, but when it did, you can be sure that students were drilled in use of hand signals. Even as traffic increased by leaps and bounds, those signals continued to be fairly successful.
Old fashioned turn signals
World War II had ended before cars began to be equipped with turn signals. My 1950 Chevrolet DeLuxe 4-door purchased by my uncle didn’t have turn signals when new. When I bought it, I added them with a controller purchased from Sears fastened to the steering column. I loved the little “All State” symbol that flashed when the signal was functioning.
Trucks were a different breed of cat. People who have never dealt with trucks don’t realize that the cab of the ordinary truck is considerably narrower than the headboard at the front of the bed. The hand signal concept for trucks was never an option. If a driver stuck an arm out his window, it would just barely be seen if at all. The distance past the headboard was too far. Trucks with heavy loads lumbered along with no way to communicate with other drivers beyond a brake light. And just by their nature, they were usually a hindrance to traffic flow. Regular drivers hated dealing with them.
Conscientious truckers developed their own signaling device. Although I could find no record of trucks sold new from the factory with them, more and more were equipped with manual swing arms that extended beyond the headboard. A lever installed above the driver’s door was attached to an arm, imitating the familiar hand signals out where they could be seen.
A simple device, it was a dramatic improvement since now those following (and those approaching) could ascertain the truck driver’s intentions. In spite of them being fairly inexpensive, I am amazed that of the hundreds of older trucks I have seen (including many I was hired to drive), only a rare few were so equipped. In our isolated rural areas, I am sure the explanation is that farm trucks were used only seasonally and were rarely out on the open road, so they could get by without blinkers.
People who visit my place and see an old truck with a swing arm signaling device often ask about it. They were such a great improvement for trucking, but today they are so unusual that they are viewed as historical artifacts. That said, had there been a signal on the truck I followed years ago in West Virginia, it would have helped only at the end during the actual turn. The very nature of slow, loaded farm trucks was a fact of life for a long time. I guess it didn’t hurt that even impatient young people like me learned to live with them “way back then.” FC
A retired high school history teacher, Clell G. Ballard has worked on farms since he was in grade school, including 53 summers spent working on his uncle’s dryland hay and grain ranch. He also is a dealer of World War II era military vehicles and parts. Contact him at (208) 764-2313 (and bear in mind the time difference with Mountain Standard Time) or by email at cballard@northrim.net.
