The technology came straight from the buses. GMC did leverage its great success with its air ride transit and highway coaches for the cannonball and other HD GMC trucks starting in 1957.īoth front and rear axles were suspended on air bags, resulting in a dramatic improvement in ride quality. GMC was risking seriously falling behind in what soon came to be the dominant style of semi tractor. Meanwhile, GMC, which along with International had for decades been the two top selling medium/heavy-duty truck brands, only had an older style non-tilt COE, dubbed the “cannonball” for obvious reasons. International got in the tilt-cab COE market in 1953. In the East, the White 3000, the first popular tilt-cab truck dominated the COE market in the ’50s. That’s because the West Coast had drastically more lenient length rules, so that long conventional trucks like this 1940s Peterbilt dominated there.Įven CEO trucks out West often didn’t take advantage of their space efficiency, like this long wheelbase early Freightliner.Īs we shall see, GMC’s DLR/DFR 8000 was clearly targeted to the eastern market. The truck industry prior to the mid-late ’60s was divided into two markets: the far West, and everything else. This ability to meet the various state restrictions was of particular importance to movers, which had to potentially be able to go to any state, and explain why long distance moving trucks almost invariably had COE tractors. Of course there were other advantages too, in maneuverability in urban settings. The best solution was a short COE tractor to meet the regulations of the most stringent state(s) the truck would have to operate in. That become the dominant factor as the trucking industry expanded beyond regional reach and had to deal with an arcane hodge-podge of different length (and weight) regulations in an increasing number of states. There were several advantages, the two biggest being better weight distribution and of course a shorter overall length.
How did GM not know this?ĬOE (Cab Over Engine) trucks became popular in the mid-late ’30s, like this 1937 GMC semi tractor. Turns out what American truckers really wanted was cheap, heavy, average, but good looking, just like American car buyers. The GMC “crackerbox” COE did survive longer, until 1969, but only because a very conventional dumbed-down version was rushed into production to replace the DLR/DFR 8000, not unlike the 1962 Chevy II and 1964 Tempest, Skylark and Cutlass. In this case, the failure of the DLR/DFR 8000 led to the GMC Truck division’s terminal decline in the heavy duty field. Intended to vault the competition through sheer technical overkill, they were the result of the oft-deadly hubris that permeated GM. None of these survived long-term, and most were gone within a couple of years, including these GMC DLR/DFR 8000s.
The DLR/DFR 8000 sprung from the same mindset that created the air-cooled rear-engine Corvair, the “rope-drive” Tempest, Buick’s Aluminum V8, turbocharged Cutlass Jetfire, the Turboglide, and a raft of other engineering firsts at GM in the years 1959-1962. It could haul over a ton of extra payload capacity thanks to its light weight, it was highly efficient and was the most comfortable for its driver. Independent front suspension, air-suspension all-round, an ultra-light forward-set alloy cab only 48″ long, power steering, a complex fabricated frame that was 50% lighter, and the lightest diesel engine: This was the recipe for the most technologically advanced semi truck tractor in the world in 1959.
(updated to acknowledge that the DFR8000 was actually produced)
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